If you're like me, reading is your thing. I know that I can spend hours constantly devouring page after page of a really interesting and gripping book. If you're not like me and reading isn't your thing, I'm sure that there is something that you're as equally passionate about in your own life.
With that being said, I took a time-out from all of the craziness that is going on in the world right now, and I found a thrift-store copy of a book that I'd been wanting to read now for a while — surprisingly enough, I actually walked away having learned a few mental health/body positivity lessons from Elizabeth Gilbert's amazing novel, "Eat, Pray, Love." Here is a list of some of the quotes from the novel that carry with them some pretty great mental health and body positivity lessons.
1. On finding balance in your life
"To find the balance you want...you must keep your feet grounded so firmly on the earth that it's like you have four legs, instead of two. That way, you can stay in this world. But you must stop looking at the world through your head…look through your heart instead." (Page 27)
2. If you find yourself having to take anti-depressants or anything else for your mental health
"I do know these drugs made my misery feel less catastrophic. So I'm grateful for that." (Page 52)
3. On coping with depression and loneliness in your life
"I am stronger than depression and I am braver than loneliness and nothing will ever exhaust me." (Page 54)
4. If you're dealing with feelings of loneliness
"Learn your way around loneliness. Make a map of it. Sit with it, for once in your life. Welcome to the human experience. But never again use another person's body or emotions as a scratching post for your own unfulfilled yearnings." (Page 65)
5. On true body positivity
"A word about my body. I am gaining weight every day, of course…I'm not exercising, I'm not eating enough fiber, I'm not taking vitamins. Still, when I look at myself in the mirror of the best pizzeria in Naples, I see a bright-eyed, clear-skinned, happy, and healthy face. I haven't seen a face like that on me for a long time." (Pages 80-81)
6. On the motherhood question
"I still can't say whether I will ever want children, I can only say how I feel now — grateful to be on my own." (Page 92)
7. On self-doubt surrounding the motherhood question
"I love children, but what if I never have any? What kind of person does that make me?" (Page 95)
8. On truly living your own, authentic life
"…now I have started living my own life. Imperfect and clumsy as it may look, it is resembling me now, thoroughly." (Page 95)
9. On the pleasures of the arts and food
"In a world of disaster and disorder and fraud, sometimes only beauty can be trusted. Only artistic excellence is incorruptible. Pleasure cannot be bargained down. And sometimes the meal is the only currency that is real." (Page 114.)
10. Some harsh truth on the nature of the world
"It is merely this world that is chaotic, bringing with it changes to us all that nobody could have anticipated." (Page 75.)
11. A parting line on the nature of life itself
"You were given life; it is your duty (and also your entitlement as a human being) to find something beautiful within life, no matter how slight." (Page 115)
