Proof of Life

Let Go, Let Love, and Stop Looking for Permission to Live Your Life

An urgent rallying cry to stop holding back and start living life on your terms.

Having finally achieved professional and financial success, Jen Pastiloff should have been content. She repeatedly told herself that her life was fine and that fine was enough. Mostly though, what she told herself was Who am I to think that I get to leave fine? Until one day, the muted voice saying that something was missing started screaming. She realized she’d been listening too long to the voice of Should. Enough was enough.

This book is Pastiloff’s account of how she radically changed her own life—leaving her marriage, taking risks professionally, and stepping out of her safe bubble when safety was all she’d ever wanted, after losing her beloved father when she was eight—while imparting her courage and wisdom to inspire readers to do the same. She shows us it is never too late to change the stories we think define us. The ones that deprive us of accepting greater love, fulfillment, and joy. Stories like: I don’t deserve this, I’m a bad daughter, No one will ever love me, I’m too old to change, to name a few.

Through this book, you learn how to quiet your Inner Asshole, participate in the cathartic process of Shame Loss, recognize your I Got You People, ignore the Imaginary Time Gods, use creativity as a portal into healing, and become your own Permission Slip. Complete with takeaways in Jen’s signature writing style, writing prompts, and poetry, Proof of Life is funny, inspiring, and full of love. It’s about showing up for yourself and for those around you, and remembering that change might hurt but it won’t kill you, and that you don’t have to provide any proof to show that you are worthy or deserving because: You are your own proof of life.
Praise for Proof of Life

“Jennifer Pastiloff’s writing never fails to amaze me, with its depth of honesty and wisdom, and that great sense of humor. I’m a huge fan.”
—Anne Lamott

“This book is medicine and magic. I read Proof of Life at a heartbreaking time, and it left me better than it found me. Jennifer Pastiloff has a gift for saying exactly what we need to hear in exactly the way we need to hear it. Proof of Life is compassionate, deeply funny, and full of wisdom.”
—Maggie Smith, New York Times bestselling author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful
© Joe Longo
Jennifer Pastiloff trots the globe as a public speaker and to host her retreats to Italy, as well as her one-of-a-kind workshops, which she has taught to thousands of people all over the world. The author of the popular Substack, also called Proof of Life, she teaches writing and creativity classes called Allow, and workshops called Shame Loss, when she isn’t painting and selling her art. She has been featured on Good Morning America, and Katie Couric, and in New York magazine, PeopleShapeHealth magazine, and other media outlets for her authenticity and unique voice. She is deaf, reads lips, and mishears almost everything, but what she hears is usually funnier (at least she thinks so). The author of the national bestseller On Being Human, Pastiloff lives in Southern California with her son, Charlie Mel. View titles by Jennifer Pastiloff

About

An urgent rallying cry to stop holding back and start living life on your terms.

Having finally achieved professional and financial success, Jen Pastiloff should have been content. She repeatedly told herself that her life was fine and that fine was enough. Mostly though, what she told herself was Who am I to think that I get to leave fine? Until one day, the muted voice saying that something was missing started screaming. She realized she’d been listening too long to the voice of Should. Enough was enough.

This book is Pastiloff’s account of how she radically changed her own life—leaving her marriage, taking risks professionally, and stepping out of her safe bubble when safety was all she’d ever wanted, after losing her beloved father when she was eight—while imparting her courage and wisdom to inspire readers to do the same. She shows us it is never too late to change the stories we think define us. The ones that deprive us of accepting greater love, fulfillment, and joy. Stories like: I don’t deserve this, I’m a bad daughter, No one will ever love me, I’m too old to change, to name a few.

Through this book, you learn how to quiet your Inner Asshole, participate in the cathartic process of Shame Loss, recognize your I Got You People, ignore the Imaginary Time Gods, use creativity as a portal into healing, and become your own Permission Slip. Complete with takeaways in Jen’s signature writing style, writing prompts, and poetry, Proof of Life is funny, inspiring, and full of love. It’s about showing up for yourself and for those around you, and remembering that change might hurt but it won’t kill you, and that you don’t have to provide any proof to show that you are worthy or deserving because: You are your own proof of life.

Reviews

Praise for Proof of Life

“Jennifer Pastiloff’s writing never fails to amaze me, with its depth of honesty and wisdom, and that great sense of humor. I’m a huge fan.”
—Anne Lamott

“This book is medicine and magic. I read Proof of Life at a heartbreaking time, and it left me better than it found me. Jennifer Pastiloff has a gift for saying exactly what we need to hear in exactly the way we need to hear it. Proof of Life is compassionate, deeply funny, and full of wisdom.”
—Maggie Smith, New York Times bestselling author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful

Author

© Joe Longo
Jennifer Pastiloff trots the globe as a public speaker and to host her retreats to Italy, as well as her one-of-a-kind workshops, which she has taught to thousands of people all over the world. The author of the popular Substack, also called Proof of Life, she teaches writing and creativity classes called Allow, and workshops called Shame Loss, when she isn’t painting and selling her art. She has been featured on Good Morning America, and Katie Couric, and in New York magazine, PeopleShapeHealth magazine, and other media outlets for her authenticity and unique voice. She is deaf, reads lips, and mishears almost everything, but what she hears is usually funnier (at least she thinks so). The author of the national bestseller On Being Human, Pastiloff lives in Southern California with her son, Charlie Mel. View titles by Jennifer Pastiloff