Lissa Rankin's Blog, page 35

Body After Baby? Bullshit!

When I paid $19.95 to sign up for Match.com where I met my now-husband, I got a free subscription to People magazine. And although I canceled my Match.com subscription a month later, I've been renewing People for nine years now -- which is my guilty secret (okay, not so secret) vice.

I read my People magazine cover to cover, and then I read The Economist so I don't feel like a total dimwit. I don't have a television, so People is my lifeline to pop culture, and for the most part, it brings me great joy to know who Taylor Swift is writing about in her precious bubble gum pop (which I immediately download to my iPod, along with Miley Cyrus and the Glee soundtracks. Don't laugh).

But every time I see a "Body After Baby" article showing off how some celebrity is prancing around in a bikini six weeks postpartum, I want to puke.

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A Group Hug For Those In Transition

Hello, my love.


If you've been following my blog lately, you've probably felt the seismic shifts that are rumbling around in my life in the aftermath of coming home from my book tour, closing my medical practice, and figuring out what I want to be when I grow up. Understandably, some of my personal rumblings have reverberated through the Owning Pink community, and those of you who are really sensitive to energy shifts have even written to me to comment on the bumpy feeling you might have noticed at Owning Pink.

The World Is In Transition

I know I'm not alone in my transition. I'm just one teensy little microcosm in a big, big world. Tsunamis are uprooting whole countries. Civil unrest in the Middle East is quaking throughout the world. The economic crisis in the US continues to pummel us as unemployment skyrockets, 13% of the houses in the US are empty, and we start to wonder when we'll see the light.

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11 Natural Treatments For Depression: An MD's Tips For Skipping The Prozac

As an MD, I've watched too many of my colleagues yank out anti-depressant samples every time a patient starts to cry. So on behalf of physicians everywhere, let me apologize for our trigger-happy prescription-writing behavior. I don't mean to diminish the pain someone who is depressed might experience. But tears are healthy. Sadness doesn't always need treatment. And it's important to remember that the pain muscle and the joy muscle are the same. If you can't feel one, you won't feel the other.

That said, clinical depression sucks, and if you're someone who suffers from it, my heart goes out to you. I'm in no way intending to diss anti-depressants or suggest you ignore your doctor's advice. I know anti-depressants can be life-saving for people. But unless you're suicidal or otherwise in dire need of urgent medication, before you dose up on side-effect laden pharmaceuticals, it's worth considering some natural treatments that might help lift your mood.

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How I'm Making Peace With My White Coat (Or How I Found The Baby In The Bathwater)

If you know anything about me, you know how much I resist being put in a box. Especially the Doctor Box. Or even more narrowly, the Vagina Box. As much as I want to be recognized for all the Renaissance gifts I'm blessed to have, the fact that I'm an MD is what draws the majority of the attention I get. It's why Cosmopolitan magazine asked me for a quote last week. It's why Huffington Post named me among their Twitter Powerhouses. It's why a New York editor approached me with the idea to write my book What's Up Down There. It's why TV and radio producers call.

And yet, I'm not practicing traditional medicine anymore after closing my practice in December. I left medicine for many reasons, but the biggest is because I'm so sick and tired of the way medicine is being practiced that I don't want to be affiliated with it anymore. I'm pissed at doctors, and I'm even more pissed at managed care insurance companies, malpractice lawyers, and the pharmaceutical industry. I experienced such trauma at the hands of all of the above that I just want out. My Inner Pilot Light has had it with our broken health care system.

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15 Crazy Things About Vaginas

A few weeks ago, I finally finished my 20 city book tour to promote What's Up Down There? Questions You'd Only Ask Your Gynecologist If She Was Your Best Friend (Woo-hoo! Trumpets blare! Cymbals crash! Phew). But i realized that I never posted a juicy blog that I wrote in the fall at the beginning of the tour... and gals, is it a good one. Did you hear the story of how CBSNews.com asked me to write this post -- "15 Crazy Things About Vaginas" -- for their website on the launch day of my book? They had posted "15 Crazy Things About Sperm" and it was wildly popular. So they figured they'd play nice in the sandbox and give us girls our time in the limelight.

And then, after it had been up on their website for about an hour, some suit in corporate made them pull it.

"Too saucy."

You can read the whole crazy-making story here.

Anyway, I never did get around to posting what I wrote for them. So here you go.

15 things I bet you never knew about vajayjays.

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5 Steps To Overcoming Underearning: Part 5 In the Overcoming Underearning Series

Now that you've discovered that you're an underearner, figured out if you're a doer or a dawdler, learned the single most important piece of financial advice ever, and identified the 12 signs that you're resisting making money, it's time to dig into the real nitty gritty of Barbara Stanny's fabulous book Overcoming Underearning.

This last post in the Overcoming Underearning series lays out the 5 Step Plan To A Richer life that Barbara teaches in her books and workshops. So what are the steps?

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Apple Supports "Curing" Gay People? Say What?

If you, your lover, or your child turns out to be gay, no worries. You don't have to freak out, divorce your husband, disown your child, or tell Aunt Gertrude. You need only download an app to your iPhone in order to solve this dreadful "problem."

What???

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Find The Baby In The Bathwater

Huffington Post just named me among their Twitter Powerhouses in an article titled, "16 Health Experts To Check Out On Twitter". When I realized I was in the fabulous company of people like Dr. Oz and Women's Health magazine editor Dave Zinczenko, I was deeply honored and humbled, as I was when Forbes listed me among the 20 Inspiring Women To Follow On Twitter.

After fanning my peacock feathers for my dog Grendel (who was the only one watching on a Sunday morning), I felt this strange sinking feeling, when I realized that I was -- yet again -- being recognized for my doctor-ness. I was getting put into the health box, when I wanted someone to recognize me for my spiritual leadership, my artistic endeavors,  or my life coaching skills.

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The Narrow Place: Expanding Through Transitions

When you're in transition, you may feel very, very uncomfortable. Whether you've lost or left a job, become a new mother, buried a loved one, divorced a spouse, found yourself with an empty nest, or been diagnosed with an illness, you're likely to find yourself feeling constricted, at least at first.

You gut feels tight. Your heart hurts. You curl into a ball. You shrink. It's like a mini-death.

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Do Well By Doing Good: Part 1 in the "Become a Heartpreneur" Series

I made a New Year's Resolution this year -- that Owning Pink would bring abundance into my life and, as a business owner, I would begin to model for many of you in the Owning Pink community how to do well by doing good in the world.

If you're anything like me -- especially if your business is based on wellness, empowerment, and serving/changing the world -- you probably struggle with this concept. How can you make money when what you're offering people is like blood, like oxygen? What if people can't afford what you have to offer the world? Is it ethical to charge money for something people need, especially when you're gifted serving those needs? How can you withhold your gifts when your gifts transform lives? Can you be a spiritual being and still make money? Can you change the world and still live an abundant life?

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