Mental Fitness Workouts
October 1 - October 7
You are not your thoughts, you are not your emotions, you are not your feelings.
We do not need to be consumed by these experiences.
When it comes to mental fitness, creating psychological distance from our thoughts, emotions, and feelings allows us to make more conscious decisions in a valued direction.
Sounds nice on paper: But, WOW! It is hard when that sticky thought pops up and it just won’t go away, or we don’t even realize we are thinking about it again. All of a sudden we are spiraling around resulting in an unwanted/unproductive mood.
What excites me is that we can get better at creating distance from these experiences. It’s not easy work, but we can decide how we want to respond in these moments, creating distance to act more in line with our values.
At the end of the day, this is why we train, folks.
Mental Fitness Workouts:
Cognitive Defusion: Notice It
A simple but easy way to create psychological distance for yourself is to use the following phrase: “I’m noticing that I am a [thinking, feeling, experiencing]….”
How it works:
When you notice that you have been hooked by an unproductive thought, feeling, or emotion, such as, “I should have said what I said differently”
Simply state: “I notice I am thinking I should have said what I said differently”
Hint: a lot of times these thoughts are the shoulds, woulds, coulds, & what-ifs!
Connecting this exercise with the 3R’s exercise a few weeks back can be an extremely powerful tool to create distance!
Stress Training: Measured Breathing (4 inhale-1 hold-7 exhale)
5 days a week x 5 minutes
If you enjoy this practice, feel free to extend the days or time out to meet your current needs!
This breath pacer is a great tool to utilize for this practice
This breathing practice will be periodized throughout this mesocycle (September 18th - October 22nd) similar to how you may periodize the bench press to increase weight. Our objective is to breathe for a longer time for the outcome of reducing stress.
Positive Relationships: Boundaries
Sometimes in the quest of building positive relationships, it is easy to lose ourselves in the process. An important exercise to uphold your own values is to set boundaries to make sure that you fostering relationships in a healthy way.
In the following 3 domains reflect on the boundaries that you have set:
Family
Friends
Work/School
Like me, you may have no clue what boundaries you have set or maybe don’t even know what boundaries are. Check out this video for some more info:
Focus Training: 5-4-3-2-1
Engaging with our senses brings us to the present moment and outside of our head. Taking time to register what we notice with our 5 senses is a powerful way to train focus.
How it works:
Set 3 reminders on your phone across the week
When the reminder goes off take a moment to notice the following:
5 things you see
4 things you feel
3 things you hear
2 things you smell
1 thing you taste
I challenge you to notice unique things each time you practice
I want to leave you with a belief that one of the sports teams I train with has established for their program:
Difficult situations and experiencing pressure, doubt, worry, and adversity are natural and unavoidable parts of elite sport. These challenges should create growth opportunities.
What opportunities will you have to grow this week?
Be easy,
Ryan