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Be Easy

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Be Easy Como Water

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.

Be Easy

In a conversation I had with my brother-in-law last week, business advice soon turned to life advice. In so many words, he told me that life can be easy, if I really wanted it to be. He had psychoanalyzed me (and I’m the psychologist!). I had overcome so much adversity, perhaps I garnered some of my identity from overcoming difficulties. Perhaps I made life more complicated than it needed to be.

His words resonated with me. So much so that I started doing a mantra about ease. And on day three of my mantra, I listened to an album I hadn’t listened to in months. I found myself singing along:

Make it easy, baby. 
Don’t you want to 
Make it easy, baby. 
Don’t you want to 
Make it easy, make it easy. 

Easy, easy, easy, 
Easy, easy, easy. 
Easy, easy, easy. 
Easy, easy, easy.

When I realized what I was singing, I literally started to giggle out loud. Clearly the Universe was coalescing around a theme! Well, there’s more. (There’s always more, no?)

Later that morning, I was talking to a very close friend. Our conversation was about a pretty emotional situation that we had both found ourselves in, despite being physically miles apart. When trying to make sense of it all, I drew upon the words of my brother-in-law, and offered the interpretation that perhaps we were supposed to flow. Maybe this situation that we found ourselves in had happened to remind us that life can be easy. My friend replied, “that’s funny that you mention ‘easy,’ this morning I was listening to Alice Smith’s Be Easy and the line: ‘If it is what it’s gonna be … be easy‘ struck me…”

Folks, yes, you guessed it. That is the same exact song that I was listening to! Miles apart, we were listening to the same song, the same morning! And here was this message again–“easy.”

Well, I haven’t fully figured out what this all means. Life actually feels anything but easy right now, but I’m going to keep my ears, eyes, and heart open to this message about ‘ease’ and life being ‘easy.’ That there is a lesson for me to learn seems pretty clear. But what that lesson is remains to be seen. What do you think? Do you think we complicate life more than it needs to be? Do you think life can be easy? Do you think we incorporate the notion of difficulty into our self-concepts?

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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!

Comments

  1. Courtney Woods

    yeah…seems like life gets complicated when we try to do too much. For me simplicity means reminding myself constantly of what is really important. Prioritizing those things helps me to filter out all the other stuff. But sometimes it’s hard not to be influenced other people and what they think is important. So a mantra or written reminder to K.I.S.S sounds like a good practice. Thanks for sharing

    March 10, 2014
    • Tiffany Griffin

      Agreed! I do not have the issue of being influenced by others so much, but I can TOTALLY relate to the doing too much part. Thanks for your comment!

      March 10, 2014