Yoga for the Wounded Heart: A Journey, Philosophy, and Practice of Healing Emotional Pain

by Tatiana Forero Puerta

Orphaned in her early teens and shuttled between abusive foster homes, Tatiana Forero Puerta found herself in her early twenties in New York City, haunted by the memories of her tumultuous youth and suicidal. Following emergency hospitalization, she was advised by her doctor to take up yoga. Over days, weeks, months, and then years, she embraced yoga’s honesty and discipline―delving more deeply into its wisdom, literature, and, vitally, its practice. In so doing, yoga healed her scars, opened her soul to forgiveness, and allowed her to reconcile herself with a past that had threatened to snuff out her life. Yoga for the Wounded Heart is an unsparingly honest memoir of a childhood lost and of courage and resilience gained. It’s also an exploration of the fundamentals of as a technology that focuses our awareness; as a practical application of mindfulness and attention to what is really going on in our lives and bodies; and as a vehicle for the body to guide the mind and heart toward healing.

Genres: Self Help, Memoir

224 pages, Paperback

Published April 15, 2018

Reviews

[Martin Rowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am the publisher of this book, and I thought I'd say a few words about it. Writing interesting books about yoga—without resorting to recondiate analyses of sutras or dumbing it down to be about looking good and wearing the write gear—is hard. Writing a memoir that doesn't come across as self-indulgent, melodramatic, or merely an extended "selfie" is also hard. Combining them successfully is the hardest of all. Tatiana did an astonishing job in taking you through her very traumatic life (orphaned, abused, suicidal) and showing how yoga not only, literally, saved her life, but how its practice—at the deepest level—offers a means to address trauma, addiction, and pathologies of various kinds, and help us all find meaning. Some readers may be put off by the yoga, some by the autobiography: but I think both help the reader see how yoga has meaning for our lives off the mat as well as on it, and how yoga, at its heart, is so much more than postures or endorphins. I'm proud to have published this work.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished the narrative portion of this book many months ago. It was heart breaking and powerful. It took me a while to complete all of the exercises in the book, but during these last couple of weeks I made it a point to do so.

I am lucky to know Tatiana, though we have never met in person. This book is everything I know her to be - deeply sensitive, loving, smart, and full of warmth and healing.

Not only does her story show that intense trauma can be healed, she provides ways to start that process.

This is a beautiful and important book for anyone on a healing journey.
❤️