Train your mind like you train your body

When we think of physical health and fitness, the distinction comes more naturally than with their mental equivalents. Physical health is being able to move through your day without over extending yourself. It acts as a base level of physicality that we aim to maintain in order to live a healthy life. Whereas physical fitness is about raising our baseline, building resilience and extending our limits.

How do we move from physical health to physical fitness? Through consistent, deliberate training. Whether that is going for regular walks, doing yoga or actually using that gym membership you bought for your new year’s resolutions.

We can think of the distinction between mental health and fitness in a similar way to their physical counterparts.

What is mental health?

Mental health is being able to move through your day without undue physiological or emotional distress. It affects everything we do: from how we feel, to how we think, to how we perform. Many people don’t consciously work on their mental health, so their lifestyle and circumstances become the driving factor in their wellbeing.

A lot of the time, we only focus on our mental health when things go wrong. Similar to how you may only see a physio or invest in a new office chair after developing back pain. In the mental arena we see cases where people only take an extended break after they’re burnt out, or only try a meditation app when they’re stressed or struggling to sleep.

It is as if we are on a bike, but we only decide to learn how to ride it when we’re flying down a hill and need to find the brakes. A better solution would be to develop the skills on flat ground, where the consequences of error are less substantial. That’s where mental fitness comes in.

What is mental fitness?

Mental fitness is developing skills to improve the way you think, feel and perform. This can raise the baseline level of your mental health, build resilience to challenging situations and massively expand your potential.

If you can run a marathon, going for a walk is a doddle. If you train your mind, by consciously crafting desired thought patterns and behaviours, then your everyday life transforms.

You become much better equipped to deal with the momentary annoyances that may have previously chipped away at your energy levels. You become more resilient to the bigger challenges that life throws at you. And you expand your horizons. Whether that means bossing your work life, enhancing your relationships, experiencing newfound joy in a hobby or even becoming a world champion.

What is the difference between mental health and mental fitness?

Mental health and mental fitness are not mutually exclusive nor are they the same. Your mental health is your physiological and emotional state in any given moment or period of time.

Mental fitness is about developing the skills that raise your base level of mental health, build your resilience to adversity and enable you to thrive in your everyday life.

Why is mental fitness the future?

Today, physical fitness provides us all with the tools to recover from injury and illness, maintain a base level of health and to strengthen to such an extent that we can accomplish incredible feats.

However, this was not always the case. There was a time where only professional athletes would have access to the latest knowledge and resources needed to develop high levels of physical fitness.

Then the research and teaching became commercialised, leading to the uptake of high quality physical training routines for the general population. This route to mainstream adoption is repeating itself with mental fitness.

For over half a century, athletes such as Michael Phelps and Serena Williams have used the mental training technique of visualisation to gain the edge on their opponents.

Over the past two decades, research into mental fitness has risen sharply. New findings give insight into how different forms of mental practice can be applied to improve our life.

We are at a stage where the potential of mental fitness lies in making it accessible for everyone. The rise of meditation apps demonstrates the need and desire for mental fitness tools. But they are only the beginning of the massive expansion of accessible mental fitness routines.

How do I get started with mental fitness?

Not many people are using the term ‘mental fitness’ yet. However, there are already plenty of great tools and techniques that you can start using now to build mental fitness.

Like with physical fitness, the greatest way to see results is through consistency. To build consistency you could practice at the same time or directly after an existing habit everyday and, most importantly, have fun with it.

When you consistently explore new tools, learn new techniques or try an existing practice in a new way — you keep things exciting whilst levelling up in your ability.

Here are a few resources to get you started:

• Jay Shetty’s book, Think Like Monk;

• the podcast, Huberman Lab;

• Remap’s free Mental Fitness Check-In.

Like any new skill, it will be difficult at first. But embrace being a beginner, know that visible results take time and make it fun.