On Mental Fitness (Mental Health 2.0)

At the end of a long day, I sometimes catch myself doomscrolling through my YouTube recommendations.

Most of the time I don’t even watch those. Just scrolling by. Unconsciously searching for something that isn’t there.

And once in a while, I stumble upon something peculiar.

This time, it was a video of Simon Sinek, a thought leader I always enjoy listening to. He was talking about a new term that piqued my interest: “Mental Fitness.” I stopped and rewatched the clip several times, intrigued by the concept.

“Mental Fitness”. Not mental health - quite an overused term. Mental Fitness.

Like physical fitness - one’s ability to execute daily activities with optimal performance, endurance, and strength.

With mental health, we strive to maintain it and heal or seek help when it’s failing. But what do we do with physical fitness? We exercise to improve it.

So the term fitness changes perspective a little. It implies action and agency. It suggests that we can exercise to improve it. Make it better. Be more resilient. Train it like a muscle.

A very interesting thought.

Judging by the number of materials on the topic available in Google we will see development of this term and maybe someday we will have the same comprehensive studies and training programs with diets as we have with physical fitness.

Some links I’ve found interesting:

• Simon Sinek’s video
• https://blog.smilingmind.com.au/what-is-mental-fitness
• https://www.starlingminds.com/mental-fitness-explained-by-a-cbt-psychologist/
• https://www.newthinking.com/health/mental-fitness-over-mental-health-a-rhetorical-shift
• https://eightify.app/summary/personal-development-and-relationships/simon-sinek-s-tips-for-mental-fitness-relationships-and-purpose-e230
• https://www.entrepreneur.com/leadership/5-tips-to-build-mental-fitness-within-your-teams/360437