Do you ever feel like you need to get away and really find yourself? Author Elizabeth Gilbert says when that feeling hit her hard in 2003, she took a year-long journey across the world and later documented it in the book Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia. Dr. Robin talks to Elizabeth about her book and how she has transformed her life since her journey.
Elizabeth's story of going through a painful divorce and wanting to find a different path in life has been inspiring to many women, but she says the route to healing she chose wasn't easy. Her journey of self-transformation included eating in Italy, praying in India and finding peace in Indonesia. "Anyone who's ever done a true internal renovation knows that it's hard, it's expensive, it's challenging and it's full of doubt and tears," she says. "On the other hand, what else are you going to do with your life, except find your way to that divine space?"
While many people may think that Elizabeth no longer has feelings of pain and frustration, she says that's not true. "I live in a human body and I live a human life and I'm not floating around three inches above the carpet," she says. Instead, Elizabeth says she now has the tools she needs to deal with her demons in a healthy way, and for the first time in her life, she says she's content. "I just don't feel like I'm being pushed by a cattle prod anymore, which is how I spent the first 35 years of my life," she says. "I'm in this place right now where I bought this house in New Jersey, I got married, I've got this really quiet little life, I drive a Toyota. I want very little."
For those looking for a similar transformation, Elizabeth offers this advice: "Don't fall for anything that tells you that you do not carry all the divine greatness in the universe within you," she says. "And don't fall for anything that tells you that finding that is easy."
