Building Mental Fitness

By Adele Bergin, ARV Mental Health Clinician/Consultant

What is Mental Fitness?

Mental fitness means different things to different people, but essentially, it is about what you do to take care of yourself and your mental health.
Just as we can improve our physical health by moving our bodies, we can improve our mental health by strengthening our minds. This doesn’t mean training your brain or solving puzzles, instead it is about taking time each day to do things that are good for your mind.

Mental fitness is about thinking of your brain as a muscle to strengthen – so that we can rise to meet life’s challenges with a more positive, proactive mindset.

Why Mental Fitness?

Mental fitness is a proactive, rather than reactive approach to managing life’s challenges. Building mental fitness can help build inner strength and resilience, and help prepare you to deal with life’s stressors and difficulties.

The best way to deal with mental health concerns – just like physical health concerns – is to take preventative action to stop them happening in the first place. Whilst it is true that some people can be more vulnerable to mental health problems due to a variety of biological, psychological, and environmental reasons, we can all take preventative steps to prevent mental health problems from getting worse or even occurring in the first place.
Taking the time to develop a mental fitness routine can not only benefit you, but also everyone around you. That is because mental fitness can help us:

Be more present with the people around us
Respond effectively, instead of reacting to situations
Communicate more effectively – both personally and professionally
Feel more confident
Improve our cognitive functioning – that is, our focus, processing speed, memory, and concentration
Be more positive so that we can notice and reframe situations in a more helpful way.

How to Develop a Mental Fitness Routine

Just like physical fitness, mental fitness is not an “all or nothing” thing; there are degrees of fitness, and we all have room for improvement.
Below are some tips for how you can establish a “mental fitness” routine to take care of your mental health. Remember, there is no “one-size fits all” with mental health and boosting mental fitness can look different from person to person – so there are lots of options to choose from.

Just the way a trainer would come up with an exercise routine, look at the list below and choose strategies to work on to improve your mental fitness. If you are not sure where to start, you could also reach out to a wellbeing coach here.

Mental Fitness Exercises

Work on Getting a Better Night’s Sleep: We know that good sleep quality and regular sleep patterns are crucial to maintaining good mental health. Sleep helps improve memory, mood, creativity, and problem-solving skills, and to recover from both mental as well as physical exertion. Learn habits for getting a better night’s sleep here.
Good Nutrition: Maintaining a healthy diet with lots of vegetables, fruits and whole grains, as well as few processed foods and added sugars, has a major contribution to good health – including mental health. Learn how to use habit stacking to improve your diet here.
Exercise: There is strong evidence that regular physical activity improves psychological wellbeing and can reduce mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. Exercising with other people may have even greater benefits for mental fitness. If you often feel stressed, starting a yoga practice may be particularly beneficial for you. Learn more about how exercise benefits mental health here.
Spend Time in Nature: If you have ever hiked, camped out under the stars, ridden a bike, spent a quiet afternoon fishing or just stared for hours into a campfire, then you’ll know how good the outdoors can be for lifting your spirits. More research is emerging that supports the benefits of ‘green and blue time’ in treating and preventing conditions like stress, depression and anxiety. Check out the best hiking trails in Victoria here.
Practice Diaphragmatic Breathing Exercises: Diaphragmatic or “belly” breathing is one of the best ways to lower stress in your body. Diaphragmatic breathing stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the system that becomes activated when a person becomes relaxed. To practice diaphragmatic breating:

1) Place one hand on the abdomen just below the ribcage and above the belt line and the other hand on the chest;
2) Inhale slowly (1-2-3-4) through your nose to the bottom of your lungs so that the hand on the abdomen is pushed out; while the hand on th chest remains still;
3) Pause and then exhause slowly (1-2-3-4) through your mouth;
4) Pause between breaths.

It is best to practice belly breathing in neutral or mildly uncomfortable situations to build up your mental fitness, and practice at least 5-10 minutes at least twice daily to aquire the skill. Then, when stressful situations arise, your body will be trained and ready to go.

6. Make Time for Hobbies: Taking up a hobby can bring more 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. Find some space and time to do what you love, whether it’s gaming, handiwork, music or reading. Little things that are enjoyable tend to bring more happiness and satisfaction to life, even if you only get to spend short periods doing them. You’re likely to feel better, build mental fitness and as a bonus, have a regular little slice of ‘me time’ to look forward to.

7. Schedule Time with People Who are Important to You: Social connections are one of the most important things you can do for your mental fitness. Time spent with the people who are most important to you has been repeatedly shown to benefit your wellbeing. In fact, it’s even thought to contribute to greater life expectancy. Hanging out with ‘your people’ lets you take time out, talk about what’s going on in life, and even vent or just have a good laugh. Make a list of the people you like hanging out with and schedule in your next catch up – virtual or real.

8. Practice Mindfulness: Mindfulness is good for your health, happiness and wellbeing. Research shows that mindfulness can even have a positive effect on brain function. It is also a type of therapy that has been adapted for use in the treatment of depression, and it particularly effective in preventing depression relapses. To practice mindfulness, you do not have to go into a dark room and chant “omm” for 30 minutes to have a fruitful mindfulness session. Just a few minutes focusing on your breathing and your body can decrease cortisol and adrenaline levels and change your whole day. Try apps like Smiling Mind, Insight Timer, Calm, or Headspace. Find the one that works for you. Over the word “mindfulness”? Maybe think of it as “chill time.” Just time spent in a space free from distractions where you just get in touch with the present.

9. Practicing Noticing: If you are interested in mindfulness, but meditation is not for you, then you might want to try informal mindfulness practice – otherwise known as, just noticing! After all, mindfulness is simply the act of paying attention and focusing on the present moment. To try this, simply pick one everyday menial or boring task like washing the dishes, brushing your teach, having a shower, or mowing the lawn, and try to apply all your attention to that task. For example, for example, when washing the dishes, focus on the temperature of the water, the action of washing or even the smell or feel of the detergent. Pay attention to all your senses as you go through the motions. If you get distracted by your thinking – simply notice what distracted you – and come back to your thoughts. Another way to practice noticing might be simply setting a goal to notice three times when you have gone from sitting to standing throughout the day. It's a lot harder than it sounds. We are mostly in our unconscious, or automatic mind when we are doing this action on auto-pilot. Noticing trains your brain for increased mindfulness. The beauty of these forms of mindfulness is that they can be done at any time, with no special time reserved, no set venue, and no equipment. It’s just about being focussed on tasks that you do every day.

10. Notice When You’re Ruminating: Have you ever noticed that when you feel worried, stressed, sad, disappointed, angry, or nervous that you get lost in a downward spiral of negative thoughts? Of “what-ifs”, criticisms and over thinking? Some part of us thinks that if we dwell on a problem and keep analysing it, we’ll somehow figure out a way to get rid of the discomfort we feel. Instead, we often end up getting nowhere. Psychologists call this “ruminating”. If you find yourself ruminating – try to come back to the hear and now – the present. The easiest way to do this is through your senses – what can you see, hear, feel, smell or taste? Other helpful ways to stop ruminating: call a friend; meditate; watch a movie; or exercise. Ruminating on negative thoughts can be a hard cycle to break, but it is possible by learning to interrupt them. Coping strategies can look different for everyone, but it is important to learn what works for you. If rumination becomes a problem, you may want to seek professional support.

11. Journaling: Journaling helps you express the thoughts and emotions you have experienced during the day. It can also help you identify and prioritise problems, fears and concerns, so you can act to solve them. Tracking your thoughts and moods can also help you recognise triggers and better ways to manage them. If you experience racing thoughts, writing them down can be helpful strategy for slowing things down as we physically cannot write as fast as we can think! Give it a go.

12. Turn Your Inner Critic into Your Inner Champion: The average person has more than 6,000 thoughts per day. Our minds are constantly chattering away – interpreting every situation we find ourselves in. Much of this chatter is reasonable (“What should I have for dinner tonight?”) but some of this chatter is unrealistic, self-defeating, or negative (“Work is going to be awful today..."). Psychologist’s call these thoughts “maladaptive thoughts” – that is, thoughts that are inaccurate, exaggerated, or simply unhelpful even if they are true.

If you are feeling stressed, down, worried, or anxious, try these three steps:

1) Pause and notice what thoughts are running through your mind.

2) Ask yourself: is this thought true? Is it accurate? Is there evidence against this thought? Do I know for sure that is going to happen? Is it helpful to think this way?

3) Try to find a more accurate/balanced way of looking at the situation. Ask yourself: “Is there another way I could think about this situation?”" What would I tell my best friend if they were thinking this way”?

Often if we can try and think about a situation in a more balanced way, it will decrease the emotional intensity of what we are feeling. This is a technique called “cognitive restructuring” and is a powerful way to manage stress, build confidence, treat anxiety and depression. Seek help here if you would like to learn more.

13. Practice Gratitude: Gratitude is about giving thanks for what we have. It costs nothing, takes only a small amount of time and effort, and yet it yields enormous benefits to ourselves and those around us. Being thankful for even the small things around us can enhance our energy, mental health, and wellbeing. Make it a point to list out the things in life you are grateful for at the end of each day and notice what happens to your mood.

14. Get Help: Mental fitness is just like physical fitness. Sometimes we feel fit and strong, and other times not so much. Sometimes it is because we have stopped taking care of ourselves - maybe we were just too busy - and so we get out of shape. Other times we can go through difficult periods: financial downturns, relationship breakdowns, moving house, stress at work, grief and loss, and even the most mentally fit people can become injured. Reaching out to a professional during these times is important to start building your mental fitness, and to feel yourself again. Learn where to get help here.