Thank you to Lisa-Michelle Kucharz–founder of The40Factor.com, for a great Soapbox interview about challenges faced by 40-somethings. Here’s a taste from the article, Somewhere Over The 40-Something Rainbow…

“In your 40s, you have a special something,” proclaimed Miller. “You’re experienced enough to know what truth feels like, and you’re young enough to believe in the magic of it. You pretty much have the upper hand — if you so choose to use it.”

…CHECK OUT THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE!

Dear Brooke,

Thanks so much,
Migraine Molly

Hi Sweet M&M,

Thank you so much for asking this question! It’s important for Soapbox Therapy readers to know that the seemingly little questions are just as juicy and important as the long story questions. And just to confirm how much I love your mini question, I’m starting a new Soapbox feature with you as the inspiration. I’ll call it…Soapbox Mini.

So, here we go…A Mini from Molly.

Psychosomatic–let’s break it down. The root of the word is psych, as in psychology, psychotherapy, etc. It refers to the mind. And soma, of Latin descent, means body. So psychosomatic literally is a word that describes the mind/body connection.

Here’s the deal: our minds can only deal with so much, and sometimes they need some help to digest everything going on. Think co-parenting. Your mind is one parent to your emotions, and your body is the other. They work together, even if you don’t realize it.

Sometimes things happen in our lives and feelings come up that are just too much for our mind to process, for numerous reasons—timing, capacity, etc. But our feelings are meant to be felt, so if our minds won’t or can’t feel them, our bodies will.

So instead of attempting to deal with a situation that might make us feel depressed, for example…we can have migraines. Or back pain. Or stomach aches. Or or or. And, it can go the other way around. You can be suffering from depression (again, just an example) only to come to find out that you’ve actually had something physical going on the whole time, like low thyroid, or or or.

Now let’s be clear, I’m not saying that your migraines are psychosomatic. And, I’m not a Doctor so I’m not diagnosing anything or anyone…not all physical ailments are overflow from the mind, and not all psychological challenges are overflow from the body. But, some are. And that’s what psychosomatic is talking about.

The thing about the mind-body connection is that it’s real. The mind and body work together constantly and sometimes an emotion or feeling meant for one of them falls on the lap of the other, and just sits there–relentless. Recognizing a psychosomatic symptom is hard work and takes some major honesty with yourself, but re-directing the symptom from your body back to your mind, then processing through it and allowing it to digest and move on? So doable…and so worth it.

And that, sweets, is psychosomatic.
Love,
Brooke.

Click HERE to submit your question to Soapbox MINI!

This month Soapbox Therapy and Primer Magazine give the boys a little somethin’ to chew on–here’s a taste…

Moral of the story: Don’t be afraid to be confident, women love it…and…know the difference between confidence and cockiness. Confident men know themselves and can stand tall in who they are, cocky men have no idea who they are and do everything they can to convince you otherwise.

…Click HERE to check out the whole article!