Remember the Cyclops in Homer’s The Odyssey? They had one giant eye. They were big and oafish and did what they wanted when they wanted to. That one eye was symbolic. They had no depth perception. They lacked insight. 

You know what mental fitness does for you? Think of it as your second eye. You have an eye on what’s happening in the physical world, and you have insight into what’s going on in your world. That comes from mental fitness.

Mental fitness is the perfect description for how to keep your nervous system, your stress and anxiety into manageable ranges. You know how it feels when you’re “not yourself.” It may be just for a day or for a series of days. You may even begin to notice patterns as to what times of week, or month, or year you begin to feel “off.” 

It’s antiquated to think, “Oh, somethings wrong with me. I need to get fixed.” That is so 20th century.

Why? Because it’s normal to get out of sequence, to feel off. 

We could write a book about the many reasons why this happens–and why it isn’t your “fault.” First of all, blaming yourself tends to lead into some of the very same patterns that get you to feel bad in the first place. Perhaps more importantly, it is normal to feel disconnected with yourself when you live in a culture of disconnection. 

We’re disconnected from ourselves. We naturally tend to avoid getting still and listening to what’s really going on. It’s easier to throw on that next song, start up the next binge watch, hit the next margarita, indulge in some online shopping, or Instagram scrolling. The options for self avoidance through distraction are virtually endless. 

We’re also disconnected from each other. Where are the institutions that used to bring us together and give us some sense of belonging? Mostly gone or moribund.

We’re disconnected from nature. How good do you feel when you just take a walk around some trees and hear a few birds singing? Are the birds still there? A few.

When you engage in physical fitness you don’t do it because something’s wrong with you. You do it to feel good and possibly to look good. In a word, you do it for your health.

You may do it to train for an event or activity you like to do. You may do it for long-term goals of living a longer, healthier life. And more good news about physical activity, although you probably already know it from experience: it’s great for your mental health!

You work the muscle of your mental health in much the same way you think about going to the gym or getting in a regular workout. You develop habits, routines, rituals to feel better. You approach it any number of ways, whatever your goals may be. And just like physical fitness, you approach your mental fitness with an intention. At least you do if your purpose is to experience results out of that stress, anxiety, burnout, or depression.

And just like when you start running or cycling or holding a yoga pose or back squatting, you don’t expect big results right away. In fact, you realize you may need to put in some reps just to push through the soreness. Your mind may not be used to you doing work on yourself and suddenly activating new neural pathways that aren’t used to being activated. 

Give your mental fitness a chance. 

You live in an incredible time. It’s time to start rewiring your brain and recognizing what neuroscientists and other researchers have already shown now for decades: you can learn new things. You can rewire yourself out of old habits and patterns. You can start feeling better about yourself, and learning to work on your blind spots, and how to communicate with others in more authentic, sustainable, and rewarding ways. 

You can learn to become more aware. You can learn to ask yourself the right questions, and to not be afraid of the answers you find. You can learn how to integrate that outer knowledge with the inner knowledge as well. 

You can learn. You can become more mentally fit. You can develop skills to help you address issues that arise like anxiety, chronic stress, burnout, and depression. And you can do that in part because you will begin to accept and recognize that it’s normal for you to have presenting symptoms when you feel ongoing disconnection for perfectly normal and understandable reasons.

Takeaways:

Mental fitness is like developing a "second eye" - providing insight into your inner world to complement your view of the external world.

Feeling disconnected or "off" is normal in our modern culture, which promotes disconnection from ourselves, others, and nature.

Mental fitness can be approached similarly to physical fitness - through developing habits, routines, and rituals with the intention of improving over time.