Rachel Brathen

“Rachel beautifully illustrates that loving fiercely and grieving deeply are often two halves of the same whole. Her story will break you down and lift you up.” —Glennon Doyle, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Love Warrior and founder of Together Rising While on her way to teach a yoga retreat in March 2014, Rachel Brathen collapses at an airport, brought to her knees by excruciating stomach pains. She is rushed to the hospital on the tiny island of Bonaire, and hours later forced to undergo surgery. When she wakes up from anesthesia, her boyfriend is weeping at her bedside. While Rachel was struck down with seemingly mysterious pain, her best friend, Andrea, sustained fatal injuries as a result of a car accident. Rachel and Andrea had a magical friendship. Though they looked nothing alike—one girl tall, blond, and Swedish, the other short, brunette, and Colombian—everyone called them gemelas: twins. Over the three years following Andrea’s death, at what might appear from the outside to be the happiest time—with her engagement to the man she loves and a blossoming career that takes her all over the world—Rachel faces a series of trials that have the potential to define her life. Unresolved grief and trauma from her childhood make the weight of her sadness unbearable. At each turn, she is confronted again and again with a choice: Will she lose it all, succumb to grief, and grasp for control that’s beyond her reach? Or can she move through the loss and let go? When Rachel and her husband conceive a child, pregnancy becomes a time to heal and an opportunity to be reborn herself. As she recounts this transformative period, Rachel shares her hard-won wisdom about life and death, love and fear, what it means to be a mother and a daughter, and how to become someone who walks through the fire of adversity with the never-ending practice of loving hard and letting go.

A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Gratitude

To Love and Let Go

"By the yoga instructor who inspires more than one million followers on Instagram every day. Part self-help and part memoir, Yoga Girl is an inspirational, full-color look at the adventure that took writer and yoga teacher Rachel Brathen from her hometown in Sweden to the jungles of Costa Rica and finally to a paradise island in the Caribbean that she now calls home. With more than one million followers on Instagram, Brathen shares pieces of her life with the world every day. In Yoga Girl, she gives readers an in-depth look at her journey from her self-destructive teenage years to the bohemian and beautiful life she's built through yoga and meditation in Aruba today. Featuring spectacular photos of Brathen practicing yoga in amazing tropical locales, along with step-by-step yoga sequences and simple recipes for a healthy, happy, and fearless lifestyle, reading Yoga Girl is like an armchair vacation to a Caribbean spa"--

Yoga Girl

A New York Times bestseller from the yoga instructor who inspires more than one million followers on Instagram every day. Whether she’s practicing handstands on her stand-up paddleboard or teaching Downward-Facing Dog to the masses, Rachel Brathen—Instagram’s @Yoga_Girl—has made it her mission to share inspirational messages with people from all corners of the world. In Yoga Girl, Brathen takes readers beyond her Instagram feed and shares her journey like never before—from her self-destructive teenage years in her hometown in Sweden to her adventures in the jungles of Costa Rica, and finally to the beautiful and bohemian life she’s built through yoga and meditation in Aruba today. Featuring spectacular photos of Brathen practicing yoga with breathtaking tropical backdrops, along with step-by-step yoga sequences and simple recipes for a healthy, happy, and fearless lifestyle—Yoga Girl is like an armchair vacation to a Caribbean spa.

Yoga Girl Rachel Brathen deelt haar levensverhaal en de verkregen wijsheid over leven en dood, liefde en angst, in dit prachtige, ontroerende en kwetsbare boek. Het pijnlijke, rauwe, eerlijke en inspirerende verhaal van ‘Yoga Girl’ Rachel Brathen. Over liefhebben en loslaten is het persoonlijke verhaal van Rachel Brathen. Ze vertelt over hoe ze opgroeide met een depressieve moeder, haar rebelse puberteit, haar vlucht naar Costa Rica, haar eerste yoga-ervaring en hoe ze vervolgens in een korte periode haar beste vriendin, oma en hond verliest. Door het hele boek heen neemt ze je mee in alle pijn, verdriet en twijfels. Ze doet aan meditatie en yoga, alles om maar grip te krijgen op zichzelf en het verdriet dat ze voelt. Over liefhebben en loslaten gaat over het leven in de grootste en breedste zin van het woord; de constante groei die je doormaakt, en de intense pijnen en het enorme geluk die daarbij komen kijken.

Rachel Brathen

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