While meditating about positive thoughts, I came to the conclusion that nonviolence in practice is a mindset that one has to have. Meditating has helped me form the mindset to stick to the ultimate goal of the project. To impact those one the team to provoke them to want to win games and dominate. Unfortunate for football players, but fortunate for this project it had to be in a positive way. It has been difficult adapting to the nonviolent side of the practice, with football being the vessel, due to the violent nature of the sport, but with nonviolent communication skills learns through the process of embodying nonviolence I am perfecting the techniques everyday.
After a week of routine meditation, through nonviolent practices noticed that I have grown farther away from meats, naturally. Consuming less meat was not a problem for me because for the first 6years of my life, I was a vegan. My family and I slowly began to transition from vegan to vegetarian, and soon after unfortunately, with our busy schedules could not afford to keep up with the diet. By logging back into to that during this personal project I have noticed that my diet has become a lot healthier. I began to eat more leafy things, spinach and greens and for a snack I would find my self eating an orange or apple. I am a lot more awake throughout the day. I think that anyone can benefit from doing this once in their life because it is a learning experience. You learn how to handle situations differently due to the information you know about nonviolent techniques. Knowledge is power! With the projects coming to an end, I plan on continuing these practices going forward with the seasons here at Lafayette College. I am not trying to leave here with a couple of wins. I did not come here for that, and it needs to change. Nonviolently.
Tessema, I really like the thought and idea behind your personal project. I also found the connection to football, a naturally violent sport, very interesting as well. It is really amazing that you are finding a way to connect the two, as being in the right mindset while at practice and during games makes a considerable difference in performance and overall well being. However, one thing I am confused on is exactly how you are connecting the two practices together. I find it extremely cool that you are, I just would like to know more about how you are. Another thing I found interesting was how the practice of meditation has caused you to eat less meat and gravitate towards healthier foods.