There’s been a lot of people finding inspiration from books this past year.

For many of us, taking a year to go find ourselves in Italy, India and Bali is an impractical, if lovely idea. We have finances to consider and family responsibilities and most of us need to show up for work in the morning.  Fortunately, there are ways to try a journey of your own on a smaller scale, to eat, pray and love a little.

A recent report on CNN’s ireport detailed local options for a journey of self discovery.  They suggest New Orleans to eat, Colorado to pray and Hawaii for love.  Great ideas all, but they still require a trip to the airport.  Fortunately, self discovery can be had for an even more modest budget.

Rosamunde Pilcher says that “luxury is the total fulfillment of all five senses at once” and that is a luxury we can all afford, we just need to get a little creative. 

Here’s how to eat, pray and love in your own city.

Eat

Is there a restaurant you’ve always wanted to try but never made the time? Try lunch instead of dinner and you’ll spend less.   Sites like groupon.com or livingsocial.com offer daily deal, many of which are huge savings on restaurants you could try one of those.  If you want to stick to just a $5 budget, find a bakery or local coffee shop in your town.  Take the morning off, get a coffee and something warm and sweet and just sit and enjoy it for an hour.  Eat slowly, breath deeply.  You’ll feel miles away from ordinary.

Pray

Try to find a place that is quiet and peaceful.  It might be a church, it could be a park or a beach or the library or local lookout.  Find a place where it’s quiet and go, alone to pray.  Take a journal with you.

Love

It’s hard to pick a date on the calendar and declare “I will meet my soul mate on Wednesday!” (well, it is pretty easy to say, hard to follow through on) but you can find love any day of the week if you know where to look.   Focus on loving yourself better or loving others.  Loving yourself better could be as simple as refusing to criticize yourself, or trying a new haircut or eating really, really fresh vegetables at lunch time.

Loving others could mean paying more attention to the people in your life or reaching out to others.  You could love by volunteering for a day – read to someone who’s bed ridden, serve at a soup kitchen, walk a couple of dogs from your local pound.  When you reach out to others, you’ll feel them reach back to you and while it’s not quite the same as falling in love in Bali, it still feels pretty amazing.

“Eat” and “love” are easy, “pray” can be a  little less familiar. If you’d like to learn how to pray, try our free life lesson Embracing Prayer.  You’ll be matched with a study coach who will talk through your answers with you as you learn.

Have you read the book or seen the movie? How will you eat, pray and love this year?

Upcoming online chats: Join us for daily online chats! One of our features will be “Finding Inner Peace ” on August 22 at 9:00 pm EDT Please join us to discuss how you can find peace within.

“Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval” (John 6:27).

All I needed was a loaf of bread, so I turned into one of those gas stations on steroids where you can buy most of the necessities of life. I looked up and down row after of row for a simple measly loaf of bread. Finally, in the back corner on a bottom shelf, I found a loaf or two. But, what amazed me was all the other food offerings.

There was row after row of all sorts of snacks containing high fats, carbs and sugar. I started looking at the nutrition disclosures on individual packages. Why, the calorie intake on some of those small packages was more than half of a recommended daily caloric diet. No wonder American’s have an obesity problem.

You are what you eat, and what you eat influences virtually everything in your life, from how much energy you have . . . to how well your brain works . . . to how long you live. If you want to have a great brain, you must consistently give it nutrient-rich foods. I know it sounds almost too easy, but it’s a scientific fact: Change your diet, and you change your life.

But, those same principles dealing with our nutritional food diet apply to our spiritual diet and effect our life just as much…..change your thoughts and change your life. Garbage in, garbage out, or so the saying goes. We tend to become what we think about all day long.

Paul gives us some worthy advice in Philippians 4:8: “And now, brothers, as I close this letter, let me say this one more thing: Fix your thoughts on what is true and good and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely, and dwell on the fine, good things in others. Think about all you can praise God for and be glad about.”

Truth, goodness, righteousness, purity and loveliness… think about these things. Let them be the object of your careful attention and study, so as to practice them. Think what they are; think on the obligation to observe them; think on the influence which they would have on the world around you. Esteem them highly, recommend them heartily, and practice them fervently.

Are you still feeding your soul junk food? Just as you change your pattern of eating to get physically fit, change your pattern of thinking to get spiritually fit. Think on good things and you will be a better person. Cast your thoughts on Jesus and you become more like him.   ( a thought on life from John Grant )

Questions: What are some of the “junk foods” you are feeding your soul? What steps need to be taken in order to have a healthier spiritual life?

About the Author John Grant

Daily audio podcast: A second daily devotional, Jesus, The Bread of Life, today on the Men’s Devotional Blog