I was recently watching the movie Eat Pray Love again, which was adapted from the book of the very same name.

It was a nice rom-com to watch on a Saturday afternoon. As I watched it, I started to think about the significance of its title: Eat, Pray, Love, and how it can often be applied to the cycle of life.

The Cycle

In life we can go through many cycles or chapters, and there will be some highs and lows.

EAT

Before starting a cycle, it may be good to take stock and look inwards. It can sometimes be good to nurture – eat – instead of going all ‘blaze and glory’ into a new chapter. Eating does not only mean nurturing yourself with food; but also can be feeding with knowledge. This can be seen when embarking on a new journey. For example, you may have spent five years working as an accountant, but then wake up one day and decide that your calling is working as a journalist. This may involve re-training. Another example may be that you are tired of feeling unfit; and decide to train as a body builder. This will again involve feeding information on diet, as well as the body training.

PRAY

Sometimes you may be at a crossroad, not sure where it is you want to travel to in this journey called life. This can be because you are finding it difficult to connect to your inner core. In the Western world, it can become very easy to become distracted, as there is a lot of noise around. This can be in the form of too much information. Information from our nearest and dearest to what is happening in the world of social media. Here stillness is required. Some people say to get to this place you can either meditate or pray. Being still can just be being. I have seen people go inwards, just by looking at the mirror and acknowledging where they are now and where they want to be. This may be described as being honest. Some openings to being honest can start with the following:

• “Am I happy?”
• “Do I want to change this?”; and
• “What do I need to do?”

Remember to be gentle and loving to yourself. This leads us on to love.

LOVE

Love, seems to sometimes be flowing in one direction – outwards. It can be easy to say phrases: “I love you”, “I love chocolate”, and “I would love to lose weight”. But how about saying, “I love my hair, even when it gets frizzy”? This not giving ourselves enough love, can often lead to some deep rooted issues beginning with the prefix self.

Let’s take a note of some:

• Self-love
• Self-esteem
• Self-belief
• Self-worth

Are there any more that you can list?

To fix this, or to prevent the resulting ailments, we need to practice loving being. In my book “Be Happy”, there are 10 tips that I suggest for increasing happiness. One of them is having date nights with yourself. You may be asking: just me? Yes, I mean just you. It is nice to be in your own company sometimes and enjoy having that bath or carrot cake.

So next time when you feel that you are about to leave a chapter and start a new one, consider the cycle: Eat, Love and Pray. This can be an adventure.

Where are you in the cycle?