Namaste The Hard Way: A Daughter's Journey to Find Her Mother on the Yoga Mat By Sasha Brown-Worsham
"A moving, profound story about the love between mothers and daughter and what they share, even after death. You definitely don't have to have even stepped foot in a yoga studio to appreciate this story. It's the kind of book that stays with you long after you finish and make you want to hold the people you love even closer.” − Mandy Stadtmiller, Author of Unwifeable
"My mother used to chant in Sanskrit in her study before sunrise every morning. Though she died when I was 16—22 years ago—I always hear her voice that way. Off-key, but strangely hypnotic, the language both complicated and pure, reverberating around our house.”
– from Namaste the Hard Way
Deerfield Beach, FL, September 24, 2018 — While other moms were at Bible study, Sasha Brown-Worsham's mom was studying Sanskrit; while others were finding friendship at Tupperware parties, her mom was finding enlightenment at the ashram. It wasn't until she was gone that Brown-Worsham began to appreciate her mother's bravery and the profound role that yoga would play in her adult life. In Namaste the Hard Way: A Daughter's Journey to Find Her Mother on the Yoga Mat, Brown-Worsham deftly captures the universal experience of the mother-daughter bond, teenage angst, and coming of age while sharing the life skills learned in her journey to becoming a Yogi.
This is not your mother's yoga book. The author writes with the heartfelt humor of a teenage girl going through loss, love, and self-discovery. As a rebellious child with a racing mind, Brown-Worsham takes us through the wisdom she learned from the guidance and loss of her passionate, yoga-practicing mother who was taken too soon by breast cancer.
After her mother's death, Brown-Worsham ran as far away from yoga as she could until a running injury left her needing the very thing she was running from. It was there—on the mat— that she processed her grief and found her mother again. In the space of her yoga mat, she and her mother connect across time.
According to ancient Indian philosophy, Sanskaras are the thought patterns and scars that arise from our personal pain. In Namaste the Hard Way, pain and self-discovery are brilliantly paired with the grounding teachings of yoga. Inhalations help us strengthen and embolden. Exhalations help us surrender and accept. Every posture is a metaphor, every class an opportunity to see with new eyes. The story of adolescence is one that we can all resonate with, and the teachings of yoga offer us guidance, wisdom, and strength.
About the Author:
Sasha Brown-Worsham is a writer, editor and yoga teacher whose work has been featured in The New York Times, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Boston Globe, and countless other publications. She was the lifestyle editor at both Cafe Mom and She Knows Media for many years and was also a staff writer at both publications. Currently, she is a contracted writer for Destination America's blog, The Hauntist. She has written on everything from haunted corn fields to Bernie Sanders to onesies and SUP Yoga.
Namaste the Hard Way: A Daughter's Journey to Find Her Mother on the Yoga Mat
By Sasha Brown-Worsham
HCI Books
ISBN-9780757320606
$15.95
September 2018
Available wherever books are sold or to order directly from the publisher, contact: (800) 441-5569 or www.hcibooks.com
