I came across Lissa Rankin’s TEDx Women Talk video the other day. In it she references Brene Brown’s TED Talk video from 2010 and I wanted to connect these two video’s for you.

I have attempted to transcript a short excerpt from the end of Lissa Rankin’s talk for those who may have difficulty downloading the video. Hopefully, reading the transcript will be a motivator to find a way to view it in its entirety or to get a hold of her book. You can link to her website here and read her bio here.

…What’s the real reason I’m sick and suffering?…What’s out of balance? What’s the real diagnosis?

If taking care of your body isn’t the most important part of being healthy, what is?

It’s caring for the mind, caring for the heart, caring for the soul. Tapping into what I call your Inner Pilot Light. Your inner pilot light is that part of you, that essence, that authentic, deep, true part of you, that spiritual divine spark that always knows what’s right for you. You’re born with it, it goes with you when you die. It always knows the truth about you and your body.  It comes to you in whispers…It’s your intuition. It’s that beautiful part of you that is your biggest fan. The part that writes you love letters.

And that is the biggest healer you can tap into. Better than any medicine or any doctor.

…If any of you were lucky enough to see Brene Brown’s awesome TED Talk about the power of vulnerability…it talks about the science behind being true, being vulnerable, being transparent – It generates love and intimacy which increases oxytocin and endorphins and reduces harmful stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline.

When we let our true self be seen, when we let our inner pilot light radiate, we heal from the inside out and its more powerful than anything medicine can give you from the outside.

So I challenge you to write the prescription for yourself. No doctor can do this for you. We can give you drugs, we can give you surgery and sometimes you need that – that’s the jump start – that’s the jump start of the self healing process, but to heal to the core, so that you don’t develop new symptoms, so that you don’t need another surgery, you’ve got to write your own prescription. So I ask you: What is it that you need? What does your body need to get healthy? What is it that you need to change? What needs to be tweaked in your life?

If you knew that stripping off all of your masks and letting us see that beautiful light within you was the solution to your health problems would you be willing to do it? I dare you. It just might make your body ripe for miracles.

– Lissa Rankin, M.D., OB/GYN

Lissa Rankin

Brene Brown

“Let me tell you very quickly about children. They are hardwired for struggle when they get here. When you hold those perfect little babies in your hand, our job is not to say: Look at them, look at her she’s perfect, my job is to keep her perfect – make sure she makes the tennis team by fifth grade and Yale by seventh grade. That’s not our job.

[As parents] our job is to look [at our children] and say…you are imperfect and you are wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging. That’s our job. Show me a generation of kids raised like that and we’ll end the problems that I think we see today.” – Brene Brown