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Staff Pick
Yoga guru and motivational speaker Jennifer Pastiloff brings her popular "On Being Human" workshop to the page in a powerful, inspirational memoir full of her own personal struggles and triumphs, told with candor, humanity, humor, and straight talk. An achingly authentic, truly empowering book. Recommended By Gigi L., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
An inspirational memoir based on the popular workshop of the same name, about how Jen Pastiloff’s years of waitressing taught her to seek out unexpected beauty, how deafness taught her to listen fiercely, how being vulnerable allowed her to find love, and how imperfections can lead to a life full of wild happiness.
Centered around the touchstone stories Jen tells in her workshops, On Being Human is the story of how a sad, self-starved person grew into the exuberant woman she was meant to all along by battling the darkness within and winning.
Jen never wanted to become a yoga teacher — she was only practicing it to keep from killing herself. But when she was given the opportunity to leave her thirteen-year-long waitressing job and host her own retreats, despite and perhaps because of her inexperience and her crippling fear of her own potential, Jen found the calling she’d been waiting her whole life for.
After years of feeling depressed and anxious and hopeless in a life that seemed to have no escape, she healed her own heart by caring for others. Through her workshops she has learned to fiercely listen despite being nearly deaf, to not pin shame on a body mass index, and to rebuild a family after the crippling loss of her father. She realized that what most of us were missing in our lives was being heard and being told, “me too, me too.”
Exuberant, triumphantly messy, and brave, On Being Human is a celebration and encouragement of happiness and self-realization over darkness and doubt. A book that helps the reader access their own vulnerability, bravery, and humanness.
Review
“I devoured On Being Human in one sitting….Jen Pastiloff is a brave and vulnerable leader whose book will help people take a deep breath, recognize themselves, and understand each other. What more can we ask of a book?” Glennon Doyle, author of #1 New York Times Bestseller Love Warrior and founder of Together Rising
Review
“This is an openhearted, therapeutic journey that’s perhaps a little like one of Pastiloff’s workshops in book form.” Booklist
About the Author
Jennifer Pastiloff travels the world with her unique workshop On Being Human, a hybrid of yoga-related movement, writing, sharing aloud, letting the snot fly, and the occasional dance party. Jennifer is a frequent contributor to SHAPE Magazine, including SHAPE Escape at Miraval Resort and the Women Run the World initiative, and she has been featured on Good Morning America, New York Magazine, Health Magazine, CBS News, and others for her unique style of teaching, which she has taught to thousands of women in sold-out workshops all over the world. Jen is also the guest speaker at Canyon Ranch, and she leads Writing and The Body workshops with author Lidia Yuknavitch, as well as retreats with Emily Rapp Black. Founder of the online magazine The Manifest-Station, when Jen is not traveling she is based in Los Angeles with her husband and son and a cup of coffee.