Are you ready to switch from Saboteur to Sage?
Yes, I want to to rediscover and unleash an even happier and more capable version of myself.
What is Mental Fitness?
Psychologists define Mental Fitness as having a disposition of well-being and living with a positive sense of how you feel, think, and behave.
Stanford lecturer and Positive Intelligence creator, Shirzard Chamaine defines it as having the ability to handle life’s challenges without mental stress or other negative emotions.
I define it as having the belief and ability to know that I can be happy.
I use the word ‘belief’ as I think that was the tipping point for me. Without the belief that I could spend my life feeling happy, I couldn’t visualise it as even a remote possibility. Without being able to see that as my end goal, the outcome I wanted, I couldn’t start doing the work required.
And yes, it does take work.
Actually, I liked the idea that it would take work, was routed in science, and therefore measurable.
This took it away from woo-woo land and brought it into my world of logic, proven outcomes and real-life results.
So what do I mean by ‘be happy?’
Well, I don’t mean skipping through life with a smile on my face seeing rainbows and fluffy kittens! However, that would be fun!
Happiness goes a lot deeper than that.
Like everyone else who didn’t live under a rock, I knew that emotional intelligence was the buzzword of this century. However, that didn’t make me believe that feeling happy, purposeful, fulfilled (insert your word of choice) was actually a state that I could achieve.
Part of me even thought it was a selfish goal.
I had deep, unspoken levels of shame by wanting more. Who was I to think I should feel happier when the world was full of fear, loneliness and stress? I had made happiness a finite emotion which logically we all know it is not.
I now understand that it was my internal, self-abusive way of thinking that caused this.
Yep, I was in an emotionally abusive relationship with myself.
Having gone through this journey, and coached countless others, I now know I am not alone in this way of thinking.
Can you relate to this? Dig deep and be honest with yourself. When was the last time you told yourself you are amazing? When did you last truly believe that you are deserving or worthy of unconditional love?
Well, I am here to tell you that you are, and better still I will show you how.
I know how much better my body feels when I am fit, when I go to the gym, so I liked the idea of my mind, my emotions being fit and having their own gym. I don’t mean puzzles or memory games; I mean exercises that build the neurons that give me positive thoughts and weaken the negative ones.
Neurons that fire together, wire together!’
I, like many others, had spent years’ firing and wiring’ the wrong ones! Well, if I can master one direction, then I can master this more positive way.
See, just knowing about this possibility creates an emotional shift towards happiness and if that can happen before the work, imagine what you can achieve in 1 or 2 months!
At the outset, the sceptic in me thought this was only for people who had wind chimes, yoga mats and meditated for hours until I rebranded it in my mind as “Brain Biohacking.”
OK, now we are talking my language.
Pursuing happiness didn’t feel right, but pursuing purpose did. It’s a small but all-important difference. Solely chasing happiness can lead you to the wrong part of the brain, the mid-brain. This part delivers great hits of dopamine, but that can cause addictions which don’t lead to long term happiness. Definitely not the part you want to hack.
No, the part I wanted to hack was the middle prefrontal cortex, (MPFC), the Empathy Circuit and the right brain. Hacking those by creating new neurotransmitters are what give the long term results.
Chasing purpose works because it doesn’t deliver immediate hits of dopamine rewards, it builds a more slow but steady network of neural pathways.
My very own stairway to heaven!
So how can you do this?
The easiest and most fun way to start is to take this the short assessment shown on this page. It will tell you more about your internal voices which makes it easier to identify them.
Name them to tame them!
Then I chose my Purpose…my Why! This is very individual, but I’ll share mine here. It took a while to get to grips with, but here it is.
What do I want?
I want to live my life filled with drive, confidence, purpose and joy.
Why do I want this?
When I have this, I will be less stressed, have more energy, be able to give more love and be of more service to those in my life.
What can I do to achieve this?
I can re-train my brain through daily exercises that allow me to ‘get out of my head, and into my body’.
I downloaded an app and took a mental fitness program that was so powerful that it changed my life. I believe in it so strongly that I now coach it.
There are a few exercises that you can do by yourself.
Sit with your back straight, your feet flat on the ground and close your eyes. Now rub two fingers together with such attention that you can almost feel the ridges of your fingerprint. Do this anywhere from 15 seconds up to two minutes. Yep…it’s that simple and not a windchime in sight.
If you did this during an MRI, you would see the PQ part of your brain light up.
There are multiple small and fun ways you can do this; wiggling your toes and trying to find and feel each one individually, listening to music and focusing intently on one instrument, closing your eyes when you eat and focus intently on the texture and flavour of the food, and many more.
I did all of these and more, and they worked changing my life in less than 6-weeks.
Re-wiring my brain transformed everything, so I am reaching my, ‘What do I want?’ ‘Why do I want it?’ goals and the best part is, I know they are sustainable. No New Year Resolutions for me anymore!
My husband has noticed a huge difference. How could he not, our marriage is better than ever.
If only he would do the program too (hint, hint! 😜) Imagine how amazing we would be then!
