8 Simple Habits That Increase YOUR Mental Fitness!

Resilience training for every day. Our lives have never been more demanding than they are today. We are dealing with a flood of information demanding to be processed in a split second. We encounter more people in the digital world in an hour than we would in the analog world during our entire lives. We have grown up in an awareness that everything is possible and feasible. We now strive to achieve this high ideal day after day. Modern society expects women to master family, job and good looks with ease and with a smile on their face. Men have to be strong, but also sensitive, successful, family-oriented and best of all invulnerable. The best of us can lose mental strength under this pressure. The keyword "resilience" has become increasingly important in recent years. It describes a state of mental stability, balance and inner strength. This can even be measured by means of various tests. Mainly, however, we can feel it when we reach our limits. In this article, we're going to show you eight simple but effective ways you can do something for your mental strength every day.

1. Start with the easiest tasks.

Your to-do list is packed and you're already lagging behind as soon as your alarm goes off? No need to panic. Take a deep breath and always remember what Buddha tells us for exactly these situations in life. If you are in a hurry, go slowly. Have a cup of coffee and look out of the window. Then choose the easiest task of all that is on the agenda today. Start with it and then work your way through your list step by step. If you don't get it all done, it's no big deal. The trick to this exercise is to start with a sense of accomplishment. It makes you feel good and gives you the confidence and momentum to ultimately tackle it all.

2. Recognizing limits and giving up are not the same thing.

Smart people know when jobs and relationships are beyond saving. They prefer to cut their losses rather than continue to ride a dead horse. Of course, there is always the suspicion that they have chosen the easier path of surrender. After all, fighting is always more strenuous and admired than deserting. But don't worry: you are in fact doing everything right if you refuse to waste your precious resources senselessly. Empty miles and wasted lifetime are two of the biggest mistakes we can make.

3. Accept that you can't control everything.

The famous Serenity Prayer, which has become the mantra of many help-seekers around the world, sums things up perfectly. Once we can identify what we can and can't change, that's half the battle in the fight for our peace of mind. Some of this is common knowledge; much we have to learn the hard way. Changing other people, for example, will always be an impossibility. But we can correct our views and expectations of them. Life circumstances and goals are not set in stone either. A course correction is possible at any time. This control is really in your own hands.

4. Practice humility.

It's not one of the greatest human virtues for nothing, even though it's usually the hardest for us to achieve. Mental strength requires that we be at peace with ourselves. We must accept that we will never be perfect and that we have weaknesses, but also strengths. Being able to admit with deep conviction when we have really screwed something up is not pleasant, but extremely liberating. We say "yes" to our imperfections and then we can move on with peace of mind.

5. You are who you are.

If there's one thing you should absolutely stop doing immediately for the sake of your peace of mind, it's comparing yourself to other people. Always remember: no one is really the way he or she presents himself or herself to us. When dealing with fellow human beings whom you admire and would like to emulate, always imagine an iceberg. What you see is at most a third of the whole picture. Everyone, really everyone, has a battle to fight that we have no idea about. We are all a part of the big picture or an image of God or some other higher power, however you choose to see it. Don't you think you’re all right as the heavenly designers made you?

6. Face your fears.

Each and every one of us has demons to contend with. They may not be three-dimensional scary characters like in the movies, but they keep us up at night and can literally drive us crazy during the day. Fears are valuable companions if we acknowledge them. They show us our limits and warn us against rash actions. The more you are able to consciously deal with them, the more helpful they will seem to you in the future.

7. Strengthen your mind with daily exercises.

Yes, our mental strength can also be exercised on a daily basis. In fact, it is now proven that daily meditation exercises and a few minutes in complete silence make an enormous contribution to mental balance. For those who like to go above and beyond, integrate physical exercise in the fresh air with a daily balancing workout for mind and soul. For those who need a quick fix, short guided meditations or a body scan, which can be done anytime and anywhere, can help.

8. Constructive criticism: Yes please!

Sometimes mental strength can come from the outside. This is the case when we can recognize and appreciate constructive criticism as just that. We learn from our mistakes to do better. This continuous augmenting of our abilities strengthens our self-esteem and gives us security. If we get into an exceptional situation mentally, we can orientate ourselves on these very things and hold on to them.

Today’s Conclusion:

In recent years, the term resilience has not been the only one to find its way into our everyday language. Almost simultaneously, the keyword "mindfulness" has also reached us. These two go best hand in hand through life and complement each other perfectly. Those who manage to be completely focused in the here and now will be able to gain an enormous advantage in terms of mindfulness. At the same time, this strategy strengthens us incrementally and arms us for hectic situations and stress when they can’t be avoided. But concrete resilience training can also be learned with professional help. The advantage of this is that the tools you’ll receive there equip you for the rest of your life. Many companies are already taking this into account by integrating burnout prophylaxis into their internal health care. Even the economy has already recognized that prevention is clearly preferable to cure. The best way, however, is to reach for help through self-help. This is free of charge and independent, and we ourselves are, after all, the ones who know our own needs best. The same applies to mental health as to physical health: We only have this one mind and body. That's it for today.