Diet Change NOT Climate Change — Dinner with Bobsy Gaia, Founder of MANA!

Sometimes the most meaningful and inspiring conversations happen over casual meals. The Time Auction Blog is a snippet of our meetings with people who have found passion in their life and career, where we get a glimpse into their mentality behind their ventures.

It was the year 1989, a time when the world was undergoing drastic changes — that’s when young Bobsy Gaia experienced a sudden awakening.

At the flick of a switch, his perception of the world changed: he saw the havoc mankind was wreaking upon Mother Earth. The trash that littered all around him, the pollution saturating the air. With this profound consciousness, Bobsy began his journey of “ecopreneurship”, championing the plant-based lifestyle and moving people towards a more conscious worldview.

Over the last two decades, he played a major role in the conscious business movement in Hong Kong: from producing Eco-friendly fashion to opening Hong Kong’s first fully vegetarian lifestyle café. Currently, he runs multiple successful restaurants & cafés under the MANA! umbrella — all of which uphold a Zero Food Waste & Eco-friendly philosophy.

What’s your morning routine?

“It’s a bit of meditation and breathing. I put my feet on the floor and become aware that I have survived another night, that I’ve been given another day. I’m very thankful for this. I ask for forgiveness from all the people I have harmed. And I forgive those who have harmed me. I forgive myself, for the hurt and harm I have brought myself. That’s the foundation of my routine. I practice yoga as well, but I do get lazy sometimes.”

What’s something you would attribute to significantly improving your life in the past 5 years?

“The exponential growth in people shifting consciousness — people moving from a materialistic paradigm to a consciousness paradigm.

The exponential growth in the number of people who are waking up to this has been so empowering and has had such a big impact on how I move as an ecopreneur and how we move as a company. I couldn’t sing its praises any more. This exponential awakening that humanity is going through is saving the world and changing everything.”

How do people experience the awakening that has made such a profound impact on you?

“Focus on these millions of people who have already changed, who are already making a difference. Read their books, listen to their music, watch their documentaries, hang out with them.

I hang out with the coolest people — artists, visionaries, creators, writers. Spend more time focusing on them.

Become aware — once you do it will enter your mind, your consciousness, your heart. Don’t spend your time focusing on mainstream media and the materialist worldview. Because that is dead.”

What’s the life lesson that took you the longest to learn?

“To forgive. Not only those who have hurt and harmed me, but equally to forgive myself. This has been a very powerful lesson. For someone who’s been an ecopreneur and have been operating a conscious business for so long, you can imagine how many times people have hurt me or have tried to take advantage of me. But if I forgive, then I also forgive myself. If you keep thinking about revenge and worrying, who’s being harmed? Them? No, you.

You don’t have to be a saint to forgive. It’s common sense. You take a burden of hatred and fear off of you.”

What’s one ask or action you’d like for us to take away?

“Change your diet, not the climate. Understand where your food is coming from — at what expense and at what cost. Not just to you, but to all of creation, all of humanity, and all of the planet. Once you do, you will naturally change your diet.”

Thank you Bobsy for taking the time out of your busy schedule to have dinner with us, and thanks to everyone who volunteered and took part in raising 82 volunteer hours to Voltra, Home Affairs Bureau and more!

These awesome photos are brought to you by Nathan Wu from KaChick — a marketplace where you can book a photographer anywhere, anytime, for anything!

For more amazing opportunities, visit Time Auction to volunteer and meet inspiring mentors!