Happy Monday!
I was just reading through the new comments on yesterday’s ‘life question’– what a great way to start the week. I am constantly inspired by the journey that you share with me on the blog!
I also appreciated that some of you voiced your honest opinion of the book. Some of you said that you couldn’t get through the book and you didn’t like how the tone/message changed after Italy. I got about 1/3 of the way through the India book last night and I did notice a shift. The tone got more serious and Elizabeth really delved into meditation, yoga and the history behind it. While I did find a couple parts have been slow in India, I found the part about where she struggles with meditation absolutely captivating as I have struggled with meditation and quieting my mind for a long time. I found that I was taking a few notes for myself and I hope to re-visit meditation in my own life (I will blog about it!). It will be interesting to see how my opinion of the book changes as I read through India and Bali. I hope I will enjoy it!
I told you last night that I would be sharing with you this fun raw cookie recipe that I made yesterday! They are so yummy, I hope you will enjoy them as well.
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Raw Energy Cookie Bites
Inspired by That’s Fit.ca’s Raw Seed Cookies.
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup of almonds
- 1 tbsp chia seeds
- 1 tbsp sunflower seeds
- 9 medjool dates, pitted
- 4-5 dried apricots, chopped
- 2 tbsp cacao nibs
- 1/2 tbsp pepita seeds (pumpkin seeds)
- Pinch or two of sea salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Directions: Place pitted dates and almonds into a food processor and process until the mixture is ground up. You can leave a few larger pieces if you prefer. Remove mixture from the processor and place into a medium sized bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well with your hands. Form into mini cookies or balls. Makes 8 mini cookies.
Nutritional information (per mini cookie): 136 calories, 4 grams fibre, 5 grams fat, 2 grams protein.
I am in love with these mini energy cookies! So delicious and packed with so many healthy foods.
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You can also double the recipe and pop them in the freezer for quick snacks!
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Here is another quote that I loved from Eat Pray Love, page 115. Elizabeth is talking about pleasure and how our society typically feels guilty for pursuing pleasure in our lives. In this quote she speaks to a ‘glimmer of happiness’ that she started to feel after being in a deep depression for a couple years. She was on the path to ‘mending her soul’.
“It was in a bathtub back in New York, reading Italian words aloud from a dictionary, that I first started mending my soul. My life had gone to bits and I was so unrecognizable to myself that I probably couldn’t have picked me out from a police line-up. But I felt a glimmer of happiness when I started studying Italian, and when you sense a faint potentiality for happiness after such dark times you must grab onto the ankles of that happiness and not let go until it drags you face-first out of the dirt– this is not selfishness, but obligation. You were given life; it is your duty (and also your entitlement as a human being) to find something beautiful within life, no matter how slight.
I came to Italy pinched and thin. I did not know yet what I deserved. I still maybe don’t know fully what I deserve. But I do know that I have collected myself of late- through the enjoyment of harmless pleasures- into somebody more intact. The easiest, most fundamentally human way to say it is that I have put on weight. I exist more now than I did four months ago. I will leave Italy noticeably bigger than when I arrived here. And I will leave with the hope and the expansion of one person- the magnification of one life- is indeed an act of worth in this world. Even if that life, just this one time, happens to be nobody’s but my own.”
I thought that was one of the more powerful quotes in the book so far. I absolutely loved this quote ‘you must grab onto the ankles of that happiness and not let go until it drags you face-first out of the dirt’ it gave me such a great visual and helped me understand her sentiment. I also agree that sometimes happiness comes from the little things in life. I think many of us get overwhelmed by assuming that we need to do all of these huge and crazy changes to be happy, but sometimes happiness comes from a small decision to just pursue something that you enjoy- even if it has no practical purpose.
For me, my glimmer of happiness was starting Oh She Glows. On October 31, 2008, I started Oh She Glows. It was one of the most difficult times of my life and I was struggling with my career and graduate school. I was depressed and I cried in bed so many nights. The blog was my glimmer of hope each day- a distraction from the unhappiness that I felt with my career choice. It was something so simple as writing a few words each day and hoping for that connection with others to help guide me though.
Little did I know that something as simple as writing a blog would have been the thing that gave me the courage, confidence, and desire to seek out happiness, not just for a few moments every day, but for my entire day. Sometimes, these little glimmers of happiness can be the seeds for amazing change and transformation in our lives.
I also loved her analogy about ‘putting on weight’. When Elizabeth went through her divorce she lost about 25-30 pounds and was skeletal. Putting on weight was not just a representation that she was getting healthier, but it was a metaphor for the growth that was happening on the inside of her as well. I thought it was so interesting because so many women denote weight gain with a negative emotion or loss of control, but sometimes weight gain represents a time in your life when you are enjoying the pleasures of life and just…happy.
I appreciate hearing your own thoughts on this quote…Do you have any ‘glimmers of hope’ in your life right now? Have you ever experienced any small pleasurable activity that got you though a difficult time, like the blog did for me? Are there things in your life that you could do to create these small bits of happiness in your day?
I just finished reading Eat, Pray, Love!!! I’m loving the discussion going on here around it. I’m in a transitional stage of discovery myself, so the book particularly spoke to me.
I think my “glimmer of hope” was quitting my job. I was so depressed last fall living in Fredericton that I cried daily, couldn’t sleep, and started looking into counselling. Talking to my mom one evening, she told me to pick an end date for my job and follow through. The next day I gave my notice to my boss, and my life has improved daily ever since. Last night I sat around with a group of amazing people in a friend’s backyard here in Toronto and I couldn’t help but smile. My life is the complete opposite now from what it used to be and I finally feel like I’m ME again. I think moving to Toronto was one of the best decisions I’ve made :)
I love this comment..thank you for sharing your story! I am so happy that you had the courage to turn things around (and very happy to have you nearby!)
Stick with it… Bali is fun and light again! All three sections are amazing for different reasons.
My glimmer of happiness started when I found your blog! It has inspired me so much to pursue a healthful lifestyle that I love! Now, I have been enlightened to an entire blogging-learning community dedicated to doing the best for ourselves and our bodies- with an emphasis on my most favorite thing: FOOD! Everyday is an exciting challenge to learn more and do the best I can to keep moving forward. I am thankful for what you have shared with us all along your journey, and for the extra spark that it has lit for mine.
Aww thanks!
I LOVE how every time I read your site, you have a way of inspiring me :) Thanks for that!
Now those cookies ~ WOW! They look completely amazing ~ I LOVE how you can see all the healthy goodies in them….YUM! Must try :)
Have an awesome day A!
My glimmer of happiness is painting and seeing what appears on the canvas. It reminds me that I am strong enough to create beauty in my life. Cooking and baking bring me happiness as well. Studying yoga is also giving me passion back in my life in a physical way. I appreciate my body and my mind at the same time. I hope that one day I can truly find balance in my life and stop feeling so miserable about certain things!
My “glimmer of hope” right now is a blog I have just started with the goal of “living lighter, one day at a time” — by giving away one item every day, both on the blog and to charity.
Much like how you felt when you started OSG, I have become so unhappy with my life and need something positive to look forward to. I hope that through the act of giving away something every single day that I will be reminded of what is truly important in life — not “things,” but people, experiences, and memories.
We’ll see where this journey takes me!
Hi There! I’m new to your blog, but I love it already! Such positivity and inspiration in this little slice of the web! :)
My “glimmer of hope” is teaching. Whether it’s teaching group fitness or teaching public speaking to college freshman, the ability to share knowledge and challenge others to see, feel, or think differently about something is so compelling and rewarding. Seeing that “ah-ha” moment on someone’s face is the highlight of my day. In return, my students and group fitness participants also challenge and inspire me in so many different ways. I’ll never be fabulously rich or famous being a teacher, but I go to work everyday knowing that I will definitely make a difference.
Like yourself, blogging has also become a glimmer of hope for me. Being able to express myself freely and creatively, and also having the privilege to connect with so many other inspirational people through their blogs is an empowering experience. I’m slowly re-discovering the creativity in me that was suppressed through the 100-page academic grad school papers I wrote for two years, and I’m loving every minute. Thank you for this post–and awesome question! I can’t wait to read more on your blog!
I love that you are reading Eat, Pray, Love – I read it a little over a year ago and it seriously changed my life. I think it’s an AMAZING book, regardless of where you find yourself in life. I happened to read it while I was recovering from a terrible breakup and it helped me to realize that life DOES go on… Ultimately, I found hope and inspiration in Elizabeth’s story. :)
Thank YOU for being a glimmer for me everyday! Each day I pick up a new recipe or a new tip or just one new ingredient for my GM. I just hope you know you give that glimmer to so many of us each day! (and I’m lovin my Breville!!)
Thank you jennifer :)
Thanks so much for sharing the truth about the emotional struggles you’ve been through with your career, etc. That in itself gives me a glimmer of hope. I got a degree in psychology, but in retrospect it wasn’t “me,” and I never did use it. I’ve been a mom for 15 years, and struggle with so many issues of self-worth. I’m trying to overcome the feeling that my worth is measured by the money I bring in. I can’t seem to shake that. I am experimenting with a blog, and finding my voice, and breaking out of the insecurities of allowing myself to be me. So that is my little glimmer of hope at the moment. I enjoy going back to read your earlier entries, and seeing how much you’ve grown, and it makes me realize what is possible on this journey.
Pam I can relate to this a lot too ” I’m trying to overcome the feeling that my worth is measured by the money I bring in.”
I decided my entire university career based on what title I would have afterwards and how much money I would make. I even researched the top paying psychology fields and wanted to do the highest paying one! Now that I look back on it, it is silly. When you are happy, you will find a way to make the money come in some form or another. When you are depressed, no amount of money matters.
I have to say the India section of eat, pray, love was one of my favorites. I thought it was really where she got all the work done. It isn’t as playful because what she had to go through wasn’t playful. Italy freed her and India healed her, or at least thats how I saw it. To everyone out there struggling with the India bit, i say stick through it because what she manages to overcome and find within herselfmis truly inspiring.
I am currently in the mddlemof am fairly major lufentransition, the I graduated university with an arts degree, now what dilemma. It is scary, and it has me a bit panicked, but my glimmer if hope is that I have everything else I want in my life. Anwonderful boyfriend, a city I consider home, I have my running, dedicatinvto health, and love for food. Direction will come,eventually, I just have to let it unfold. As Steve Jobs (CEO of apple) famously said, ‘you can only connect the dots backwards, not forwards.’ so I guess my final glimmer is the knowledge that someday I will look back on this time and understand how everything I did took me somewhere new.
Whoops the first sentence of the second paragraph is supposed to read: i am currently in the middle of a fairly major life transition.
LOL. So, that wasn’t German for something? :-)
Haha, no. It’s just my inability to properly use my iPad keyboard. I always hit m instead of the space key.
MMM Now I have to try these cookies!!! I just posted on my blog about your in a jiffy curry chickpea burgers. They were delicious!
I will have to try that cookie recipe. It looks so good!
Love the discussion but did not love the book! The movie should be interesting to see.
My glimmer of hope- A calendar always helps me. It sounds strange but even in my most stressful times having events on the calendar that I know I will enjoy help me get through them. During grad school it was trips and now it is trips and food events!
This is perfect. I quit my miserable job last week after being bullied and abused simply for doing my job and doing it well. I have no other job prospects, and I’m writing this from the couch in my parents’ house.
However, you know what? I’m feeling better. I put on my running shoes for the first time in 9 months and suffered through two long miles, part of which involved me bawling my eyes out. I baked this morning. I got accepted into a school to completely change my career. I withdrew from the grad program I was accepted to in December. I’m going to do what I feel I was meant to do, so help me.
I don’t know. Maybe I’ve just flipped out from all the stress, but for the first time in my life I have no plans, and I feel like I’m right where I should be. And so I guess my ‘glimmer of happiness’ is having a feeling of hope and possibility once again.
Congratulations! That was a big decision. I would love to do the same thing if I had the means.
Wow this comment gave me chills…chills of happiness for you. :) Way to go! You will never regret following your heart.
Thanks you guys! I still can’t believe I quit, but I already feel like myself again. I read your history and saw that you made a major change, and reading your blog makes me feel better about a (sometimes) scary time. However, I figure if I’m going to run myself into the ground working, I might as well be doing something I love!
Baking is something that always brings a smile to my face. When times are tough baking or cooking with my husband seems to make everything better. Right now I have a glimmer of hope of finally getting to open a coffee shop bakery which I have been dreaming about doing for 8 years. Luckily my husband is pushing me through my fears so I no longer can find a reason to put of what makes me happy.
When I was going through a tough time in my life, the one thing that gave me that glitter of happiness was a hug from my 3 year old niece. It just made my heart come alive again! :)
Awww love that!
This was hard for me to read and think about because I’m still struggling to find sustainable glimmers. Even when I find something outside to be a glimmer, it’s very easy to start resenting the time I’m in the stressful environment unable to be out doing those things – like cooking, or running+yoga, or escaping into a book. So I’ve tried to find glimmers inside the stressful environment – things to laugh at, small achievements to look forward to – but I know it’s not a sustainable situation.
I find all the discussion and comments interesting. I just plain did not enjoy the book. I liked the Italy section the best, having traveled there (and thoroughly enjoyed the food), but the rest of the book just did not resonate with me. And, if I only saw a glimmer of happiness each day, that wouldn’t be enough. I wake up every morning looking forward to what the day will bring. I just try to appreciate the many blessings I have, because I know I don’t struggle nearly as much people struggling with poverty, disease, hunger, etc. Every day I am very fortunate.
Spending time with my friends and family are my glimmers of hope. When things are tough it is comforting to know that there are people who really love you and would do anything for you. Simply being with them is often enough to pull me out of any funks.