“With harrowing vulnerability and badass candor, Jen Pastiloff has written a gritty and passionate memoir.”

—Elizabeth Gilbert, New York Times bestselling author of Eat Pray Love and Big Magic

Jennifer Pastiloff travels the world with her workshop “On Being Human,” a unique hybrid of yoga related movement, writing, sharing out loud, letting the snot fly, and the occasional dance party. Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild, calls Pastiloff “a conduit of awakenings.” She has been featured on Good Morning America, New York Magazine, Health Magazine, CBS News and more for her distinct style of teaching, which she has taught to thousands of women in sold-out workshops all over the world.

“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.”

— Naomi Shihab Nye, Pushcart Prize-winning poet

Pastiloff’s inspirational memoir, On Being Human: A Memoir of Waking Up, Living Real and Listening Hard, recounts how 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 on the touchstone stories told 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. Pastiloff 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, Pastiloff conveys the experience most of us are missing in our lives: being heard and being told, “I got you.”

“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, New York Times bestselling author of Love Warrior

Pastiloff has created a massive online following from her personal essays and teachings. She is also the founder of the online magazine The Manifest-Station and creator of the Shame Loss Movement. Pastiloff leads annual retreats to Italy and France and is a regular guest speaker at Canyon Ranch and Miraval Resorts. She also leads Writing and The Body workshops with author Lidia Yuknavitch, offering scholarships through The Aleksander Fund to women who have lost a child. More recently Pastiloff led philanthropic efforts through her virtual food drive OnBeingHuman2020, which raised funds to support families who were hit the hardest financially by the COVID-19 pandemic. She is currently working on her forthcoming book, May You Remember.

She is based in Los Angeles. She is also the creator of @nobullshitmotherhood and @gPowerYouAreEnough on Instagram, and the host of the podcast What Are You Bringing?

Her motto to live by is “don’t be an asshole”. She evens owns the URL.

For more information on Jennifer Pastiloff, please visit her on Instagram, Twitter and at jenniferpastiloff.com.