Good book!

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Fantastic book! I absolutely loved this book. It is relieving to find someone who's mind is as neurotic and thoughts as fleeting and crazy as my own! The author, Elizabeth Gilbert, just went through a divorce and spends 4 months in Italy exploring pleasure, 4 months in Indonesia exploring devotion and meditation, and 4 months in Indonesia exploring the art of balancing the two (pg 30). She learns so much about herself- lessons that we all need to hear and to be constantly reminded of. The author's writing style is hilarious, very random quippets and side notes from a rambling brain, something I could relate to. I know it's controversial, but I love how she kicks anti-depressants and her discussion surrounding it. I love how she talks about "the beauty of doing nothing" in italy, just relaxing, reveling in life, and the hardest thing: making yourself comfortable with the idea that you deserve and have earned pleasure. "The appreciation of pleasure can be an anchor of one's humanity" (115). I love her battle out of lonliness and discouragement, her journey out of her own past, her examination of her whole life. And yeah, I want to go eat pizza & gelato in Naples!



I really examined myself and reflected inwardly on my own inner battles, my own road blocks to what I can become. [If anyone is interested in chatting more indepth about the Yogic/Buddhist/Zen ideas relative to LDS spirituality and pondering, I have become a relative chatterbox about this, so let me know :) and I'd love to talk.] I love her discussion of the difference between meditation and prayer: "Prayer is the act of talking to God, while meditation is the act of listening" (132). "If you clear out all that space in your mind that you're using right now to obsess about...you'll have a vacuum there, an open spot- a doorway...God will rush in- and fill you with more love than you have ever dreamed" (150).



This is just such a power book, an instrument for waking up inside all of us something that makes us want to be better and stronger, more centered and more balanced in our own lives. It's within us all along! Maybe our future selves really do tug and pull at our current selves to join them...



(Ok, I will say there are a few parts of language and ideas mainly towards the end that would be rated-R, so I'm not going to recommend it to everyone.)


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