At FNS, we focus on building the three M’s: Mindset, Meals, and Movement. These are the three components that make up a happy, healthy lifestyle. To be truly healthy, you must master all three.
Exercise and a healthy diet are great ways to work on your movement and meals, but how do you work on your mindset?
Mental strength isn’t something you can measure or can be broken down by sets and reps. It’s hard to train your mind to work for you. Here’s how you can start to do it:
Challenge yourself – Nobody wants to do it, but you must seek out discomfort to grow. You can’t make diamonds without pressure. It would help if you constantly challenged your mind to make it sharper, stronger, and more able to tackle new goals.
Every day, try something new. Taste a new food, do a new workout, read a new book. Keep your mind ready to learn from what you like and don’t like, as well as what you’re good and not good at. Trying new things is what keeps your mind engaged and excited, which is when it’s at its best.
Replace your negativity – Excess negative thinking can harpoon goals. It’s natural to think negatively occasionally, but it’s vital that you take those thoughts and correct them before you start to believe in them. You must start replacing your negative thinking habits with positive ones.
It may seem odd but thinking about your thoughts can help diagnose any excess negativity. Once you catch yourself thinking something like, “I can’t do anything right,” make a conscious effort to replace that thought with something like “I’m struggling now, but I won’t in the future.”
Focus your energy – In your day-to-day life, there are a million things you must think about. Did you turn the stove off? What will you have for dinner? What time are you getting up tomorrow? Seriously, did you turn the stove off? You must pick what you’re going to spend mental energy on to be productive in essential areas.
We all have many responsibilities to deal with. Everything needs to get done, but we must avoid sweating the small things we can’t control. Instead of worrying about the storm coming, think about what you can do to prepare.
Reflect – We talk about it all the time, but reflection is so critical for self. It would help if you took time daily to take inventory of what you learned, how you felt, and how you acted throughout the day. Self-awareness is vital for mental strength. Without self-awareness, you don’t know what you can and can’t handle.
The best way to get self-awareness is reflection. Keeping a journal, meditating, or doing anything else that helps you reflect will get you to the point of knowing exactly who you are, what you can do, and how you should act.
Your mind, like any other muscle, needs exercise and training. Once you master it, you’ll find yourself happier and healthier.
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