On July 30, 2017, Elizabeth Gilbert "Eat Pray Love"

Finally finished reading "Eat Pray Love". This is the first full-length original novel that I have read after working. What took the longest. It was actually because the heroine was pretentious and pretentious, and the story was scattered and like a running diary. I abandoned it many times, but felt that it needed to start well and end well, so I continued to read it on and off for two years.

The story tells the story of the heroine Lizzy, who experienced a divorce from her husband and separated from her new handsome boyfriend, and fell into extremely negative and self-denying emotions. In order to get rid of this negativity, he embarked on the road of travel and self-salvation. Three different countries correspond to three different treatment methods. Italy is food therapy, India is religious therapy, and Indonesia is love therapy.

1. Italian Chapter

The Italian Chapter first explains how Lizzy embarked on a journey of self-salvation. In fact, to put it bluntly, the heroine is just moaning for no reason. She originally had a very good husband and a stable job and income. She had already bought a house and was ready to settle down. As a result, at a party, I was stimulated by the fact that my friend had given birth to a child. I found that I didn't like children. When I thought about having a baby and raising a baby step by step with my husband, I suddenly panicked. I couldn't sleep in the middle of the night and went to the bathroom to talk. I woke up during the day. He strongly demanded a divorce. The poor and innocent husband was inexplicably put on the gun. After trying to save her, the angry husband reluctantly agreed to the divorce, but it also cost the heroine a huge amount of money. When the heroine was newly divorced, she spent a happy and free time and met the young and handsome David. However, due to differences in age and other aspects, the two soon fell into a cold war. The heroine had a mentality that no one in the world would ever love her again. She just wanted to escape from the United States where she had stayed for too long, so she embarked on a journey to a foreign country.

The Italian chapter is said to be a food chapter, but there are not many descriptions of food in the book, or it may be due to cultural differences. The English food vocabulary makes it difficult for me to correspond to delicious food. The only impression I have is There is only one section for eating pizza. In addition to food, the Italian chapter also intersperses the heroine learning Italian, visiting different cities in Italy, experiencing the unique language of each city, etc. In Italy, the heroine also made a group of very interesting friends. In the company of delicious food, beautiful scenery and friends, the heroine's depression was superficially relieved. However, once the crowd disperses, the heroine will still fall into loneliness involuntarily. Her friends once advised her to enjoy and release her sexuality in the romantic city of Rome, but the heroine finally learned the hard way and finally realized:

Indeed, when you fall into negative emotions, you want to rely on others. It won't work to heal yourself physically or emotionally, and grasping at straws in despair will only sink with you.

It can be said that under the superficial treatment in Italy, the heroine began to realize her deep-seated problems, and her mentality began to change, which also paved the way for traveling to the remaining two countries. When leaving Italy, the heroine finally slowly learned the Italian creed:

Learn to enjoy doing nothing and get pleasure from nothingness.

2. Indian chapter

In the Indian chapter, the heroine performs ascetic practices in a ashram. I have to get up very early every day, do hard work, and spend a lot of time meditating. The heroine came to India mainly because of the guidance of her yoga teacher. Yoga is actually a union between mind and body, allowing you to enter ultimate peace and explore a better self. The Indian chapter is the chapter where the heroine has the most emotional breakdown and the most reflection. Penance is a double torture to a person's body and spirit, especially if the heroine's original mood is not very good, and she is more likely to collapse.

There is a section that I like very much in this chapter. It tells the story of the heroine who really couldn’t survive several hours of meditation with peace of mind, so a big drama started in her mind. It reminds me of myself when doing yoga. Every pause and feeling makes people feel that time is extremely difficult.

But it is precisely because of these seemingly boring tortures that the heroine can truly face herself and learn to deal with negative emotions calmly, that is, do not suppress or deny negative emotions, think about how they come from , why it happened, and then ignore it with tolerance and gratitude.

There is also a discussion about soul mates in this article that is also very thought-provoking:

A soul mate is not a perfect partner in your imagination, but a reflection of yourself, making you Learn to reflect on yourself and they may leave too.

3. Indonesian Chapter

When it comes to the Indonesian Chapter, the writing style is much more cheerful. The heroine is no longer moaning and groaning. Instead, she is very active in interacting with people and helping people in poverty. of people. The Indonesian chapter is basically a sightseeing and entertainment chapter, which introduces a lot of Indonesian culture, including naming habits, advocating witch doctors, various rituals, etc. The heroine was infected by Indonesia's culture of advocating happiness and balance, became more and more cheerful, and finally gained her own love.

Overall, I don’t like this book very much, and I hope I will never become like the heroine.

But this book also has some merits, that is, how to adjust yourself when facing negative emotions. You can first rely on delicious food and beautiful scenery to make yourself happy on the surface, but in the end you must not resist negative emotions, learn to understand and tolerate them, and finally Only then can you find peace.