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Listening to Your Body

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Each Monday, Tiffany posts a message that provides positive energy and tips for eating more mindfully. The purpose of the weekly message is to reinforce the ideas from the talks and classes that are a part of the Como Water Membership, and to further support those living the veg-centric lifestyle. To receive our Mindfulness Mondays posts, Become A Member today.

Listening to Your Body

Who gets a sinus infection in the middle of the summer? Me, that’s who. It came just as I was ready to enjoy the weekend after a most stressful week. As soon as I had a second to breathe, I realized that I only had one set-in-stone plan for the weekend. I silently rejoiced. This weekend was going to be good. Relaxing even. Yet, just as quickly as the notion of relaxation came to mind, my ‘to do’ list also came to mind. I would relax, but this would also be a chance to knock some things off of my ever-growing to do list.

Well, in fact, this weekend was neither relaxing nor productive. It was filled with a fever, body aches, headaches, congestion, and a sore throat. My sinus infection was ever present, making me too weak to complete any tasks and to restless to relax. In short, this weekend sucked! And (of course) this caused me to reflect. Why in the world had I gotten sick in the middle of the summer anyway?!!?!

The easiest and most literal answer  is that I picked up a virus or a bacteria. But the pseudo-philosophical, there’s a reason for everything, and there’s a deeper meaning in everything, Tiffany-like answer is that my body was forcing me to stop.

I had been going and going and going, non-stop, for a few weeks now, adding more and more to my plate, and at the very moment that I could have chosen to stop, I, instead contemplated what actions I could fill my time with. Always filling my time. Rarely just being. This was my body’s way of telling me, of forcing me, to just be. Ideally, I’d get this message sans the sinus infection, but sometimes we just don’t listen to the signs of exhaustion–the sleepless nights, the fatigue. And in those instances of stubbornness, our body takes things into it’s own hands, forcing us to slow down (or else).

In the end I was forced to listen. I stayed in bed all weekend and also took it pretty easy today. Hopefully next time I’ll heed the messages my body tells me before I get sick. But if not, at least I can be fairly confident that my body’s spiny senses will kick in, and knock me down before I can do too much (further) damage.

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Tiffany M. Griffin is the woman behind Como Water, Washington DC’s premiere veg-centric cuisine consulting company. Through cooking classes, demonstrations, catering, and consultations, Como Water gives people the opportunity to learn how to prepare veg-centric cuisine that boasts maximum flavor, with minimal effort. Tiffany is quickly becoming a go-to expert on the future of veg-centric cuisine, and is a regular contributor to Como Water, the blog, as well as to vegetarian and vegan sites across the Internet. For over a decade, this self-taught, entrepreneurial expert has developed a set of tried and true techniques for making simple, delicious, and sometimes decadent veg-centric dishes. Featured on the Steve Harvey Show and other leading media outlets, Tiffany was born and raised in Springfield, MA. She then earned Bachelors degrees in Psychology and Communications from Boston College and a PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Michigan. She now resides in Washington DC, where she has worked in the US Senate and at a federal agency on issues around health, food, nutrition, and international food aid/development, and of course, as the owner of Como Water. Tiffany gets culinary inspiration from the food she grew up eating, and from her travels throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, Western Europe, and Sub-Saharan Africa. She is dedicated to sharing her wealth of knowledge on veg-centric cuisine with others and to help others live by her mantra—love life, live long, and eat veg-centric cuisine!

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