What is mental fitness? Mental fitness refers to an individual's capability to think reasonably and rationally to come up with competent and logical decisions. It means having and maintaining a person’s mental and emotional health in perfect condition.
Mental fitness is equally important as your physical fitness. You can improve your physical fitness through workouts and healthy diets but how about your mental fitness?
Unfortunately, we can’t do crunches and lunges with our minds. So the question is, how will we be able to exercise our minds and be mentally fit? Go over this article and find out the ways to achieve mental fitness.
Why is mental fitness important?
Mental fitness allows your brain and emotional health to be in good shape. To be mentally fit, you need to have a sharper mind and a healthy body.
When we are mentally fit, we have the ability to respond, not just react. If we can control our thoughts, we can have the ability to respond in a more rational way rather than an emotive way.
Mentally fit individuals have better cognitive abilities, allowing them to carry out any task. If we can manage mental processes better, we will be able to have better processing speed, focus, time management, memory, and communication.
Mental fitness has the ability to increase our positive emotions. We will have the ability to think and act in a more positive and helpful way.
Being mentally fit allows us to be more confident. We have increased self-esteem and self-efficacy as we are more focused on our strengths and abilities rather than our weaknesses.
We can have the ability to develop more positive habits in our lives if we have healthy minds, and lastly, better mental health directly contributes to having a better sleep.
How to be mentally fit?
Mental Exercises
We exercise our body by working out to improve our physical health. On the other hand, we are able to exercise and train our brains by playing mind games or online gaming apps such as memory games, card games, and jigsaw puzzles. Listening to music, dancing, and building your vocabulary regularly are also good forms of mental exercise.
Mindfulness
Being mindful might be the best exercise that you can give your brains. Mindfulness is our ability to be fully present and be aware of what we do and where we are without overreacting to the situation.
Meditation
The best thing to do is to learn to meditate. Try doing these meditation exercises on a regular basis. Sit for ten to fifteen minutes per day with your eyes closed. Or if you are not comfortable closing your eyes, you can keep your focus on something for the same amount of time.
Keep in mind that in meditating, the main purpose is not to stop your thoughts, but to start noticing when you have been distracted and bring your attention back positively. Want to know more about meditations for your mental health? Click here.
By doing this, you are training your attention muscle to remain focused as you tell it. You are developing a skill wherein you will have the ability to notice when your thoughts are being distracted.
You will now have the ability to know when your chimp brain is pushing cognitive errors. Regular meditation allows you to practice mindfulness that enables you to increase your awareness and consciousness.
How to improve mental fitness?
Do your meditation exercise on a daily basis―A 15-minute meditation on a daily basis will do wonders for you. Choose a routine that works for you and be consistent.
Engage yourself in physical exercises―Physical fitness affects our mental health, the same way as mental fitness affects our physical health and overall wellness. can relax your mind and tend to relieve some tensions and stress.
Important Tip: Be smart enough to find the right type of workout for you.
Eat and drink healthy―Your brain needs water to reach its full cognitive function, so stay hydrated as much as possible. Eating colorful fruits and vegetables will also help in maintaining a healthy body and brain.
Notice new things as part of your everyday life―Noticing allows your brain to improve mindfulness as you are more aware of your everyday actions and whereabouts.
Allow yourself to practice savoring―Savoring is using positive events to benefit oneself. It includes drinking a cup of coffee, hugging a loved one, or simply crawling to your bed after a tiring day.
Try keeping a gratitude journal―It’s like creating a diary on your computer or notebook and updating it on a regular basis. This will help you to have more positive emotions.
Start practicing body awareness―You can do this body awareness by sitting while your eyes are closed for five minutes and trying to scan your entire body. Scan from head to toe placing your attention on every part of your body. And when you feel tension on a certain part, stop for a while and take a deep breath until you feel better.
Practice your ability to notice your thoughts―Practice noticing your thoughts and feelings like asking yourself if it will be helpful or will that be a good thing to do or not?
Take time to remind your chimp―Keep a list of positive thoughts on post-it notes and put it in locations that you can easily see. Keeping yourself reminded will give assurance to the chimp brain that you have safe evidence.
Key Takeaways
May it be strengthening your physical or mental health, regularity and consistency is the main key. Start taking care of your mental fitness today as you are conscious of your physical fitness―they are both important parts of your well-being.
People who are mentally fit see the world more differently compared to those who are not. And when we are mentally fit, we have the ability to focus better on our everyday tasks and if a problem arises, we are more mentally prepared to face and solve it.
You will be able to develop your mental fitness if you will allow yourself to follow the things discussed above. Engage yourself in mental exercises that will help your mind to be healthy and fit.