Exercises to Help You Reach Your Mental Fitness Goals

There I was in a hotel on a business trip. My mind was racing. The trip packed my agenda with meetings and dinners. Always on, constantly prepping for the next thing. Meanwhile, my to-do list was growing with other work and personal needs. On top of it all, I had been fitting in podcasts and a book into the margins. It was hard to shut off my brain.

That’s why I knew I needed to turn off screens and limit inputs for 30 minutes before going to sleep. It’s also why I set the timer on my phone the next morning for 10 minutes after I woke up. It’s during that time that I’m most deliberate with my thoughts. That daily practice leads to greater peace and performance.

Does your mind ever get out of control? What daily practices help you manage your thoughts?

To be your best self, you need to know and manage your thoughts. Deliberate thinking time is the best place to do this work. Sure, you could skip the process of actually scheduling it in, instead hoping that you’ll find quiet time throughout your day. But just like physical fitness, it usually doesn’t happen without dedicated time to work on it. Think of daily deliberate thinking time like a workout for your brain.

The Types of Thinking Your Brain Requires

Good physical exercise requires different types of activity. You do strength and cardio, upper and lower body, aerobic and anaerobic. Likewise, good mental exercise requires aware and purposeful thinking. When I’m in my deliberate thinking time, I do different thought exercises to build awareness and guide my thoughts.

Here are five different types of thought exercises that every brain needs:

1. Narrative. This type of thinking comes fast and furious whether you want it or not. In that hotel on the business trip, these thoughts kept coming:
   Here you are in your hotel room, far away from home. You’re enjoying this work and you’re disciplined to take this time to meditate. You’ve also got a lot to do today. How should you open your first meeting this morning? It will be stressful…
   Our minds are designed to constantly explain what’s happening. Since the thoughts keep coming, you don’t want to fight it. Just think it and release it to make room for other types of thoughts.
2. Imaginative. Our brains are also designed to see what’s possible. We can imagine the future or imagine ourselves in certain situations. Athletes imagine themselves shooting a free throw or sinking a putt. Artists imagine a completed canvas. Leaders imagine product innovations or a future state of the organization. During my deliberate thinking time, I imagine myself walking with God in Northern Minnesota. We talk and I experience being there in that place. It gives me a peace and perspective like I’d have if I were there rather than in the hotel room.
3. Automatic. Daniel Kahneman calls this System 1 thinking, or “thinking fast.” It’s the thinking about needing to re-position your body to relieve your back pain. It’s the thought to silence the alert on your phone, or the thoughts that will rush in when you step through your morning routine. It can be helpful to recognize that these automatic thoughts exist because they are hard wired to guide your moment-to-moment responses to the world.
4. Careful. Kahneman refers to this as System 2 thinking, or “thinking slow.” This is the planning for work meetings you’ll lead. It’s the deliberation over a difficult decision. And it’s the calculations I was making in my brain about how much travel time I needed between meetings on this work trip because I was in an unfamiliar city. At home, that would have been automatic.
   Careful thinking is important for choosing wisely and performing tasks with caution. I chose to do careful thinking at the completion of my deliberate thinking time in that hotel room. My mind was calm and vigilant to make good choices.
5. Experiential. As David Rock explains, scientists refer to another type of thinking as the direct experience. It’s when you process information coming into your senses in real time. As I sat quietly in my hotel room, I monitored my breathing, slowly in for four beats, slowly out for four beats. I noticed where I felt pain or tension in my body. I listened to the quiet and observed the darkness.
   Experiential thoughts are particularly useful because they are inversely correlated with Narrative thoughts. You can’t think about your breathing and the stress you feel about your upcoming meetings at the same time.

While it’s true that the body fuels the mind, it’s also true that the mind drives the body. To be your best self, it’s important to dedicate time to physical fitness. Perhaps more importantly, it’s necessary to invest regular time in mental fitness. It will result in more holistic management of your mind, which will lead to greater peace and performance.

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