Hey, guys, and welcome back to another episode of your Brains Coach podcast. My name is Angela Shurina, I'm your host, I'm your Brains Coach and it is my job here to bring to you all the best recent, cutting-edge, most interesting, applicable and fascinating brain-body tools so you can take better control of your thoughts, take better control of your emotions and take better control, most importantly, your actions, so you could shape the life experience that you truly love living. What am I thinking about today, guys? I'm thinking about this phrase inner peace gives you outer strength, and you know where I'm reading this from. Inner peace gives you outer strengths, and you know where I'm reading this from Inner peace gives you outer strengths From a mind zone photograph, as I understand it.
Speaker 1I'm looking at this article on the website dedicated to Olympics, olympicscom, and the name of the article is Recharge and Refocus in the Athlete 365 Mind Zone X Power Rate at Paris 2024. Inner peace gives you outer strength. So, for the first time in the entire history of the Olympics, guys understand how important, what an important milestone it is for humanity. But the first time, athletes got their mind zone room, a room for meditation, a room for journaling, a room for just getting back to yourself, to your inner self, where you build the foundation for your outer strengths. For the first time in the history of Olympics next to the training room, their gym they have mind training room. Folks understand how important it is and why is it there? How are you, how are you really? When somebody asks you this question, what do you usually do? Do you brush off the question with the usual answer like I'm okay? Or do you actually check in with yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, maybe even spiritually? If you aren't okay on any particular day, do you actually say that? Maybe not in an oversharing kind of way, like not everybody needs to hear everything about your life or wants to hear, but are you at least honest with yourself in those micro-moments of life's check-in? Are you true to yourself in that moment, do you acknowledge what's happening inside of you?
Speaker 1Insights from the Olympics and Olympians. Insights from the Olympics and Olympians. I'm enjoying right now, every single day, a cool project that Michael Gervais and his team. Michael Gervais, a high-performance psychologist from the US. He's now at the Olympics in Paris and he's with the US team supporting them mentally, emotionally, psychologically. You know all the soft stuff that makes the hard stuff happen. Back to the quote inner peace gives you outer strength.
Speaker 1And so Michael Gervais has this amazing project that is happening right now on Spotify on his podcast, on any podcast platform actually the game inside the game, where he talks to Olympians. He talks to his co-host, former Olympian and champion, and they interview athletes and they talk about what's happening on the inside of the athlete, of any athlete that goes to the Olympics or any professional athlete. Like the game inside the game, what's happening inside of those amazing examples of human achievement, like what's happening in their head, emotionally, mentally, what's happening there. So that's what they are exploring on this daily series the Game Inside the Game, michael Gervais. So check it out. It's linked, by the way, in our daily newsletter. I need to also put it as a blog post, kind of like Seth Codin does, which is a project for the next month, august. Today is also the last month of July, so set your intentions in the next couple of days or today. So the gaming side of the game inside the game, and I'm enjoying it and it's packed with different insights about how our mind works and what are some practices that we can train and adjust our mindset to better suit fit our life so we get to live the life experience beautifully, in a rich and meaningful way, and here's something that Michael made me think about today, also continuing the conversation which we covered in our newsletter yesterday on small things and Kaizen and how change actually happens. So Michael made me think about what mental health actually is.
Speaker 1Mental health Are you above or below the line? Let's do a quick check-in here, evaluating your mental health. Are you feeling purposeful, fulfilled, optimistic, or is something small, a bit bothering you, triggering anxiety, worries, anger, disappointment, doubt, fear All these emotions that are not bad. They are meant to bring our attention towards things that perhaps aren't exactly working in our lives. It's like pain is there for a reason to give you a signal that something might be happening, something that you need to take care of if you want to avoid bigger problems down the road. So your physical, your mental health, they're very much alike, except for one thing they have different signals and they require different practices to work on them and to be aware of them. Like a physical body, it gives you signals, primarily through different pains and discomforts. Your mental health, your mind, your mindset, your inner life, they're different. Usually you get signals as emotional and mental states, and so you need to start getting fine-tuned, not just about your physical sensations, but also your emotional, mental sensations, which sometimes also can manifest into physical pain, because everything in your body, your emotional, your mentally physical states are connected through your nervous system. That's how mental becomes physical, right. But so, mental check-in are you feeling purposeful, fulfilled, optimistic, are you above the line, are you thriving? Or is something small, big, bothering you, triggering anxiety, worries, anger, disappointment, doubt, fears? And you need to look into that Daily practice.
Speaker 1For the mind, what do you do to create great, vibrant physical health? What do you do? Well, the thing's actually quite simple and we are aware of them. You need to sleep well, you need to eat well, you need to move well, and then you need to manage your stress well, which is a kind of connecting link between physical health and mental health. Taking care of your nervous system, of the state of your nervous system. That's what stress management is all about, right? So when you want to take care of your physical health so you thrive physically, you do those simple practices daily. And what do you do to support your mental health?
Speaker 1See, very often in our society, we somehow think that physical health, we get the idea that it might require consistent maintenance. Like you don't brush your teeth or take shower once a year and expect yourself to thrive in the realm of hygiene and cleanliness, you don't expect to work out once or for months and expect your fitness to last for a lifetime. Some people still expect that. They're like I want to get in shape and stay there. Well, you kind of have to do something every single day till the rest of your life if you want to be in that state, right? So we understand that. The same with nutrition. You don't get in shape by eating well once, or even for months or for a year. You keep going. When I go to the gym, people always ask me are you some sort of gymnast or athlete? And I say no, I just do that for 20 years. When you do something for 20 years and more, you get good and you get amazing return on the investment of that fractional investment of your time, which looks like something not ordinary to the rest of the people. Things compound.
Speaker 1So back to the practices for the mind. Do you reflect on and build your sense of purpose? Do you practice mindfulness and stillness? Do you cultivate positive emotions through gratitude and positive reframing or positive outlook on any situation. Do you allow yourself to experience and express all of your emotions, or do you brush them under the rug like some sort of nuisance? Mind as muscle. Mind is like muscle weak unless trained. This is my quote that I repeat over and over and over again to make you understand that that thing between your ears is just like your physical body. It works exactly like that. It requires maintenance. Mind is like muscle weak unless trained. Your brain is this powerful machine that needs both physical and mindset practices to work well. You need your body to be taken care of. You need your mindset and emotions and thoughts to be taken care of.
Speaker 1Mental health is not just a state. It's just like physical health is a skill set, a set of practices that you need to engage with on a regular basis. You don't work out once and expect fitness to last for a lifetime. You don't meditate or journal once and expect your mind to be okay for a lifetime. In life, folks, nothing is guaranteed except for this one very beautiful and amazing thing when you work on things, things get better.
Speaker 1I do some career coaching for my executive clients in transition in their life. You know you get your 40s, your 50s and you realize well, the thing that I chose 30 years ago might not be relevant. So how do I navigate the change? How do I even understand what I want? Very often we forget about mental self-checking practices and so in 20 years of not doing that, it's kind of like not exercising for 20 years. Can you imagine what's going to happen to your body? Can you imagine what's going to happen to your mind when you don't check in, don't work on it for 20, 30 years, in your 40s and 50s? You'll end up completely lost, disoriented, unfocused, not sure who you are, what you want and where are you going. That's what happens. So I help my clients to rebuild their career journey and there are a lot of practical steps.
Speaker 1But sometimes, when you okay, I understand now what I want to do and perhaps I need to apply for a new job, and I tell my clients well, yes, you're not going to be getting reply to every single one of your resumes or when you reach out to a person, and you might not even get a reply for the next 30, 40, 50 times. But you know what is guaranteed If you send more resumes, if you send out more messages, if you talk to more people, you will get better results than if you do nothing. And as you learn, as you adjust, you get better, you create better practices and life will move towards your desired goal, your desired destination. So what is guaranteed in life? When you work on things, things get better. When you work on your health, when you work on your mental health, when you work on your relationships, when you work on your work, things get better.
Speaker 1Body, mind work, true in any realm. So how are you really? How are you? And if the answer isn't 8 to 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, what might be some practices missing to consistently be truly well? And if you're not sure, if you're confused, if you don't know where to start, there are resources, like there is a free Try Me coaching session that I offer from time to time and it's available. The link is in the show notes. You can use it, you can give it to someone, you can share with the person you care about.
Speaker 1And let's start building that foundation of your mental fitness. Again, imagine if you never looked at your physical body, if you never exercised, or at least for 20-30 years, if you never put anything, any time, any attention to your physical body, what would happen in 20, 30, 40 years. That's how people end up with a lot of diseases and feeling like crap. So if you don't invest consistently into your mindset, into your mental health, just like your teeth, it will rotten and that will spoil the rest of the experience of your life. So invest in your mental health and, just like your physical body, just like your work, just like anything, when you invest in it, when you work on it, it gets better. So the first step that you can try, that you can take today, right now, is scheduling our Try Me coaching session. It's easy, it's free, and we'll build the foundation. We'll create the knowledge and understanding, the basic understanding of what mental health is as a practice, as a set of practices, and how you can start where you are.
Speaker 1It's like with fitness how do you start when you haven't worked out for 20, 30 years? Well, there is a better way, and the same with mental health. There is a better, small way that you can start investing into your mental health today, right now, and it will get better, and so will the quality of your entire life, work and relationships. When you change and improve what's inside your head, the rest of your life will change too. It's this famous saying. You know, when you change how you look at things, things will change. So that's what the quote is all about Changing what's inside your head. And that is a set of practices investing in your mental health.
Speaker 1So, not sure how to get started? There is a link to schedule our Try Me coaching session or share it. And let's get started and that's it. Let's begin investing in our mental health just like we do into our physical health, and it will get better, and so the rest of the quality of our lives. Try Me coaching session is available to use or share in the show notes and watch some Olympics. And watch the Olympics. Listen to Michael Gervais the Game Inside the Game, insightful beats of mindset, health, wisdom. Try our session, try me coaching, to start going through the actual practice, through the actual practice of improving your mental health and, until next time, stay well and keep working on things for them to get better.