Can You Actually “Work Out” Your Mind?

I actually get asked this question more often than one may think. I think the general inquisition is to know if can we train our minds to be stronger and healthier? The answer is yes, of course, and I’m going to tell you how. But, let’s take it a little farther and explore what happens to our physical fitness when we improve our mental fitness.

Some of my favorite ways to make mental improvements, or to train my mind, are through meditations, breath work, consistent behavior patterns, consistent sleep patterns, and journaling for thought release.

Let me answer the question by giving an example of the first two: meditations with breath work and consistent behavior patterns.

My most recommended technique for mind training is through meditation with breath work. Meditation practices come in multiple forms; guided, Vipassana, chakra, transcendental, and Zen to name a few.

Guided mindfulness meditation is easily one of the best ways to begin a practice. “Apple like Calm” or podcasts and YouTube channels make it very accessible to find something that suits your practice level. This type of meditation typically focuses on clearing your mind through breath work and posture positioning allowing space for clarity and ease, thus training your mind to focus on the present, replacing spinning thoughts of worry with living mindfully in the moment.

How may this help with our physical fitness? When we have a fitness goal to achieve, we want to focus wholly on progressive behaviors to achieve our goals and not self sabotage with spinning thoughts of not being good enough, strong enough, or capable. Quite simply, we are training the mind by letting it sit still.

Consistency in behaviors can ignite positive changes in our daily lives. I have found the consistency of taking daily stock of my emotions help me to tap into what is going on in my mind and how my emotions affect my drive towards my fitness goals. So, if I am not feeling my best one afternoon, I recognize that feeling and will turn inward to see why that is, creating a spotlight on my emotions and training my thought processes to align behaviors and moods, perhaps even training my mind to deliver drive and encouragement to participate in physical activity.

I hope this explains how building up the strength of your mind can impact the strength of your body in a pretty seamless chain of events. Train your mind and your body will follow.