Great Times at the YJA Convention

This weekend I was fortunate enough to attend the Young Jains of America Convention in Chicago. My man Dhru invited me to speak to some of the attendees about my healing journey with raw foods. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Jains (as I was not before attending the conference), Jainism is a religion of Indian origin that has as one of its main tenets the idea of ahisma, or non-violence towards all living things. Therefore, pretty much everyone there was a vegetarian (in other words, my kinda of people!). Jainism, or Jain Dharma, also subscribes to the beliefs of accepting consequences of personal behavior and non-possessiveness to people and things. In fact, the more I learned about Jain Dharma over the weekend, the more I realized I was pretty much a Jain already!

Dhru, our friend Nirav, and I spoke in talk called Pimp Your Ride, dedicated to giving the young people listening some daily, practical ways to enhance their mind, body and spirit. This was my first public speaking about my personal experience with raw foods and the energy of the attendees and my fellow speakers made the event so rewarding. Whenever I felt a little nervous, I simply reminded myself that nervousness meant that I was focusing on my feelings instead of rightly focusing on the other people in room and trying to make their time with me the best I could. And whaddya know, when I did that, my nerves disappeared. The same trick worked when Dhru and I gave a talk to the Chicago raw foods community at the Butterfly Social Club on Saturday night. The old me would have panicked and freaked out, for example, when Dhru was held up in traffic picking up rental chairs and I had to start the talk myself. But I consciously let go, went with the flow, and the night could not have gone better!

A couple of other things really struck me this weekend. First, I would say only about 5% of the 700 people at the conference were overweight and I did not see one person I would classify as obese. If that doesn't get one thinking about the benefits of not eating meat, I don't know what will. Also, besides the keynote speaker (the amazing Dr. Will Tuttle) and my new friend Jason, I was the only Caucasian person in attendance at the conference. It hit me after a day or so that while this was pretty much my first experience being in such a small minority, this is how many of the conference's attendees live on a daily basis. The people I met were so amazingly welcoming and friendly, I never once felt out of place or unwanted. I only hope I treat everyone I encounter with such grace and love, regardless of outward appearance.

So I want to give a big thankful shout out to Dhru for inviting me to speak. I am so thankful for meeting him as he is opening my world to so many new opportunities and experiences. I had the best time, met people I know will become lifelong friends, and, Jains beware, like it or not you can expect to see me at the conference many more years to come!!!!!

PS- If you attended the conference and took any pictures, please send them my way (I forgot to bring my camera)!