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

by Tatiana Forero Puerta

Overview

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 yoga: 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781590565797
Publisher:	Lantern Books NY
Publication date:	04/15/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Tatiana Forero Puerta is originally from Bogotá, Colombia. A graduate of Stanford, New York, and Columbia universities, she has taught philosophy and yoga for a decade, including her post as an adjunc tfaculty member at New York University and the City University of New York. A columnist for New York Spirit, Park Slope Reader, and Elephant Journal, Tatiana is a recipient of the Stanford Garfield Prize in Ethics, the 2017 Pushcart Prize, a 2019 Pushcart Prize Nominee, and a finalist for Blueshi Journal's prize for writers of color. A contributing author of Religion and Psychology Research Progress, her work has also appeared in Able Muse, Flock, Juked, JOY: Journal of Yoga, and elsewhere. Tatiana lives in New York, where she teaches and writes. You can find out more about Tatiana's work at www.YogaForTheWoundedHeart.com.

Table of Contents

Part I The Yoga of Yoga

1 The Breakdown and the Journey Home 3

2 There Must Be Something More: The Key to the Map of Being-ness 7

3 Yoga Isn't Yoga 12

4 Vision and Veils 17

5 The Wound and the Story 23

6 The Turnings of the Mind 31

7 A Place to Call Home 36

8 The Truth behind Our Stories 42

9 The Seer and the Other 52

10 My Personal Hell 64

11 The Shift from self to Self 71

12 Illuminating the Darkness 76

13 The Power of Letting Be: Shifting from Resistance to Allowing 79

14 Allowing the Self: The Curse of the Second Arrow 82

15 Allowing and Relationships: Walking Each Other Home 86

16 Equanimity: Allowing Life to Unfold 92

17 Surrendering and Forgiveness: The Shift from Fear to Love 95

18 Love 104

Part II The Practice of Yoga

19 Grace, a Single Step 113

20 Little Steps into Practice 116

21 The Elements of Practice 123

22 Making Life a Practice 126

23 Take These Five Practices 130

Workbook: The Five Practices

I Practice the Witness 139

II Practice Allowing 162

III Practice the Shadow 178

IV Practice Greater Mind 182

V Practice Surrender 187

Epilogue 191

Acknowledgments 193

Appendix 195

Glossary of Sanskrit Terms 203

Notes 205

About the Author

About the Publisher