What exactly is mental fitness, and how does it feel to be mentally fit? What does mental fitness feel like? The difference between mental fitness and mental health. How does mental fitness work? How mental fitness and physical fitness intertwine. Get your mind to the gym: how to get mentally fit.

What is mental fitness, and does it involve lifting weights? Learn the difference between mental fitness and mental health, and how to build your mental muscles. Mental fitness can be defined as having the skills and practices to improve and sustain your own state of well-being and perform at your best.

It involves developing core psychological resources and becoming aware of how you think, behave, and feel. When you are mentally fit, you lean into challenges and feel able to navigate change and stress, no matter what day-to-day life presents.

Mental fitness enables you to reconnect with what it is that you love in your work and your life. Mental fitness is more than the absence of mental illness.

It's about growth and thinking, feeling, and performing at your best in all areas of your life. Mental fitness is developed by equipping people to treat mental health as something that they can strengthen and improve.

We know that, even if we're not ill, we can increase our fitness and health to achieve a goal or level of performance. Our physical fitness can be integral to our desired way of life.

The same can be true of our mental health. When you are mentally fit, you feel fully functional and confident of your ability to affect your own state. Despite the frequent connection to mental illness, mental health just refers to a spectrum of states from low to high, and mental health is distinct from mental fitness.

Mental health professionals, like counselors, therapists, and psychiatrists, generally treat mental health disorders and mental illness. Psychological disorders affect how people function in their daily lives. The most common of these anxiety and depression are rooted in emotions — leading to their classification as mood disorders.

Because the emotions fear and sadness are consistent and severe, they become debilitating. The goal is to restore people's mental health to a functional baseline. Mental fitness, though, means much more than living without pain or disability.

It is about building strength and improving your well-being. Changing our focus from mental health to mental fitness means asking people about what — and how — they want to be. What are you training your mind for — that is, what is your mountain? The conversation starts with a new definition of mental health that embraces the idea that people can be more or less mentally fit.

But with support, everyone can be the best, healthiest version of themselves. A new style of work is emerging from the COVID pandemic. It is necessary that we look at ways to help people thrive — both in the workplace and at home.

Taking action to improve mental health helps us weather storms like the current pandemic better. It also enables us to perform better at work. Mental health is another muscle we can strengthen with effort. Strong mental health means you have the skills and people around you to improve and maintain, your well-being.

Resilience is a key component of developing mental fitness. Not only that, when the resilient took a hit to well-being, the size of the rebound was bigger by 1.

Overall, the mental fitness of the workplace is faltering. Languishing is associated with absenteeism and lost productivity.

They were 5X more likely to be rated a top performer than those struggling with mental health. The costs to U. With personalized support, however, the curve can shift significantly to the right. Poor mental and emotional fitness has a pervasive impact. But developing mental fitness creates positive effects in every area of life.

In order to understand how mental fitness works, it helps to look at a concept in cognitive science called neuroplasticity. Our brains carry thoughts along neural pathways. These pathways are like ruts that we create and reinforce over time. This makes it more likely that you will repeat the pattern in the future.

Sometimes, these thought patterns can make us react in ways that aren't helpful. Instead of reacting to the current situation, we take well-worn pathways to past behaviors.

As you build mental fitness, you'll have the awareness, strength, and agility to identify options. You can choose another route instead of responding automatically.

Automatic thinking comes from our survival brain, the limbic system. It is constantly scanning the environment for threats and has been throughout evolution. We inherited the limbic system from chimps and it can protect us. The good news is that we can reprogram our brains. With the same kind of practice that we use to build muscle, we can create neural pathways that better serve us.

Physical fitness is often mentioned alongside mental fitness. If we want to improve our physical fitness, we have many approaches.

We can work alone or with a coach. We can focus on strength, speed, or flexibility. We can go for a walk, or we can play competitive sports. We each have a blend of physical activities that maintain the health and wellness of our body. No matter which approach we choose, the benefits of physical fitness ripple through all areas of life.

The same is true for mental fitness. We are less likely to sustain or cause emotional and relational injury. Many studies have found the positive impact of physical exercise on mental health.

In fact, so many studies have proved this that one researcher did a meta-meta-analysis. Physical fitness promotes mental fitness as well.

The mood-boosting effects of exercise combined with doing something new is a great way to build cognitive agility. Developing optimal health — whether mental or physical — brings less stress and a sense of achievement.

How does one develop mental fitness? Just like any other discipline, it takes consistent attention focused on the right areas. Developing a regular mindfulness practice is the surest way to boost mental fitness. You may choose to meditate, color, practice body awareness, or use an app for support.

Just fifteen minutes per day is enough to see significant changes over time. By practicing mindfulness regularly, you build a heightened awareness of your automatic thoughts. You learn to refocus your attention and disrupt negative thought patterns.

This helps you choose behaviors that align with your goals. For optimal cognitive functioning, your brain needs adequate food, water, and sleep. A lack of any of these essentials can impact your mental fitness and emotional health.

Build breaks into your day to take care of these basic needs. Of course, physical exercise is important to mental fitness as well. Just as mindfulness can relax the muscles of the body, working out relaxes the mind.

Exercise relieves stress and tension. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi discovered that flow is one of the best ways to improve mental fitness.

In fact, many researchers believe that flow may be the antidote to burnout. Consciously design opportunities for flow into your workplace and your day. We all have our favorite activities for physical fitness. Why not discover some for mental fitness as well? You can sharpen memory and cognitive function with mental exercises.

There are many games, puzzles, and apps that improve cognitive processing ability. Mindfulness techniques, like body awareness, visualization, and savoring build mental fitness as well.

Whether for pleasure or to learn something new, reading is great exercise for your brain. Building new neural pathways takes work. You can help your brain build these new pathways by using external reminders. Try keeping a list of enabling thoughts new neural pathways in a visible location, such as on a post-it note.

A visual reminder helps reinforce the new thought and makes it easier to change course. Try a few phrases of a new language, dance lessons, picking up a sport, needlepoint, or learning to code. Your new hobby will help form new neural paths, improve your emotional health, and build self-efficacy.

Cultivating an "attitude of gratitude" helps to shift our thinking toward optimism. Many studies show a positive correlation between optimism and improved health. Our intelligence is malleable and when Investing in workplace mental wellbeing is quickly becoming the dividing factor between a thriving business, and one tha Improve mental wellbeing and team cohesiveness in the workplace by opening up communication and encouraging positive enf As your child starts primary school they enter a whole new world of social connections, structure and learning.

Preventing mental illness before it starts is at the heart of a bold new partnership spearheaded by Smiling Mind and bol Mental Health 6 minute read Mental Fitness: What It Is, How to Practise, and Why by Smiling Mind.

What is mental fitness, and what does it mean? How do we define mental fitness? Smiling Mind defines these areas as: Mindfulness The ability to bring non-judgmental awareness to our thoughts and emotions, exercise attention and focus to overcome distractions, and bring an open, curious mindset to every situation.

Flexible thinking The strength to approach situations with adaptability, manage emotions and reactions during challenging circumstances, and exercise gratitude.

Connection The capacity to build strong, healthy relationships with ourselves and others through self-compassion and positive communication, and by approaching people with empathy, kindness and compassion.

Purpose The motivation to make meaningful contributions to the world in a way that utilises our personal strengths and aligns with our values. Physical health The daily efforts we make to be active, and the ability to effectively step into relaxation and sleep well.

Is mental fitness different from mindfulness? The flexible thinking skills you develop will help you see things from a different perspective and manage your reactions to conflict that naturally occurs in life. Flexible thinking can also help with problem solving and coping with change, which is often a cause of stress.

Your ability to relax is a key factor in stress management, so these strategies can help you manage and recover from symptoms of stress. This is your ability to analyse a train of thought with openness and curiosity rather than judgement and criticality. Intentional self-reflection is also associated with a range of wellbeing-promoting factors , like the ability to perceive social cues and effective emotional regulation.

By enhancing social perceptions, like gratitude, you may find it easier to make friends, and your relationships will be strengthened with empathy, kindness and compassion. Enhancing your creativity through new perspectives Your creativity will flourish. Written by Smiling Mind.

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