Back to: How to Build your Resilience and Mental Fitness
Building Mental Fitness
If you are not physically fit you would feel physical stress as you climb a steep hill. If you are not mentally fit, you would feel mental stress as you handle work and relationship challenges. Shirzad Chamine, Positive Intelligence®
According to research 80% of people score below the minimum level of mental fitness required for peak performance and happiness. Mental fitness is your capacity to respond to life’s challenges with a positive rather than a negative mindset. It impacts your performance, peace of mind/wellness and your relationships.
In the previous lesson you were invited to complete the short questionnaire to get a picture of how often your mind is working for you versus against you. To get a truer picture of this, you may need to take the assessment a few times. It might also be interesting to note what factors may be influencing the score. For example, if you score highly one day, what were the factors that were influencing your mind? How were you approaching things? If you scored poorly, what factors influenced that? What can you learn from this?
Genuine happiness is related to your emotions – your own mental state. It has been shown that the environment or situation is not as important as your mental state.
According to psychologists, destructive emotions are emotions that leads to a person harming themselves or another person; or when it distorts our perception or our peace of mind.
The Dalai Lama says that they are any emotions that leads us to be contrary or being unhappy. Some Dalai Lama Quotes:
Anger and hatred are signs of weakness, while compassion is a sure sign of strength
In the practice of tolerance, one’s enemy is the best teacher
When negative emotions arrive e.g. anger, it robs us of our ability to be discerning – our ability to see and understand people, things or situations clearly and intelligently.
Destructive emotions tend to be impulsive and are not grounded in any considered response.
Positive and constructive emotions are grounded in reason and understanding of reality and they can be strengthened.
To build your mental fitness it is important to do mental gym exercises that will increase your ability to recognise and intercept triggers and negative or destructive thought patterns and emotions and to shift to the region of your brain that enables you to respond with blameless discernment. You will learn techniques to:
Recognise your triggers
Shift to focus
Respond with blameless discernment
Please note, that just reading will not develop the mental muscles needed. Constant focused practice is needed in the same way as exercise and going to the gym is needed to build physical strength, muscles and fitness.
Focus
What will you commit to?
How will this benefit you?