Reading, Chocolate and Lottery Tickets

Today on the PATH train heading to work I was reading the book Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.  I’m on page 177 which, without going into lengthy detail, is the part where she has been at the Ashram in India for a while and is just coming into finding her way with meditating and praying in the different ways available there and also through talking to others at the ashram that had tried different types of meditation. So I read this one paragraph and it spoke to me very much. I constantly battle with negative thoughts. Sometimes I catch myself and plenty of times it just spurts out of my mouth and I’m left shaking my head wondering why I said what I did.  Also I have been on a sort of self discovery path lately and this book practically jumped off the shelf at me when perusing the book section at the Goodwill(I call it thrifting therapy). It has helped me see things a little more clearly on my mission to move forward in life.  And, no, I’m not planning on heading out to an ashram or any exotic places in the near future!  I really just wanted to share what I read and you can take from it whatever you want.  Oh, and just a little fyi because she mentions lottery tickets and that relates to an Italian joke she writes about on page 176 about a poor man who is in church praying to a statue of a saint to win the lottery, he goes back and back and one day the statue comes to life and says “My son- please, please, please…buy a ticket.”  The thought is that we play just a big a part in our life as does our faith.  

"There is so much about my fate that I cannot control, but other things do fall under my jurisdiction.  There are certain lottery tickets I can buy, thereby increasing my odds of finding contentment.  I can decide how I spend my time, whom I interact with, whom I share my body and life and money and energy with.  I can select what I eat and read and study.  I can choose how I’m going to regard unfortunate circumstances in my life- whether I will see them as curses or opportunities (and on the occasions when I can’t rise to the most optimistic viewpoint, because I’m feeling too damn sorry for myself, I can choose to keep trying to change my outlook). I can choose my words and the tone of voice in which I speak to others. And most of all, I can choose my thoughts.” Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

One thing I personally have been saying to myself lately is “small pleasures”.  I started reminding myself of this because I realized that I had been feeling down on life, like I am not successful or I'm tired of struggling and I’m never going to get my head above the water and life is going to end soon!  I know, so bleak, but I'm getting older and have been feeling lost so through reading this book and journaling I had a little light bulb go off and I realized I have to just start really being in the moment and enjoying them whether big or small.  If a good song is playing on the radio then I am going to turn up the volume and love the music through all the fibers of my body. If I’m having lunch with a friend then I am going to enjoy our conversation and our connection without thinking about having to be somewhere else afterward.  If I’m eating chocolate then it’s going to be the best damn chocolate there is and I’m going to eat it slowly and with a big smile on my face! You get my drift, we do have so many small pleasures in life and it’s up to us to choose to be a part of them, to see them for what they are and realize we are so lucky. If you aren't having these moments then my friends I hope you will take a look inward and make some choice to get you to a better place. Life isn't always smiles and chocolates and that is expected. As long as you are the one driving your momentum then you have the ability to steer yourself in the right direction.  I welcome any thoughts you'd like to share. Meanwhile I'm going to buy a lottery ticket!