Weekly Mental Fitness Workouts
December 3rd - December 10th
Welcome back and welcome in,
As we officially start the month of December, I wish you happy holidays. I encourage you to take time to end this year focusing on what matters most. Exercising your mind will strengthen the brain to respond to adversity with resilience. It’s not about what happened, it’s about how you respond and you have the strength to handle whatever is thrown at you.
Here is a sneak peek at the exercises for this week. You will find detailed explanations for each below.
Achievement: WOOP Goals
This week your exercise is to set a WOOP goal to complete an activity that brings you joy.
In a journal, on a notes app, on your phone, or wherever you like:
The following images will provide you a prompt and detailed information about how to effectively set a WOOP goal
Self As Context: Thinking or Thoughts?
Thinking is an active process. You choose what you think about. Whether it is work, making plans for the weekend, or considering your values, thinking is something that you do.
Thoughts are a passive process. The mind randomly puts thoughts into our heads whether we want to have them or not. That embarrassing memory from middle school, wishing you had said something differently in a meeting or a fear about an upcoming presentation.
Problems start to happen when a thought occurs and we get hooked by that thought causing us to spiral with it.
Being able to take a step back, recognize the thought, allow it to happen, and then move on is a skill that you can develop.
This week, I invite you to notice the difference between when you are thinking and when you are having thoughts. Make note of the difference and track the trends that you find.
Focus Training: Meditation
For this cycle, we are periodizing focus training similar to how one tries to increase their weight in the gym over several weeks. Our end goal is to do 5 minutes of meditation for 5 days a week.
How it will work:
The Exercise: 4 days x 5 minutes
The Practice: Meditation
You will simply sit or lie down in a comfortable position and focus on your breath for the amount of time that is prescribed.
When a thought pops into your head:
1. Recognize it: “I am thinking about ______.”
2. Release it: attempt to let it float away like a cloud in the sky
3. Refocus your attention back on the task at hand (watching your breath)
The Resource:
You can use whatever meditation app that you like best.
A free option where you can customize your timer will be the UCLA Mindfulness App
Stress Training: Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Participate in the following video to release the tension in your body that stress may be causing:
Reflect: How does this progressive muscle relaxation impact your stress?
I hope you have a great week. If there is anything that I can do to help, don’t hesitate to reach out!
Be easy,
Ryan