Keeping your mind in shape
Healthy Mind in Healthy Body – so the saying goes. Take some time out regularly to pay attention to your mental wellbeing. Make it as regular a habit as your physical fitness routine and keep your mind in as good shape as your body. We found inspiration with these mental wellbeing tips.
“I start my mornings listening to inspiring and informative podcasts while getting ready and by the time I reach my desk, I’m completely revved up with ideas and motivation, super excited to start my day.” LeAura Alderson, founder, My Trainer Fitness
Here are some simple ways to practice mental fitness:
- “Collect” positive emotional moments – Make it a point to recall times when you have experienced pleasure, comfort, tenderness, confidence, or other positive emotions.
- Learn ways to cope with negative thoughts – Negative thoughts can be insistent and loud. Learn to interrupt them. Don’t try to block them (that never works), but don’t let them take over. Try distracting yourself or comforting yourself, if you can’t solve the problem right away.
- Enjoy hobbies – Taking up a hobby brings balance to your life by allowing you to do something you enjoy because you want to do it, free of the pressure of everyday tasks. It also keeps your brain active.
- Volunteer – Volunteering is called the “win-win” activity because helping others makes us feel good about ourselves. At the same time, it widens our social network, provides us with new learning experiences and can bring balance to our lives.
- Treat yourself well – Cook yourself a good meal. Have a bubble bath. See a movie. Call a friend or relative you haven’t talked to in ages. Sit on a park bench and breathe in the fragrance of flowers and grass. Whatever it is, do it just for you.
SOURCE
Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA)
Bronwen Bartlett is a freelance writer, children’s book author, virtual agency director and performing bellydancer from South Africa. When she isn’t bent over a keyboard, frantically crafting articles and stories, or touting the benefits of moving away from traditional offices into virtual spaces, she can usually be found hiking a mountain with her partner and their dogs, or trying to master rib-cage isolation patterns. You can follow her personal blog or her company blog. Her first published children’s book, Callum and the Tiger, can be found on Amazon.