"Eat, Pray, Love," written by Elizabeth Gilbert, is an amazing memoir that changes the lives of all who read it. The book itself is about Elizabeth traveling the world in search of pleasure and the divine after going through a terrible divorce and a toxic relationship. It’s a memoir about pursuing life and it has a couple of lessons along the way.

1. Joy is something that you must constantly pursue, not a stroke of luck.

In her life, Elizabeth did not wait on her circumstances to make her happy, she didn’t wait for joy to creep on to her doorstep. Instead she pursued it. She traveled all the way to Italy and learned a language just because she wanted to. Letting our circumstances, define our joy is not living life abundantly. We must chase joy despite what is going on in our lives.

2. Build the life you want, not the life that everyone expects you to have.

The one thing I liked about Elizabeth is that she never just wanted the typical American dream life. It wasn’t about the conventional life of a huge house and having Sunday barbecues and having a white picket fence. She’s very unconventional and she wanted a different kind of life. Here’s the thing, building a life that you want is more important than doing what is obligated. If you try to please everyone else with the life you have, then does it really matter? It’s OK to have a normal life and standard nine to five job, but it has to be something you know you are called to do.

3. Sometimes ruin and destruction is needed to build something better.

Sometimes in life we get shaken and something happens that causes us to think that everything we know is wrong or can be changed. Sometimes what we have is taken from us or the things that we love are toxic for us and we have to let it go. Elizabeth had to let go of her toxic relationship with her boyfriend and later in her travels she met her current husband. Sometimes things need to be let go, whether it’s a toxic relationship or junk food.

4. A little imbalance for the sake of love is part of a balanced life.

In love, whether for family, friends or a significant other, it's OK not to do things purely because you want them to happen. Sometimes serving and caring for the people we love throws us off and demands our time and energy. That’s OK. If we love them, then it will bring us joy to help them. Above all, though, when it comes to friends and relationships we must find people who are selfless to us just as we are selfless to them. Elizabeth tried living a balanced life and having her ducks in a row, but ultimately she needed the love of her friends and her future husband to carry her through and inspire her to love herself.

I love this book. It truly has taught me to appreciate life. That the only two things that you need is hope that circumstances always improve and some good friends to love.