Book Review: Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
There are times in life when running away, preferably by your mother referred to as exploring or going for a wander or taking a sabbatical or volunteering abroad, is the best solution. Sometimes putting yourself in a new unfamiliar place is the only way to break from the habits, mindset, job, relationship, you name it that is so entangled with you, that you can’t breath let alone start taking steps to create the life you actually want. While there are of course impacts and implications to such an abrupt decision, those that aren’t life threatening can all be figured out on the other side of your escape. On the other side of clarity. On the other side of rediscovering who you are and what you’re capable of.
Escaping into unknown territory is often romanticized in books and film leaving out the real, ugly, scary and sometimes pathetic phases that you have to cross on such a journey. It’s in the unromantic raw parts that you’re able to find your self and your powerful self.
It’s that journey with all the beauty, magic, raw struggle, and better left unshared bits that Elizabeth Gilbert shares with us in her memoir Eat Pray Love. At the time she’s thirty-something, married, successful and miserable. Looking good on the outside but feeling like shit on the inside. Unlike most of us who have felt that way at some point and decided to ignore those feelings and either keep working, or keep pretending or eat another whole bag of cookies (prior to finding Powerful Ladies of course), she does something about it. She leaves everything to search for herself through Italy, where she really learns how to eat with your whole heart, India, where she learns to really truly pray, and Indonesia, where she rediscovers the one thing we’re born with having full knowledge of and yet forget so quickly - love.
Many of you may have seen it in it’s motion picture form starting Julia Roberts. The movie is lovely and Julia is of course a Lady we Love. The book however, is sooooo goooood. If you haven’t yet read or seen the movie, read the book FIRST and then go see the movie. There’s so much depth to the book that it’s impossible to capture it all in a two hour movie and it’s not exactly the same. Don’t you want to know the real story?
What’s great about Elizabeth’s writing is that she does so in a way that can equally make it feel like it’s you you’re reading about while also allowing us distance from the character in the dark and tough moments. Full integration with and protection from ourselves. Even if you don’t relate to Elizabeth’s journey from an aligned personal perspective, everyone can enjoy traveling through three beautiful countries via her colorful and detailed story telling.
Read this book if:
1) You love to travel & reading travel memoirs
2) You’re on a quest to find yourself
3) You feel like your being suffocated by the life you’ve created or the life you dream of is passing you by
4) You’re ready to get lost in a great book
Get your own copy and tell us what you thought of Eat, Pray Love below in the comments. Did you get inspired to create you own multi-destination journey? What did you change or take-on in your life? In what areas did you discover more of your own power?
Powerful Ladies has an affiliate relationship with Amazon and you can support what we’re creating by purchasing this book via these pretty pictures & links.
Thank you in advance for buying it here and supporting Powerful Ladies! xx
Paperback Book:
Audio Audible Book:
