Interview for InDeep Magazine
Some of months ago, I did an interview with Angelica Moone fundator of Indiependent magazine for her new online project InDeep Magazine. She wanted to do a beautiful interview that I loved talking about my Consciousness Project and we already had done another for Indiependent magazine in the past so I acepted it immediately. Unfortunately the interview is not going to be published in InDeep since for personal reasons Angelica decided to leave the magazine and focus on her creative projects that you can know following her here
So I decided to published it myself since I really loved te questions and it allowed me to talk and share my point of view about things that have changed my life the past two years.
I want to thank Angelica for the support and love over these years and wish her the best in her new projects.
Consciousness Interview for InDeep Magazine:
1. I’ve seen on instagram you are passionate about healing. Do you want to share something from your own healing journey?
Yes, I actually always was the kind of person that her friends ask for advice, I always liked philosophy, psychology and to understand people and my own behavior and conditionings as much as socially and culturally as biologically so I’ve always read about these themes and always looked for my personal growth. But around two years ago I had an experience that made me start questioning everything… I started to read more about personal growth and spirituality and started realizing about my conditioning and unhealthy patterns in a deeper way. So now I’m working on how to love myself everyday more, among other things. I’m planning to go back to my psychology studies next year, I think it can help me with my art and with what I want to share with people and maybe in some way help and empower others.
2. What do you think consciousness is? How would you personally describe it from what you know, read, and believe?
I don’t think consciousness is anything weird or different from what it is. It’s the knowledge you have of your own existence… What I’ve learned is that this is different than the knowledge I’ve of my own identity (ego), which both concepts are usually confused. We use to identify ourselves with our identity, our achievements or things and the consciousness is blurred under this conditioning among other things. This concept, I think is a bit difficult to understand if you never read about it before, at the beginning it was hard to understand for me because I remember to think “If I’m not Taysa, if I’m not this or that what they always told me I was, or what I always thought I was, good and bad, it's like if I wouldn’t exist” and then I started meditating and practicing mindfulness, this allowed me to feel my presence detached from what I have or what I always believed I was and to understand and feel what consciousness is. That feeling of inner peace and self love without any kind of condition, as I said at the beginning the simple knowledge of your own existence, to be conscious that you simply are. Consciousness is not the story playing in your head “I’m this, I have this, I’m good, I’m bad” is the one aware of the story, is the observer. Everyone has the ability to observe our behaviors and thoughts but we usually are not aware about it, we identify ourselves with them.
3. You mentioned that you do not believe we are separated from the whole. Then what are we? Are we one? In what ways and how?
Yes, adding information to the previous question… Imagine that everything in the world is an expression of this consciousness. The same that is aware of your own existence expresses itself in different forms like who believes in God but in this story, there’s not a creator, or superior power, in this story if you’re consciousness and everything is consciousness is like if you were god, and everything was god. Everything's the same thing. I’m not the right person to go deeper into this theme, but there are some very interesting “theories” (I don’t know how to call it), I’ve read about it long time ago.There’s people as I said who believe in different gods or in none but I’m sure that many people experience some kind of feelings when they find themselves in nature, when they look a sunset or an overwhelming starry sky, a feeling of belonging, inner peace, while at the same time you wonder who you’re and why are you here. It seems as if we had forgotten something.
4. Would you like to tell me about your journey through becoming a vegan? Why did you make that choice? When? How is it going?
I’d been thinking about being vegan for several months, even a year or more. I was feeling every time more and more unaligned with my values and also kind of hypocrite because I was against animal exploitation and abuse but at the same time I was contributing by consuming animal origin products. One day I met a friend after not seeing him for a long time and he had become almost vegan… He didn’t convince me or anything, we didn’t even talk about veganism so much but after that, the next day, I was starting my transition… The first two weeks is a bit weird because you’re used to certain type of food or products that you don’t even question if they’ve any animal origin substance so you have to pay attention to the labels, find new aliments or the same but plant based so basically you’ve to rebuild your diet and habits but it’s also fun because you find a lot of recipes and new aliments you didn’t know… But after two weeks everything becomes easier, you already know which products are vegan and where you can find them… You don’t need to read every label, people usually think they’re going to miss something but the truth is that is everything about habits… It's like going to live in a new country, you’ll not have something you eat in your town but you’ll discover a lot of other new things you’ll love. And after some time you don’t even miss the tastes of some food, it even can taste totally different like happened to me with the milk, after 6 months I tried a coffee with milk by error and it tasted horrible for me, like manure, without exaggerating, I realized I didn’t like milk before… My palate was used to it. Now I eat and like healthier things that I didn’t even try if I wouldn’t become vegan because otherwise I’d have a lot of unhealthy and processed options in the supermarket so I didn’t need to look for alternatives. Products in the supermarket are sell by companies that want to earn money, I think we believe unconsciously that if they’re in the supermarket and everyone buy them is because is normal but I wonder many times what would happen if it exist two different kind supermarkets, both with the same products but with the difference that one of them is plant based and the other is like the actual super market but where the animal abuse and exploitation is shown openly, which supermarket would you prefer to buy? Why not do it now? Why not inform yourself about animal abuse and exploitationand choose to buy those products that don't contribute to it?
That’s my way of seeing it, and of course this is my experience and it can be different for everyone, there’s people that are used to eating meat every day so everyone needs to find their own way of changing habits… But I hope my experience can encourage someone who wants to go vegan.
5. How is nature present in your work?
It’s where I feel more comfortable, I guess it’s also because I grew up very connected to nature and it nurtures myself so it’s expressed spontaneously through my work. I love to travel roads and get lost in nature alone with my camera, it’s like breathing. I probably would be connected to nature in any other way if I wouldn’t be a photographer but now I have an excuse. Although I also like other kinds of photography, at the end I think every artist reflects in their work the things that inspire and nurture them, many times we’re not even aware of these things.
6. How is your own self, your spiritual self, TRUE self, reflected in your work?
I’d say that your true self is that part of you that is not influenced by others opinions, self judgments or beliefs about what’s wrong or
right… I think it’s that part of you that simply is, play and express genuinely… So I think when you look at the work of every artist you’re looking at their true self more than the social construction of her/his identity as an artist or as a person (daughter, father, citizen, etc). In my opinion art allows you to connect with that part of you that is vulnerable, pure and authentic in order to create something that truly comes from you, I think the things you like, makes you happy or moves you, are “the guide” and you only have to connect with it and express it.
Thank you!!