I hope February is treating you well so far. This month I’m thinking about all the ways it feels good to take up space in the world:
To accept our size
Our bodies
Where we come from
What makes us happy
How we choose to live
To honor what we have lost
What we need
What we dream of
To stand up for what we care about
To share our stories
Space-taking in all its forms is an act of empathy for ourselves and an acknowledgement that we all deserve to be here, as we are. We don’t have to shrink ourselves for the world.
To that end, I’ve got two new limited series podcasts rolling out this spring. The first, Let’s Talk Memoir, will launch on Tuesday, March 15th! Let’s Talk Memoir features interviews with memoirists about their writing process, their challenges, what they’ve learned about sharing the most personal of narratives, and their advice for writers contemplating memoir. I’m so excited to bring you these conversations which I hope will reaffirm for you the power of story. More info and links in my next post.
My second project is The Body Myth which features conversations with women about their relationship to their bodies, when they first began judging themselves, how self-surveillance has impacted their lives, and what they’ve come to understand about their bodies and the world. These interviews have opened my eyes even more to how universal body judgment seems to be among Western women and how much time we spend denigrating ourselves. I hope sharing these perspectives will help grow our compassion for one another and ourselves.
If you’d like to take The Body Myth body image survey and add your voice here’s a link: https://linktr.ee/ronitplank
My Latest
My new piece on the dark side of ashrams and the emotional and physical abandonment of children was just published in INSIDER. You can read it here: https://www.insider.com/womans-mother-left-her-to-go-live-in-an-ashram-2022-2
Thank you to Sage Lally of Be Marketplace for interviewing me in this month’s newsletter. I appreciate Sage’s thoughtful questions which made me think in new ways about my mom leaving for a cult and the decision to write my memoir When She Comes Back.
My memoir is also available for purchase at Be Marketplace: https://bewomn.com
Here’s a link to our full interview: https://mailchi.mp/ba661501e961/cults?e=131577a368
I can’t wait to share these new podcasts with you next month when they are live. And, if you have a body image anecdote you’d like me to read aloud on The Body Myth, please email me at ronit@ronitplank.com and indicate whether or not you would like me to use your name.
Thank you so much for being here!
xo,
Ronit