An inspirational memoir about how Jennifer Pastiloff’s years of waitressing taught her to seek out unexpected beauty, how hearing loss 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 popular workshops, On Being Human is the story of how a … 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.
more
On 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.
Jen Pastiloff is the anti-guru. Rarely will you meet anyone more humble, compassionate and ready to learn. She’s the kind of leader we need.
With harrowing vulnerability and badass candor, Jen Pastiloff has written a gritty and passionate memoir.
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.
I honestly thought it was too over the top for me! I had a hard time following her thinking process. Just couldn’t relate to her exaggerations.
Enjoyed her honesty, sincerity and creative way of expressing realistic and painful experiences that to many readers may sound familiar. Gaining a positive road in reaching maturity requires guidance from a parent, a teacher a strong relative or good
friend. This author was left dangling after one parent died and the other was a free spirit unable to guide her daughter. Fortunately, she was introduced to someone who was willing to wait for her. Thanks, Mom.
No new information. Skimmed sections that were common sense. The subject matter has been over done. I did not care for Pastiloff’s writing style I did not connect with her message.
I had a hard time getting through it.
The author tells her own story. Her insights into the life lessons she has experienced are inspirational. She lived a rather messy and devastating life due to choices she made. In the end she was successful so all is well that ends well I guess. Her poor choices and lifestyle frustrated me.
This book is an embrace, the kind of embrace that resonates from human to human. Jen has written a moving and inspiring memoir that left me feeling seen and heard and open. She is a writer with a rare gift of inspiring people be better humans. I loved this book. I am sure I will read it again. It exceeded my expectations!
Jennifer Pastiloff takes us on a journey of healing ,self-discovery and exploration She quotes Paul Auster on memory from his book The invention of Soltitude In the space of memory everything is both itself and something else The author shares with us the importance of being heard She writes We all need an audience Whether it is one person or one million We must feel heard to thrive Her story is an inspiration to us all on how well We develop the tools in life to flourish rather than to merely survive
This book is a celebration of the messiness of being human—truly inspiring while remaining on the ground.
This book is a beacon of hope from someone who’s been VERY far away from that beacon but managed to find her way back.
Jen Pastiloff is a rejuvenating supernova! A life force of primal extravagant delight! Frank and funny, she’ll boss herself around and change the rest of us in the meantime. I’d want to listen to anything she has to say.
Forget everything you know about memoir. Of course this is about the comet that is Jen Pastiloff and how she grew up struggling with deafness, depression, and a wrecked body image to go on and crack open the world’s heart with yoga/writing retreats, a website named The Manifest-Station, and pure love—but honestly, it’s really the memoir of all of us, every single one of us who ever felt I’m not enough, I’m not loved, I’m falling apart, I don’t’ belong here. I was reading this moving memoir while crying, scribbling down sentences and holding onto them like life lines. I’ve got you, Jen says, but the true message of this radiant memoir is nothing short that revolutionary love: we’ve got each other.
This is a memoir at once strong and vulnerable, an absorbing account of Jennifer Pastiloff’s inner life, filled with humor and inspiration and sincerity.
Jen Pastiloff is the authentic voice women need right now. By challenging us to embrace our imperfections she teaches that ‘wellness’ is the process of letting go of ideas that don’t serve us– as well as a radical act of joy. The On Being Human workshop is a radical reset for anyone struggling to become herself.
I devoured On Being Human in one sitting—nodding, laughing and connecting from the first word to the last. 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?
Especially in these dark times for women, there is actually nothing ‘simple’ about Pastiloff’s radical alchemy. Read this book and feel yourself expand.
This darkly funny, deeply personal and powerful memoir will speak to anyone who has ever felt outcast: from their bodies, their minds, the world. A must read for human beings.