On Being Human

April 22, 2019
In this candid memoir, Manifest-Station blogger Pastiloff transforms from a troubled restaurant server at a celebrity haunt in Santa Monica, Calif., into a yoga teacher and maven for self-discovery. At eight, the author lost
her father to drug use-related heart failure; shortly after, Pastiloff began losing her hearing but managed to hide it from everyone, even from herself (“unknowing became a theme” for her), by relying on lip-reading. In high school she became anorexic, which plagued her as a student at New York University, where she often lost “consciousness at nights on my dirty kitchen floor.” After dropping out of college, she moved to L.A. There, she worked serving veggie burgers to Hollywood stars and eventually found an exit ramp from her pain via yoga. Pastiloff learned to quiet her “Inner Asshole”—her term for the internal monologue of self-doubt that keeps people stuck in “bullshit stories” about themselves—and realized her burgeoning dream of helping others do the same, all the while overcoming depression, finding love, and becoming a mother. With can-do enthusiasm, Pastiloff tells of creating her On Being Human workshop retreats throughout the world, and shares her successes, including the thrill of doing “Karaoke Yoga” on Good Morning America. Readers feeling stuck in their lives will devour this inspiring story of a woman finding her way.

May 1, 2019
An inspirational speaker and yoga instructor shares her life story along with motivational tips and exercises from her popular workshops. Over the past several years, Pastiloff has built an abundant international following for her On Being Human workshops, inspiring retreat gatherings in which she offers a fusion of yoga movement, motivational writing, and communal sharing. In her debut memoir, she digs into the significant life events that led her to this unusual entrepreneurial opportunity. She reflects on childhood and family dynamics, personal losses, past boyfriends, her struggles with depression and increasing hearing loss, and day-to-day encounters while waitressing at a restaurant in Los Angeles. Though her career steps may seem unremarkable on the surface, the author stresses her evolving talent for remaining receptive and present throughout these experiences, enabling her to recognize beautiful moments as they occur. "It was there at the restaurant that I first began to pay attention to the beauty, because if I hadn't, I would surely have killed myself," she writes. "The landscape of self-loathing I traversed was so treacherous that the only thing that could have possibly saved me were those moments of beauty I hunted--accidentally at first, and then deliberately, and in earnest." In recounting her stories and her various emotional states, Pastiloff's prose is occasionally overwrought. Though her followers will surely relate to most of the author's stories, newcomers may find her style heavy-handed. Eventually, after training to become a yoga instructor, Pastiloff began to find her calling, and elements of her platform emerged. At this midway point in the text, the narrative gains more energy and substance. Though still reliant on feel-good aphorisms--chapter headings include "Embracing Change" and "Make Room for the Possible and the Impossible"--the author ultimately clearly conveys her authentic intentions. By the end, many readers will admire her tenacity and open-hearted mission. For self-help fans and seekers of self-empowerment, this is an inspiring memoir with tips for overcoming and maybe prospering from the chaotic or disappointing elements that comprise an imperfect life.

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May 1, 2019
Pastiloff gets asked, all the time, how she went from 14 years of waiting tables to leading yoga and writing retreats all over the world. Her first book answers the question fully by starting at the beginning of her life story. Pastiloff lost her dad suddenly when she was eight and dealt with hearing loss she didn't understand from an even younger age. It would take years to truly address both losses as well as the eating disorder that caught her in a vice-grip. So doing, Pastiloff learned a lot about caring for herself and others, giving and accepting help of all kinds. This is an openhearted, therapeutic journey that's perhaps a little like one of Pastiloff's workshops in book form. Readers will pick up catchphrase-y concepts like acknowledging when one's Inner Asshole is talking, recognizing when they've told themselves a bullshit story that they're not capable of achieving what they desire, and beauty hunting by wholeheartedly listening to all that the world and everyone in it has to offer.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)