Eat Pray Love

          Last night I went and saw Elizabeth Gilbert speak at the Centre for Performing Arts here in Vancouver. Unless you have been living under a rock for the last year and a half, you have surely heard of her bestselling novel "Eat, Pray, Love" (or at least heard of the movie adaptation where she is played by the iconic Julia Roberts :P).
           Going in with unexpected free front row seats from my best friend, and into a room chalk full of women of varying ages and statures,  I didn't really know what to expect. What would an award winning author tell all of us ladies searching for a experience like the one that she had in her novel, one full of change and ultimately the renewal of oneself.
            If you have truly been living under a rock for some time now and don't know what this phenomenon called "Eat, Pray, Love" is all about, then let me fill you in just a little bit. Its the memoir of Elizabeth's journey from being an unhappily married women stuck in the perfect life that she knew she was not meant to live. From there diving head first into a divorce that stripped her bear of all she had (not to mention all her money and assets), and then receiving the opportunity to write about a trip that she was to go on for 9 months and explore this new live she has just created.
            The book documents her first living in Italy gorging on amazing Italian eats for 3 months, then jetting off to India for 3 months to stay in a Ashram to study meditation and yoga. Then she finally gets to Bali for the last 3 months of her trip, learning from a wise medicine man and in the end surprising herself by learning how to love again.

      

Now what do you tell a whole 

concert hall full of 

thousands of women all eager to 

do the same in their lives? 

                   

                         She walked out on stage bearing no makeup and her hair in a messy bun, showing that she was just one of the ladies and no "Julia". And as soon as she started talking with the same quick wit that she explores in her books we all felt at ease.
                         "Oh, I see a man in the audience..." She exclaimed. "Did you know what was going on here tonight? Did anyone tell you? Did you get dragged along?"
                          For the next hour and a half she dazzled us with her humble nature and made us laugh with her stories in her climb to becoming a published author. There were a couple of key points that I took away from her talk :

That it is important to find beauty in the world around you everyday.

Even if it is just something small, know that there are always signs.

In the words of my love Nate,

"The signs are all around us."

And if you can't see anything to be grateful for

then uproot yourself and give yourself a little shake of change.

If you feel bouts of depression coming on

Be not idle

Be not solitary

Go, do, be, create

Be with family, make friends,

take up a hobby or craft you have been meaning to explore.

Just don't sit there and let the demons creep in and crush your spirit

Do anything.

And on that note 

Just know that everything is going to be ok

And take comfort in the fact that you are exactly

where you are meant to be at this very moment.

Embrace that and don't kick yourself for the things you can't change,

and make differences in the things that you can.

                      She didn't tell us to leave our partners and run off to an Ashram. Instead she gave us eager ladies of the audience a sense of direction and a feeling of ease in our own lives. We may not have a movie made of our lives, but we sure know how to live it.

Love Nymph

                     xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo etc...