Tag Archives: Elizabeth Gilbert

Saying hello to your illness

20 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by in Advice, Being brave, Depression, Mental health

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I haven’t quoted Elizabeth Gilbert for a long time and then somebody asked me why they had depression and when I tried to answer them, something that Ms Gilbert wrote in Eat Pray Love came to mind.  In this section of the book, she is in Italy trying to start afresh with her life when Depression suddenly finds her where she least expects it:

“Depression and Loneliness track me down after about ten days in Italy.  I am walking through the Villa Borghese one evening after a happy day …….. and I get to thinking a little too much, and then my thinking turns to brooding, and that’s when they catch up with me.
They come upon me all silent and menacing like Pinkerton Detectives, and they flank me – Depression on my left, and Loneliness on my right.  They don’t need to show me their badges.  I know these guys very well.”

Whether it is depression or anxiety, migraines or any chronic illness, these illnesses have the ability of hitting you when you least expect it.
What doesn’t help is getting angry and frustrated and constantly asking “why me?” and “why now?” and crying that it is not fair.
Yes, it is not fair! But what are you going to do about it?  You are not going to change it.
Acceptance is a difficult thing but when you reach a level of acceptance, it is far easier to work on being the best you that you can be rather than letting whatever your illness is determine who and what you can be.

When your illness pops in for a visit, invite it in for tea but don’t let it stay for too long.  It is literally about saying – I recognise you and I see you are here but you do not determine who I am and you do not stop me from living my life.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help or to say “I am not coping right now”
Illness is NOT a sign of weakness – it just happens to be the challenge that you have right now.
And that amazing, awesome person that you are is still there – don’t ever lose sight of that!

The importance of pizza and other daily dilemmas

30 Thursday May 2013

Posted by in Advice, Chocolate yeah!, Freedom

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How important is it to eat pizza?  Or chocolate, or any of the other junk food that you are craving?
Well, that all depends on whether you’re looking for a physical, psychological or spiritual answer.
Generally if you crave foods, your body is telling you something.  If you want a really good biological explanation for the craving, you could say that your body is deficient in some “nutrient” and that is why you are having cravings.  So you want pizza because you need carbohydrates, needing chocolate means that you’re low on serotonin levels.  Chilli? You need endorphins to make you feel happy…. Sugar? You’re probably low on energy and your blood sugar levels may even be low.

I could probably go on but there is no need to.  Cravings are more likely to be psychological.  You want to eat something because it makes you feel better.  It fills the psychological hole of emptiness, despair, loneliness, frustration or anger and makes you feel better for that moment.  And yet, I have never met a person who craves lettuce when they are stressed.  (If you are that person, let me know). I actually do crave salad sometimes but it is not really the salad but rather the dressing and the fancy toppings (not the lettuce) that I want!

I prefer the “spiritual” reason.  I want pizza because it makes me happy.  I want pizza because.. I want pizza.  I want to eat with my hands and watch the cheese pull into strings off the tomato-ey base.  I want something that I didn’t cook.  I want an evening off with no cooking and cleaning duties.  I want to dream of Italy.  I want to be more passionate….

Is pizza, chocolate or any other junk food good for us? No!  Is it important to sometimes just do something purely for pleasure? Yes!  Definitely!
Life shouldn’t always have to be serious, or healthy.  We shouldn’t have to have valid, scientifically proven reasons for everything that we do.
My favourite quote about pizza is from the book Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.  It goes like this:
“I love my pizza so much, in fact, that I have come to believe in my delirium that my pizza might actually love me, in return. I am having a relationship with this pizza, almost an affair.”

Maybe we should all begin having an affair with life.  Loving and appreciating the things that we do, loving the blessings that we have in abundance but that we forget to notice because we take life too seriously.
Go out and (sorry Nike) just do it!