I have been reading this amazing book; Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth gilbert. She spends four months each in Rome, Italy to discover pleasure through food, Mumbai, India to discover her authentic self and Bali, Indonesia to figure out how to harmonize those two things.
Her writing and some of her life experiences mirror mine in such a way as to really be inspiring and touching. I feel that I can use the Eat, Pray, Love mantra to govern my day to day life.
Eat - to nourish my body while at at the same time lose weight. I throughly enjoy foods from many cultures and would really like to learn how to make more culturally but not calorie rich dishes.
Pray - although I don't particularly like the word pray as it brings up certain connotations in regards to my Catholic upbringing I would like to change the meaning of the word to understand my authentic self. I would like to explore my understanding of a higher power and what it means to me.
Love - to hold dear the important people in my life and treat them with the ultimate in respect, compassion and trust. To let go of the "things" that get in the way of all of that but to not disregard the "things" that bring me pleasure or joy. To find a balance between mind, body and spirit.
I believe I have had a crisis of authentic self for most of my life starting in my teenage years. I associate my identity with others and don't really understand my true "authentic" self. Growing up I never really was allowed to use my true voice without fear of criticism from my parents. For the past several months I have been examining what I know about myself and others to really see what its all about and see if I still believe that way or what I can do to change things if I don't.
Last weekend hubby and I went to visit his biological father and girlfriend in eastern Washington. I always love going over there as I can relax and feel truly like myself. There is no judgment or criticism of me or the way I do things. There is always a welcoming feeling when we go over there. The kids are still there and Chris and I will go back over this coming Thursday for a long weekend.
It was so nice to not have a schedule and eat when I was hungry, sleep when I was tired, read in the garden or on the porch swing.
I wanted to leave you with a few photos of Paula's "secret" garden. However, I am having problems uploading. More tomorrow..........................
Her writing and some of her life experiences mirror mine in such a way as to really be inspiring and touching. I feel that I can use the Eat, Pray, Love mantra to govern my day to day life.
Eat - to nourish my body while at at the same time lose weight. I throughly enjoy foods from many cultures and would really like to learn how to make more culturally but not calorie rich dishes.
Pray - although I don't particularly like the word pray as it brings up certain connotations in regards to my Catholic upbringing I would like to change the meaning of the word to understand my authentic self. I would like to explore my understanding of a higher power and what it means to me.
Love - to hold dear the important people in my life and treat them with the ultimate in respect, compassion and trust. To let go of the "things" that get in the way of all of that but to not disregard the "things" that bring me pleasure or joy. To find a balance between mind, body and spirit.
I believe I have had a crisis of authentic self for most of my life starting in my teenage years. I associate my identity with others and don't really understand my true "authentic" self. Growing up I never really was allowed to use my true voice without fear of criticism from my parents. For the past several months I have been examining what I know about myself and others to really see what its all about and see if I still believe that way or what I can do to change things if I don't.
Last weekend hubby and I went to visit his biological father and girlfriend in eastern Washington. I always love going over there as I can relax and feel truly like myself. There is no judgment or criticism of me or the way I do things. There is always a welcoming feeling when we go over there. The kids are still there and Chris and I will go back over this coming Thursday for a long weekend.
It was so nice to not have a schedule and eat when I was hungry, sleep when I was tired, read in the garden or on the porch swing.
I wanted to leave you with a few photos of Paula's "secret" garden. However, I am having problems uploading. More tomorrow..........................
1 comment:
I love that book! While reading it, I felt like a spell was cast on me...dreamy and contemplative. And, it really made me want to go to Bali.
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