What if we gave our minds the same attention we give our bodies?

It’s long been known that training our bodies is good for us on so many levels. But we’ve only recently (at least in the Western world) given attention to training our minds.

I started thinking about this as I reflected on my experience going through a well-known 8-week mental fitness program alongside a group of other coaches last fall. And since it was Bell Let’s Talk day in Canada last week, the topic seems particularly on point.

I’ve been training my body for years, but I never really trained my mind.

I meditate and do yoga (a very specific kind where you stay in a pose for longer than you’d like, with a very specific instructor who shares inspiring words of wisdom in a soothing voice) and these probably qualify as forms of training the mind.

But this kind of mental training was different.

It was a kind of immersive experience, weaved into regular day-to-day, where I learned about the various ways saboteurs show up in our work and in our lives (10 ways!), and how I am always at choice to believe them – or not.

I learned to quickly notice a thought that is making me feel bad – and genuinely find one that makes me feel better.

I learned to shift my focus from the circumstance to thinking about what the gift in the situation might be.

It may not be a perfect system (is anything?), but it definitely worked.

How do I know? Well, over time I began to see that when a crappy thought or feeling came up (this is part of the human condition), I naturally shifted to a more positive and helpful one. This in turn had all kinds of benefits for me: taking action with less hesitation; having more to give to my clients, family, and friends; recovering much quicker from setbacks…

So, what if you gave your mind the same attention as your body?

How might you be different?

What would you overcome?

How could work and life improve?

Always love to hear your thoughts.