Your mind is a sort of a muscle and yet we always find some time to train the muscles of our body but never do the same for our mind. Or at max we might do a few mental exercises every now and then, expect great things to happen instantly and become disappointed when they don’t or have a short expiry date. Sounds familiar?
The neuroscience and other scientific research has shown that mind is trainable ( neuroplasticity) and that we can train it to keep it fit into an old age. So, just like we don’t expect to run marathon without some serious training, we can’t expect to build mental muscle overnight. Why is this important you ask? Just think about all the negative and self-limiting thoughts, mind chatter, your tough inner critic or as some refer to it, monkey mind that keep on pestering you and occasionally even creeps up and wakes you up in the middle of the night. I am sure you do. If this happens to you once in a blue moon, it means you have good mental fitness. If however, you are noticing a really frequent negative mind chatter, you may need to train your mind to serve you better. The ideal situation is that you control your mind, not the other way round.
If you think about a little longer, your mind can be your best friend or it can be your worst enemy. It all depends on you. If you are not sure, just close you eyes for 1 minute and after that, recount everything what has come to our mind, the shopping lists, the projects you need to finish, the sentence that your sister told you over last weekend, the idea about changing your jobs. All of it and probably more only in 1 minute.
Mental fitness needs consistency and practice. It does not happen overnight. The fruits that you will reap from this investment however are really sweet and can last a life time.
*If you are not sure what exactly is mental fitness, it’s your capacity to respond to life’s challenges with relative ease and positive rather than negative mindset. It’s so to speak your capacity to discipline your mind so that it serves you well.
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