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The Healing: One Woman's Journey from Poverty to Inner Riches
by
In this memoir of upward mobility through an unexpected route, a young black American woman signs up for lessons in yoga and clean eating as signifiers of her new middle class status, little realizing that her new lifestyle will bring her face to face with the inner demons fed by the domestic violence, addiction, and poverty she witnessed as a child.
Graduating, getting est ...more
Graduating, getting est ...more
Paperback, 296 pages
Published
July 17th 2018
by Parallax Press
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The Healing: One Woman’s Journey from Poverty to Inner Riches, author Saeeda Hafiz shares her life story of her discovery of the healing elements of yoga and following whole foods macrobiotic diet. Throughout her career which has lasted over two decades, Hafiz has studied yoga at ashrams located in Istanbul, Budapest, and Cyprus to the Sahadri Mountain in Kerala, India. Though these exotic locations abroad sound exciting, and they are—Hafiz has also had to work through her own challenges resulti
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Wow! This book is POWERFUL! GREAT GIFT for EVERYONE on your LIST!
The Author does a beautiful job of taking the reader along with her on her journey from Poverty to Inner Riches. I felt like I was with her every step of the journey.
I have suffered from and had to learn how to manage the symptoms of a digestive disorder for the past 20+ years. I constantly remind myself that what goes into my body should be looked at as medicine to remain healthy. A question I constantly ask before putting food in ...more
The Author does a beautiful job of taking the reader along with her on her journey from Poverty to Inner Riches. I felt like I was with her every step of the journey.
I have suffered from and had to learn how to manage the symptoms of a digestive disorder for the past 20+ years. I constantly remind myself that what goes into my body should be looked at as medicine to remain healthy. A question I constantly ask before putting food in ...more

Note: I got the book for free, a gift from the author, as a participant in an online book club I’m part of.
A powerful story of a woman that overcame an abusive upbringing and found herself through yoga and a holistic approach. The Healing is an appropriate name since that is what she did with her life, healed her childhood wounds. The book starts at the moment where change started, even though she didn’t realize it then. Her story is a testament that we should live our life at our own pace, sta ...more
A powerful story of a woman that overcame an abusive upbringing and found herself through yoga and a holistic approach. The Healing is an appropriate name since that is what she did with her life, healed her childhood wounds. The book starts at the moment where change started, even though she didn’t realize it then. Her story is a testament that we should live our life at our own pace, sta ...more

Saeeda Hafiz takes us on a journey of mind, body, and soul as she brings to light the truth of a dark childhood, one rattled with domestic violence, absence, and addiction, and the relationships that grew out of it. Determined to push herself above the backdrop of her youth, she soon finds herself established among the middle class in the corporate world of banking only to realize that she still feels out of place. Interspersed with emotional flashbacks to what she fears is “the typical black Am
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(Please note: The author gifted me with an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review.)
“Brave”. That’s the word that kept coming to me as I read Saeeda Hafiz’s wonderful memoir of transformation. Ms. Hafiz takes you along on her journey to faraway places and into the deepest parts of her soul as she seeks physical, emotional, and spiritual healing and growth. There is so much hard-won wisdom in this story. She touches upon making peace with family dynamics, the agony of codependency ...more
“Brave”. That’s the word that kept coming to me as I read Saeeda Hafiz’s wonderful memoir of transformation. Ms. Hafiz takes you along on her journey to faraway places and into the deepest parts of her soul as she seeks physical, emotional, and spiritual healing and growth. There is so much hard-won wisdom in this story. She touches upon making peace with family dynamics, the agony of codependency ...more

Hafiz’s memoir is refreshing and powerful. I loved the author’s openness in discussing how she lived with and through violence in her family. She shares vulnerabilities and the second-guessing that can beset first-generation college students. Hafiz writes honestly about fears around repeating the mistakes of one’s family, and struggles to fit in as one gains class mobility. The Healing is an inspiring story of empowerment that is not often told.

I really enjoyed this book. It was slow, thoughtful, and deliberate. Some might find the pace slow or the details mundane, but to me it helped the story sink in and really resonate. I discovered the transformative power of eating well and radical self care just about two years ago. It is a journey that ebbs and flows. It was heartening to read of someone else who has been on that journey much longer than myself and how it continues to nourish her though life’s ups and downs.
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About Saeeda Hafiz
Since January 1990, Saeeda has been experiencing the power of her yoga practice and the benefits of eating a whole foods diet. Her initial encounter with this holistic lifestyle led to a personal transformation that ultimately led her to become a certified yoga instructor and holistic nutrition educator for the last 20 years.
Saeeda currently holds a position at San Francisco Unif ...more
Since January 1990, Saeeda has been experiencing the power of her yoga practice and the benefits of eating a whole foods diet. Her initial encounter with this holistic lifestyle led to a personal transformation that ultimately led her to become a certified yoga instructor and holistic nutrition educator for the last 20 years.
Saeeda currently holds a position at San Francisco Unif ...more
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