(Estimated reading time 4 minutes)

If you’re physically fit, you can climb steep hills without physical stress. If you’re mentally fit, you can handle life’s great challenges without mental stress or other negative emotions. You’ll be happier and perform better.

Shirzad Charmine

My Recent Experience with Mental Fitness

Over the summer, I took a 6-week course on mental fitness. What is mental fitness? It is your capacity to respond to life’s challenges with a positive rather than a negative mindset.

The course sounded intriguing, based on a blend of Neuroscience, Performance Science, Positive Psychology and Cognitive Psychology. The idea that we can change our brains is both appealing and weighty. We can decrease activity in the brain region where stress, anxiety, insecurity and fear live. We can increase grey matter in the brain area that can be clear and calm, motivating us through positive emotions like empathy, curiosity, creativity, passion and purpose. This change in our brains can occur through simple exercises practiced regularly and can be identified on an MRI after as little as six weeks.

“Thoughts are real, physical things that occupy mental real estate. Moment by moment, every day, you are changing the structure of your brain through your thinking. When we hope, it is an activity of the mind that changes the structure of our brain in a positive and normal direction.”

Dr. Caroline Leaf, Cognitive Neuroscientist, and author of Switch On Your Brain: The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking, and Health

The Benefits You can Expect

Here’s some of what I found after doing the 6-week Mental Fitness course. The benefits you might experience are not limited to these.

• I was amazed that such simple and quick exercises could make such a powerful difference to my thinking
• I experienced greater calm and confidence
• I found myself more able to quickly and easily identify thoughts that sabotage me.
• I was able to start doing things I wanted to do but had previously felt resistance or fear
• I experienced quicker recovery when I felt self-sabotaged, emotionally hooked or hijacked
• I have some concrete tools on which I can now rely
• I have an increased ability to make decisions based on what I want, especially in emotionally charged situations

This change in our brains can occur through simple exercises practiced regularly and can be identified on an MRI after as little as six weeks.

I got so much out of the six weeks that I decided to enroll in the coaching certification for Positive Intelligence and mental fitness training.

If going through this six-week mental fitness program sounds like something you’d like to hear more about, keep reading.

The Investment

Time

During the six weeks, you will need to commit to:

• Doing 15 minutes of mental fitness practice exercises a day with App-based prompts
• Watching a one-hour training video each week. The New York Times best selling author and Stanford professor Shirzad Charmine does the video training. This work is based on his research and captured in the book Positive Intelligence.
• Attending a weekly pod group (with me as your leader). Groups will be 30-60 minutes in duration and have 3-6 people per group. (If groups are not your thing, we can talk about other ways to check in)
• During the six weeks, read the first eight chapters of the book Positive Intelligence by Shirzad Charmine. I will provide you with these chapters at no extra cost.

Money

The cost of this program is typically $1000. As part of my certification process I am required to take a certain number of people through the program. As a result of this certification requirement, I am offsetting the cost and offering it to you (for a limited time) for just $99 CAD. It’s a win-win! You get to discover this incredible brain-altering material, and I get to practice what I’m learning. I am excited to add these new science-based techniques to my coaching practice.

If all that sounds appealing and you want to learn more, you can read more detail about the 6-week program on the Positive Intelligence website (including the detail of the six-week program, the three core mental muscles and how you measure mental fitness. You can also take the free assessment and discover your top saboteur).

My Offer

If you’d like to go on the waitlist to be part of the six-week program for just $99*, let me know. (*This is an introductory offer only; pricing will increase without notice.)

This week’s Photos

I am an amateur photographer. One of the ways I promote my own mental fitness by paying close attention to what I see, hear, smell and feel when walking. Here is some of what I captured on this week’s walks.

Here’s one I took at home

Coaching

The work I do as a coach focuses on personal growth. That could include but is not limited to: developing courage and mental fitness, clarifying values and honouring those values in your life, setting boundaries, becoming more assertive, creating self-awareness and confidence, setting goals, finding your inner strength, identifying and dealing with the thoughts that sabotage you, support in making changes or in going through transitions, and work on discovering your life purpose. Personal growth can have a profound and positive impact on your career, your work and personal relationships and your general satisfaction with life.

If you’re interested in coaching or doing the six-week mental fitness program, please connect with me here.

Sue Das, CPCC, ACC, B Soc Sc (SW)