Eight Steps Towards Increasing Your Mental Fitness

By viewing the brain like a muscle, we can stretch and strengthen it, building our capacity to manage stress and strain.

Mental fitness is a paradigm that embraces the magic of neuroplasticity – the brain's ability to form new neural connections and reorganize itself. The notion of mental fitness is inherently optimistic and hopeful. It shifts us from an illness approach to a growth mindset. And building mental fitness increases your resilience.

Resilience is a process. It results in positive adaptation. There are skills involved in being resilient. And these aren’t taught in schools! But they can be learned. And resilience training is designed to do just that.

Here are some steps to help you get started:

Step 1 Settle down: sink into the weight of your body to stay grounded (count if you need to!)

Step 2 Stay present: breath and quiet the chatter in the mind (Why everyone loves mindfulness... but it’s just one step!)

Step 3 Tune in to your body: feel your emotions (emotion is information)

Step 4 Identify and label the emotions you’re feeling (read the information)

Step 5 Don’t react! Resist the impulse (or tendency toward a knee-jerk reaction) associated with your emotions

Step 6 Understand your emotional reaction. Is it logical... (consider the context)

Step 7 Assess the CORRECT response: choose to act in alignment with your values and ultimate goal

Step 8 Take the appropriate response: communicate or assert respectfully what you need or desire (while being empathic and respectful of the other person!)

Dr. Jackie Kinley, MD, FRCPC

Department of Psychiatry

Dalhousie University