Ten Life Lessons from Longtime Vegans
Articles Reflecting a Vegan Lifestyle From All-Creatures.org

Vegan lifestyle articles that discuss ways of living in peace with humans, animals, and the environment.

FROM

Marla Rose, VeganStreet.com
May 2017

Responses to Facebook posting: “I'm curious: for those who have been vegan for more than five years, what factors do you attribute to your longevity as a vegan? There are many things that tempt people away from veganism, from a desire to fit in better to simply missing some things you used to eat, and we know that the rate of defection from veganism is quite high. What have you done or what have you plugged into to make veganism work for you? In other words, what do you attribute to your success as a long-term vegan? Thank you!”

typist

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a question to my Facebook friends and got far more responses than I expected. Usually when a thread has more than 250 comments, it means that people are fussin’ and feudin’ with each other (why did I suddenly turn into Yosemite Sam? I have no idea…) but it wasn’t like that this time. People just had a lot of thoughts to share. Here was the (slightly edited) question I posed: 

“I'm curious: for those who have been vegan for more than five years, what factors do you attribute to your longevity as a vegan? There are many things that tempt people away from veganism, from a desire to fit in better to simply missing some things you used to eat, and we know that the rate of defection from veganism is quite high. What have you done or what have you plugged into to make veganism work for you? In other words, what do you attribute to your success as a long-term vegan? Thank you!” 

Even though this is far from a scientifically rigorous survey and a fairly small sample, I think the resulting responses offered a fascinating lens into what makes a successful long-term vegan. I am used to being pretty blown away by the depth and insight of my Facebook friends but this time, I was almost overwhelmed by both the deluge of responses as well of the generosity of spirit reflected in them. From this simple question, I got a rich supply of answers about the qualities that are both common and unique to long-term vegans. Curious about what may be part of the successful long-term vegans composite? I have collated my most frequent responses in order of how common the answer was below.

Fascinating stuff. Here’s how it broke down…

  1.  Compassion for Animals
  2. Vegan Community
  3.  An Indifference to Fitting in (or Stubbornness) 
  4.  The Expanding Variety and Increased Access to Quality Vegan Food
  5. Learning How to Cook 
  6. Health Benefits
  7. Connecting their Veganism to a Bigger Picture
  8.  A Radical Shift in Perception: Animals Are Not Seen as Food, Clothing, Etc. Anymore
  9. Connecting with Rescued Animals at Sanctuaries
  10.  Find Podcasts, Bloggers and Mentors as Well as Movies that Inspire You

See PDF for detailed responses to the 10 topics!

Return to Articles Reflecting a Vegan Lifestyle