If you're Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the mega-hit book and movie "Eat, Pray Love," you move to Rome for four months and devour mounds of spaghetti, thin crust Neapolitan pizza and creamy gelato. After you're full and content, you break camp for India, where you move into an ashram and spend another four months in deep meditation. Then it's on to Bali, where you settle into a beach cottage and round out the year under the tutelage of a wise and venerable medicine man and fall in love with a dashing Brazilian. Voila - the soul is awakened!

While taking a year off to travel around the world may not be practical for the rest of us who seek inspiration, we can learn something from Elizabeth Gilbert's journey.

We learn that stepping out of our day-to-day routines is a way to get perspective on life. We learn that we can experience new places and cultures and use them as mirrors on our own culture. We learn that meeting new people and developing friendships is a way to deepen our compassion. We learn that caring for our minds is as important as caring for our bodies. We learn that life is supposed to be filled with joy.

If you can't spend a year doing what Elizabeth did, then maybe you can spend five days or a week or ten days on a Road Scholar program. Since 1975, more than 4 million people have experienced learning, adventure and friendship with us. We are not-for-profit organization with a mission to create opportunities for adults to step out of their daily lives and learn something new about the world ... and about themselves.

Elizabeth Gilbert had a guru and a wise man to teach her. On our programs, we have world-class instructors. Whether an Oxford professor or the Oscar-winning screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher (who wrote the screenplay for the film "Precious" and spoke at a recent Road Scholar event on Martha's Vineyard), our instructors offer special insight into whatever you're passionate to learn more about.

While "Eat, Pray, Love" may be an indulgent fantasy, a Road Scholar adventure is well within reach. We offer many five-day programs for under $600. Visit our website, and find inspiration in the nearly 8,000 programs we offer. I guarantee you'll find a way to awaken your soul.