Eat, Pray, Love

I feel sort of stuck. I just finished this book, but I'm not entirely sure what to say about it. I'm not sure I can articulate anything profound enough. It was fascinating. I enjoyed it, I think. Although it kind of bugged me, too. It was unusual in that I come from a traditional {somewhat?} religious background, & to read something so focused on spirituality in somewhat of an abstract form was a very interesting & unique experience for me for me. Eat, Pray, Love follows author Elizabeth Gilbert to Italy, India & Indonesia as she seeks out God through various cultures. Through her travels, she finds healing, peace & purpose.

I liked this:

I keep remembering one of my Guru's teachings about happiness. She says that people universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you're fortunate enough. But that's not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mightly effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. If you don't, you will leak away your innate contentment. It's easy enough to pray when you're in distress but continuing to pray even when your crisis has passed is like a sealing process, helping your soul hold tight to its good attainments.