Eat, Pray, and Love!

 

 

   

I read Elizabeth Gilbert's wonderful book a couple of years ago, so I don't remember all of the details.  Knowing exactly how the book went didn't matter to me because I was going to watch the movie and enjoy it for what it was.  I don't like to compare books to movies too much anyway, because they are by nature going to be very different. 

In the book, I underlined my favorite quotes, doggy-eared certain passages, and had to push my way through certain very detailed parts.  It was a heavy read for me (minus the Italy part), and I liked to read it slowly so that I could really get all that I could out of it.

I enjoyed the movie and I thought it was fairly easy to get the main message.  However, one person I know said he didn't get it - but maybe that is just because he is a guy. :o)  I think the main message/idea is right there in the title!

EAT:

Photo from the movie website

Elizabeth travels to Italy primarily to just eat and enjoy the pleasures that life has to offer. The American society is fascinated and probably almost obsessed with food, so she challenges this mindset and decides to thoroughly enjoy life - and every single bite of a whole pizza. 

This part of the movie somewhat reminds me of the book  "French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure" by Mireille Guiliano.  I didn't actually read this book but I heard her in an interview speak about how Americans need to learn to eat for pleasure.  We must enjoy every bite, take our time, and just eat.  Don't eat while driving, watching TV, or reading, just eat and enjoy ourselves or the company we are with.  We don't have to and shouldn't think of certain foods as good or bad, but take pleasure in eating it will balance itself out.

PRAY:

photo courtesy of turkishculture.org

In the second part of the movie (and book), Elizabeth travels to India to meditate and pray at an Ashram with her guru (one who is regarded as having great wisdom uses this knowledge authority to teach others).

Quotes from her book:

There’s a crack (or cracks) in everyone…that’s how the light of God gets in."


"[My guru] says that people universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you are fortunate enough. But that's not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it..."


"Prayer is a relationship; half the job is mine. If I want transformation, but can't even be bothered to articulate what, exactly, I'm aiming for, how will it ever occur? Half the benefit of prayer is in the asking itself, in the offering of a clearly posed and well-considered intention. If you don't have this, all your pleas and desires are boneless, floppy, inert; they swirl at your feet in a cold fog and never lift."

-Elizabeth Gilbert 

LOVE:

I think that Elizabeth Gilbert's main message here is that first you have to love yourself, and then you can be free to love someone else.  You don't have to lose yourself and your balance in order to love someone - it can be part of that balance.  

The medicine man in Bali told Elizabeth this: "To find the balance you want, this is what you must become. You must keep your feet grounded so firmly on the earth that it's like you have 4 legs instead of 2. That way, you can stay in the world. But you must stop looking at the world through your head. You must look through your heart, instead. That way, you will know God."