As a best-selling author and regular expert on The Oprah Show, Dr. Robin Smith was riding high. She had a full schedule of speaking engagements and also hosted a daily show on the Oprah Radio XM channel. Then, in 2010, Dr. Robin survived a serious car accident that left her unable to work. Money got tight, her home was burglarized and her dear dog passed away. Most tragically, Dr. Robin says, she lost herself.

Now, in her new book Hungry, Dr. Robin is sharing the lessons she learned when she says she was starving emotionally and spiritually. Watch highlights from her "Super Soul Sunday" conversation below and fill your soul today.

Dr. Robin says life left her "emotionally anorexic". Watch as she reflects on that time and explains what it means to be spiritually starving:



Dr. Robin opens up about what she was really hungry for—and why even healers need healing once in a while:



Some of our greatest teachers can emerge in the most unexpected places. Watch as Dr. Robin shares the important lessons she says she learned from Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and Lionel Richie:

Dr. Robin Smith was a bestselling author, regular expert on The Oprah Winfrey Show and an in-demand speaker. On the outside, her life seemed perfect. On the inside, she now reveals in her new book Hungry, she says a devastating series of setbacks left her starving emotionally and spiritually. In this piece from Dr. Robin, she reveals what she was really hungry for after losing so much—including herself.

Read on, then tune in Sunday for Oprah's all-new interview with Dr. Robin. You can watch on OWN or online at 11 a.m. ET/PT.

By Dr. Robin L. Smith

"No one is your friend who demands your silence or denies your right to grow." — Alice Walker

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." — Anaïs Nin

We hear about identity theft and think of our passports, driver's licenses or credit cards being stolen and the huge amount of time it takes to clean up the mess of reclaiming our stolen identity. What is far more costly in every way is when the soul's identity has been stripped and ripped away—some of us know when it happens, but for the most part, the theft is more subtle, unapologetically destructive and damaging to our lives.

These core soul questions can help us know if we've lost this key part of ourselves:
•    When was the last time the real you was seen?
•    When was the last sighting of you? Who saw you and how long ago?
•    When was the last time YOU saw the real you?

Answering these questions, some people realize they've lost a sense of who they are and who they are meant to be. In my book Hungry, I share a story of a rabbi who is questioned by his students about what we will be asked in the afterlife. His response is powerful and says it all: We won't be asked why we weren't Moses, Mother Teresa, our high-achieving sister or anyone else; we will be asked, "Why weren't you YOU."

On the outside, it looked like Dr. Robin Smith had it all. In reality, she says she was spiritually and emotionally starving. Read the excerpt of her new book, Hungry: The Truth About Being Full, to find out what she was really craving. Then, tune in Sunday to watch her full interview with Oprah at 11 a.m. ET/PT on OWN, Oprah.com or Facebook.com/supersoulsunday!

For so much of my life, I was dying to be me and hungry to be free. Even though I looked alive and vital, the hourglass measuring the aliveness of my soul was swiftly draining to the bottom. I was losing my battle to be myself. I was in my prime. My career was taking off; I was surrounded by loving friends and family. Yet it felt like time was running out. I had always thought that by the time I was in my forties, life would be good—maybe even great. I assumed that most of the kinks would have been ironed out to some degree.

But from where I stood, I wasn’t forty-something and fabulous. On the outside, maybe. But inside I was forty-something and falling, faking, and failing. I wondered what was wrong with me, whether I was sick, overly exhausted, or depressed. I drove around aimless, feeling lost. The journaling that had for years offered comfort became alien to me. For months I literally roamed—through my house, the woods, the community, the supermarket, the streets, and the co-op. I searched books and billboards, hungry for answers and peace; for everything. I went through a litany of what I was truly hungry for in my life:

I’m hungry for real love—not crumbs I try to call a meal.
I’m hungry to have my gift and talents truly appreciated by those I work with.
I’m hungry to be beautiful and sexy and not a Barbie doll for a man.
I’m hungry for passion and great sex that is worthy of my mind, body, and spirit.
I’m hungry to not have to play small when my spirit and dreams are big.
I’m hungry to be brave and not let fear drive my life.
I am hungry to know I am loved and am irrevocably a child of God.
I’m hungry to be me.

NAMING HUNGER
In talking with friends and family, people I know well, and absolute strangers, I’ve discovered that hunger holds endless questions for all of us. Do we accept conditions in our relationships that make us feel diminished, uncomfortable, or downright miserable? Are we afraid to say the words, “I need”—thinking we’ll be rejected, abandoned, shamed, or sent away? Are we anxious sharing our true feelings? Do we feel we don’t have a right to ask for what we want? Do we feel that honesty causes suffering? Do we find our relationships to be hard work? Do we live in fear that people will discover the real us and judge us negatively? Is our vow to love, honor, and cherish ourselves as important as the vows we make to others?

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