MY VERSION OF ‘EAT PRAY LOVE’
- Dia Woods
- Nov 24, 2024
- 7 min read
It was years ago when I watched the movie ‘Eat Pray Love’. The portrayal of suffering, pain and self-discovery in a story well narrated. I wasn’t heartbroken when I watched it. I wasn’t getting over a failed relationship. I wasn’t trying to make meaning of my relationship. None of these, but I deeply resonated with the central character, I could relate to her pain, suffering and loss of self. I could relate to her need for self-discovery. I think so did the million women who watched Eat Pray Love – it opened up something within them – the need for knowing oneself, deeper self-awareness maybe, to be on the path to discovering who we truly are
TRAVEL – especially solo travel is one of the quickest and most fulfilling paths to self-discovery and Julia Robert’s portrayal of this as Liz Gilbert was stunning. For those of you who may not have watched Eat Pray Love, Liz Gilbert, the protagonist, travels through Italy, India, Bali and explores Food, Prayer and Love in these 3 enchanting locations. The cinematography makes you feel like you are on this expedition of self-discovery with Julia Roberts. It was back then that I made a decision to go on solo travel, to go to Bali, and do Yoga!
Many years later, here I am, at Bali, on a solo journey with Yoga! I am still not heart broken, or in a failed relationship. However, I am inspired by Julia’s portrayal of author Liz Gilbert, and here is my version of Eat, Pray, Love!
Eat
Food is nourishment, and what I have discovered over the years is that conscious eating is mandatory to nourish your body, mind and soul. One would assume that a vacation is the time one tends to overeat, given the relaxed atmosphere. For me, it became quite the opposite. Right before I embarked upon my 6-week journey to the beautiful Indonesian islands of Bali, I felt my body call out to me. It asked me ‘Shall we try out an experiment? Will you trust me?’ I began to engage in the conversation and it seemed like my body told me that the amount of food we put in our system and the number of times we do this, is not necessary for the nutrition our body requires. My body asked me if I would follow a 2-meals-a-day diet filled with natural foods and I most certainly agreed. Bali is home to the best tropical fruits the world has seen, that are locally and naturally grown. Freshly cut plain fruits, tossing them in a salad, or a sugarless tropical mixed fruit juice is the best way to start the day or make it a part of the beginning of a meal.
Given I was switching to two meals, I knew I needed to get the proteins in. I stuck to a double egg omelette every morning with just a slice of bread. Good fat is great – so top it up with butter or cheese or just the good old coconut water and coconut flesh from the local coconut trees makes for the perfect first meal. This was usually around 12 noon. The next meal was around sunset or a little after. Here is when i engaged in a rendezvous with an Indonesian meal – ideally low or no carb. I had the best tropical salads, Gado-Gado which is boiled vegetables, tempeh and tofu in peanut sauce. Alternate days also had carbs – so a Mie Goreng or Nasi Goreng. On other days, i dialogued with a Vietnamese or Japanese dish with locally produced ingredients. And just sometimes I would go to the good old Indian restaurants for some Dal Makhni or Palak Paneer and Garlic Naan.
My body felt much lighter and happier. Especially on days when the nights were without much carb. It also gave a lot more time to travel and explore, than eat every now and then. I definitely had chia seeds soaked in water every night before bed, that gave me the natural boost of energy that was needed in a sunny Bali. A coffee addict, I couldn’t avoid the morning milk coffee, but if I could do the coffee after my first meal, that would be some serious intermittent fasting. I told myself, one thing at a time!
Because it was my body that made this request to me and I listened actively to it, I realized that hunger every few hours is what we have subjected our body to. If we eat a well-balanced meal with the right mix of protein, vegetables and fat and a dash of carb, we are actually set for the next 6 hrs. The body does not need another meal in between. As I followed this, I felt complete in my tummy and heart. Conscious eating was born from consciously listening to my body.
Pray
Prayer or spirituality for me is ‘a connection to the soul’. In all my travels, I carry a book with me that leads to deep self-reflection in a spiritual sort of way. These have included SynchroDestiny, by Deepak Chopra, Freedom from the Known, by J Krishnamurthi, Code of the Extraordinary Mind, by Vishen Lakhiani. (I am thinking I should carry a copy of the half read Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Hariri, the next time).
This time, on my travel to Bali, I decided to pick this book called ‘Don’t believe everything you think’, by Joseph Nyuyen. ‘Thinking is suffering and non-thinking is peace’ is the premise of this book. And I think ‘non-thinking’ is probably the highest form of prayer. Thinking is the mind, and the absence of thinking is when you are not in your mind, which means you are in your soul. Aware. That is Prayer! The author through this book coaxes us to go into a state of ‘non-thinking’ and shows us exactly how we can do that. During the course of the book, you will actually and realistically experience non-thinking. The author goes on to say that ‘it is when we are in a state of non-thinking that we create a ‘spaciousness’ and it is in this spaciousness that our desires begin to manifest.’ What is this, if not prayer I ask.
For me, this book has been profound in so many small and subtle yet big ways. Coming from a country such as India (or if you are from any country that connects religion to God and prayer) you will know that prayer has a whole different meaning altogether. This book showed me that prayers or desires are manifested within us. They come true within us – when we are in the space of non-thinking! This is exhilarating because it totally defies the concept of prayer that has been taught to us as we grew up. We are the universe and the space, and we can create and manifest – these are not just words but realizations that you yourself will discover, were you to surrender and read this book. While you may have heard of these concepts before, walk into the book like you know nothing, that way the learning is unparalleled and effective!
My version of Prayer is this book, that helped me discover and experience a whole new meaning to manifestations of our heartfelt desires within us, of spaciousness within us, where the mind is absent and the soul is present.
Love
When I watched Eat Pray Love, I somehow did imagine that I would be in a dilapidated state of a personal relationship to want to go on a solo journey. Well. I was in my early 20s back then. Thankfully, I have understood that the path to self-discovery by being on a solo travel journey need not come from a place of personal unfulfillment or a failed relationship or personal loss.
Having travelled the journey for a better part of a decade of finding self-love and true love in a relationship – Love for me is the coming together of these two – love for self and love for your romantic partner – in a way that both of them can blossom fully and wholly, where one does not have to shadow the other, where one does not have to be compromised for the other, where we don’t need to live in fear that if we give one attention, the other will wither away. It is through self-love that you love the other fully and wholly.
This week of solo travel for me – while I nourish my body, mind, and soul with Yoga, Pranayama and Silence – I rediscover the relationship with myself. On a beautiful and tiny Balinese island called Lembongan, I will be fulfilling my Eat Pray Love dream of being on a yogic journey of self-discovery where the body mind and soul come together in unison. Love is when the 3 of them are in synchronicity. Love is when you are in deep connection with yourself. Love is when you can then deeply connect to the other.
I end this with a beautiful quote that I read at the Yogashala (that will be my home for the next few days at Lembongan), that delves into the meaning of the Sanskrit word Namaste – I honour the place in you in which the entire universe dwells. I honour the place in you which is of love, peace, joy and light. When you are in that place in you, and I am I that place in me, we are one!
What is this if not love?
Namaste!
PS: I want to dedicate this article to Elizabeth Gilbert who displayed absolute vulnerability in penning down her life's story in her memoir.
For those of you who don't know Gilbert, you can get a glimpse of her on this TedTalk from many years ago, it's one of my favourites.
I am also linking her book for you that's available on Amazon
Happy reading - for both versions of Eat Pray Love!
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