Everything About Mental Health You Learned in the Gym

How can you become more mentally resilient? I think it’s possible to give an answer that covers almost everything science can currently tell us about what to do. And you can easily remember it because you already learned it on the playground, in sports and recreation, or in the gym.

If you want a less geeky way to grasp the whole of it, though, it helps to speak more metaphorically. Although there are a lot of different types of recreation, sports, and physical play, they all come down to the same set of abilities. In order to perform well physically, you need to work on your stretching, strength, endurance, timing, and teamwork (even in solo sports, you need to work well with coaches). Oh, and while you are doing all of that, you must also take good care of your body’s needs for rest, replenishment, safety, and nutrition.

As it turns out, each of these areas is important for your mental resilience as well. Not for some of us — for all of us. And not occasionally — every day.

You need to mentally stretch yourself. But instead of increasing your physical flexibility and range of motion, you widen your capacity for thoughts and feelings. You get your mental strength from what is important to you — your values and your goals.

Mental endurance is about the ability to keep going. Psychologically speaking, this means learning to commit to changes, and persisting with them; especially when it becomes hard and uncomfortable. It’s keeping faith with yourself, and your own capacity to live a values-based life. One step at a time, over and over again. Slipping and falling is part of the process, just like with any sport. What matters, however, is that you get back up, try again, and keep going.

And yes, taking care of your body matters for your mental resilience as well. You are a physical being, and if you are not eating well, sleeping well, or exercising well, you are going to have a hard time — both in the gym, and in your life. All of the other resilience skills will help as well. For example, if you don’t know how to give your nervous system the message that you are safe, your body will be chronically mobilized to flee or fight, causing needless wear and tear.

Our mental resilience is an evolving system — constantly adapting to our circumstances, and how we make use of our abilities. Everything we need to know psychologically, we first began learning about on the schoolyard. Learning mental resilience can be approached the same way we develop physically in the gym, or on the softball field, or when we shoot balls with friends. Knowing that might make it a lot easier to remember and to practice. When properly practiced, these skills improve our mental and behavioral health, and enable us to step up to the challenges of our lives.

Source: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/get-out-your-mind/202210/everything-about-mental-health-you-learned-in-the-gym

How important do you think exercise is for mental health?

#Exercise #MentalHealth #Resilience