Description
Book SynopsisCentered around the touchstone stories Jen tells in her popular workshops, On Being Human is the story of how a starved person grew into the exuberant woman she was meant to be all along by battling the demons within and winning.
Jen did not intend to become a yoga teacher, but when she was given the opportunity to host her own retreats, she left her thirteen-year waitressing job and said "yes," despite crippling fears of her inexperience and her own potential. After years of feeling depressed, anxious, and hopeless, in a life that seemed to have no escape, she healed her own heart by caring for others. She has learned to fiercely listen despite being nearly deaf, to banish shame attached to a body mass index, and to rebuild a family after the debilitating loss of her father when she was eight. Through her journey, Jen conveys the experience most of us are missing in our lives: being heard and being told, "I got you."
Exuberant, triumphantly messy, and brave, On Being Human is a celebration of happiness and self-realization over darkness and doubt. Her complicated yet imperfectly perfect life path is an inspiration to live outside the box and to reject the all-too-common belief of "I am not enough." Jen will help readers find, accept, and embrace their own vulnerability, bravery, and humanness.
Trade ReviewOn Being Human is beautiful and tender, profound and absorbing. I never wanted to put it down. In writing with such clarity and honesty about her jagged path to becoming, Jennifer Pastiloff has told the story of not only herself, but so many of us. I was consoled by this book and also inspired. On every page I felt the presence and the power of Pastiloff's brave and gigantic heart. This is a book friends will tell friends they have to read for years to come. It's an important, enthralling debut. -- Cheryl Strayed
Jen Pastiloff is the only human ray of sunshine who could ever make me earnestly consider incorporating unpalatable things like 'manifesting joy' and 'listening' (UGH) into my life. This book is a treasure. -- Samantha Irby, author of We Are Never Meeting in Real Life and Meaty
Read this f*cking book. Jen is very much part of the light and the balance that is needed in this world right now. I don't even know her but I love her. Read this book -- P!nk
With harrowing vulnerability and badass candor, Jen Pastiloff has written a gritty and passionate memoir -- Elizabeth Gilbert
