Mental fitness, trained like anything else.
Your mind is a muscle, and it can be trained. How fit it is shapes how you think, feel and act. Mental Flow is my method for training it: four mental muscles, practised a little at a time, until they become how you respond when things get hard. The result is doing your best work without losing your peace of mind.
Mental FlowTraining, not fixing
This isn’t therapy, and it isn’t positive thinking. I won’t try to swap your inner critic for a highlights reel of affirmations. Mental fitness is training: small, regular practice that builds your ability to meet whatever comes up.
We don’t suffer from a lack of information. We suffer from a lack of implementation. Books, talks and podcasts give us knowledge and inspiration, but nothing that turns it into change. You don’t get fit by learning more about exercise. You have to exercise, and the same goes for your mind.
Reacting
You’re stuck on what went wrong yesterday or what might go wrong tomorrow. Your thinking narrows and turns harsh, you feel stressed and stuck, and you act on the first impulse. Saying yes and resenting it. Rewriting the email a fifth time.
Responding
You’re here, in the present, not caught in yesterday or tomorrow. Your thinking opens up, becomes less critical and more discerning, you feel stable and able, and you act on purpose, not on impulse. Saying no kindly. Sending the email and moving on.
From Reacting to Responding
You’ll slip back into Reacting many times a day, and that’s fine. Every slip is a chance to catch it, and every catch is a rep.
What you’re training
Awareness
CuriousNoticing your inner critic and your automatic reactions as they happen, instead of being run by them. Every rep starts here.
Attention
ConnectedStepping out of the story in your head and into what’s actually here in front of you, so you can get on with what matters.
Acceptance
CompassionateLetting what you feel be there, without pushing it away or clinging to it, and meeting it with the warmth you’d give a struggling friend.
Action
Clear, creative, courageousWorking out what truly matters, and taking a small, real step towards it even while you feel afraid.
Five ways to train the same four muscles
Each one is built around short, flexible practices that fit into even the busiest schedule.
Joyful Impact Live
A free 45-minute session on Zoom, once a month. A first taste of the training.
Mental Flow Training
Six weekly one-to-one sessions, plus short daily practices that make it stick.
The Collective
An ongoing community for people doing meaningful work who don’t want to do it alone.
Let's talk
No pressure, no pitch. A free call is a bit like a mental fitness audit: we look at what's holding you back, where your strengths are, and what a sensible next step could be.
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