How Fit Is Your Mind?
Why your brain needs new information, not the same old thoughts
We think about fitness for our bodies all the time.
How many steps did I take?Did I work out today? Am I eating enough protein?Am I drinking enough water?
We understand that what we feed our bodies matters.
We also understand that physical fitness requires more than knowing what to do.
You can know everything there is to know about exercise, but eventually you have to move your body.
So, when was the last time you thought about doing the same thing for your mind?
When was the last time you asked:
What am I feeding my mind?
And perhaps even more importantly:
What am I doing with what I feed it?
Because many of us are trying to solve today's problems with information, assumptions, beliefs, and strategies we've been carrying around for decades.
And then we wonder why we keep arriving at the same answers.
Your Brain Can't Work With What It Doesn't Know
This is something I've talked about with the people I coach for years.
If you want to communicate differently, have healthier relationships, become a stronger leader, manage stress differently, establish boundaries, make better decisions, or simply understand yourself better, you may need to give your mind new information to work with.
Think about it.
If no one ever taught you what a healthy boundary looks like, why would you automatically know how to establish one?
If the communication you witnessed growing up involved avoiding conflict, shutting down, yelling, or keeping everyone happy, where would you have learned another way?
If you learned that success comes from pushing harder, doing more, and never slowing down, how would you know there might be another way to achieve?
Sometimes we judge ourselves for not knowing how to do something differently when perhaps we were never given different information.
We can't expect ourselves to automatically know something we've never learned.
Fortunately, our brains are capable of continuing to learn.
Your Brain Was Designed to Learn
One of the most exciting things we've learned about the brain is its capacity for neuroplasticity: the ability of the nervous system to adapt and change in response to learning and experience.
Learning doesn't stop because we reach a certain age.
New information can give us new perspectives. New experiences can give us new reference points. And practice gives us opportunities to actually use what we've learned.
That can give our minds something incredibly important:
More possibilities.
Instead of automatically reaching for the same response we've used for years, we may begin to recognize:
Wait. There may be another way to think about this.
There may be another way to respond.
Maybe what I've always believed isn't the only possibility.
That's when learning becomes more than acquiring information.
It can begin to change how we live.
We Talk About Unlearning. But We Also Need to Learn.
Much of my work through Mindology and the D.A.R.E. Method involves helping people recognize unconscious beliefs that may be influencing their patterns.
But discovering an old belief is only part of the process.
We also have to give ourselves something new to work with.
If somewhere along the way I learned:
I have to keep everyone happy.
I can begin introducing new information:
I can care about someone without being responsible for their happiness.
If I learned:
I can't make a mistake.
I can learn:
Making a mistake doesn't determine my worth or ability.
If I learned:
I have to do everything myself.
I can begin considering:
Asking for help is a resource, not a failure.
Suddenly, the mind has another option.
That doesn't mean the old response instantly disappears.
Knowing something new and living something new are two very different things.
And that's where Mind Fitness really begins.
Mind Consumption Is Not Mind Fitness
We have access to more information today than perhaps any generation before us.
We can consume information all day long.
We hear something inspiring and think:
That's so true...We save the post...Highlight the sentence...Take a screenshot.
Write the idea in our Notes app.
And then?
We move on to the next thing.
The information may have been interesting, inspiring, or entertaining. We may even remember some of it.
But Mind Fitness isn't about how much information you consume. It's about what you do with what you learn.
Think about going to the gym.
You could sit there for an hour watching someone else use the treadmill.
You could study their technique.
You could learn how the controls work.
You could take notes about incline, speed, heart rate, and the perfect workout.
But watching someone else exercise isn't going to improve your cardiovascular fitness.
At some point:
You have to get on the treadmill.
The same is true with your mind.
Listening to a podcast about boundaries isn't the same as setting one.
Reading a book about communication isn't the same as changing the way you communicate.
Watching a video about managing stress isn't the same as practicing what it teaches when you're actually under stress.
Information becomes useful when we take it off the page, out of the podcast, or off the screen, and put it into our lives.
Your Brain Needs the Experience
Let's say you've spent most of your life saying yes when you really wanted to say no.
Then you learn something new:
I can say no without being responsible for someone else's disappointment.
You may even believe it intellectually.
But the next time someone asks you for something you don't want to do, you have an opportunity to actually practice what you've learned.
You pause...You tolerate the discomfort.
And you say no.
Now you've done something very different.
You've moved from information to experience.
And the next time the situation occurs, you practice again.
And again...And again.
This is an important part of how learning becomes more durable.
The brain changes through experience and repetition. With practice, neural connections and networks involved in a skill or response can become more efficient, and practiced behaviors can become easier to access.
In other words:
New information gives your brain another option.
Practice gives your brain experience using that option.
Repetition helps strengthen the pattern so the new response can become more familiar and, over time, potentially more automatic.
That's neuroplasticity at work.
You Don't Build a New Default in One Repetition
Think about building muscle.
You don't go to the gym once, lift a weight, and expect to wake up the next morning stronger.
You lift it again...And again...And again.
Over time, your body adapts to what you repeatedly ask it to do.
Learning works similarly in an important way.
You can't practice something once and expect it to become your new default any more than you can lift a weight once and expect to build a muscle.
Repeated practice matters.
There isn't a magic number of repetitions or a universal number of days required to create a new habit or response. Different behaviors, people, and circumstances vary.
But the principle is important:
What we repeatedly practice can become easier and more automatic.
That's why changing a lifelong response often feels awkward at first.
The new response is new.
The old one has had years of practice.
So perhaps instead of thinking:
This doesn't feel natural. I must not be able to change.
We could think:
Of course this doesn't feel natural yet. I haven't practiced it enough.
That one word, yet, can make an enormous difference.
Create a Mind Fitness Goal
We establish goals for our physical fitness.
Walk three times a week...Go to the gym...Build strength...Increase flexibility.
Eat differently.
What if we became just as intentional about the fitness of our minds?
Ask yourself:
What area of my life do I want to become better at?
Relationships?...Communication?...Boundaries?...Leadership?...Stress?...Finances
Confidence?...Self-worth?...Emotional regulation?
Then ask:
What do I need to learn that I don't currently know?
That's your Mind Fitness Goal.
Now create a Mind Feed around it.
Choose one area for the next 30 days.
Find a book or audiobook that teaches you something about it.
Listen to a thoughtful podcast during your commute.
Read for 15 minutes instead of scrolling.
Take a class.
Have a conversation with someone who knows something you don't.
Listen while you're exercising.
Or take a walk somewhere peaceful, away from the constant distractions and notifications, and give yourself time to actually pay attention to what you're learning.
Then stop.
Open the Notes app on your phone and capture what mattered.
But don't stop at: That's a good idea...Go further.
Learn. Practice. Reflect. Repeat.
After you've learned something, ask yourself:
What did I learn?
What challenged something I already believed?
Where could I use this in my life?
What is one thing I will actually DO differently?
Then practice it...And afterward, reflect:
What happened when I tried it?
What did I notice?...What worked?
What will I practice differently next time?
Then repeat.
LEARN → PRACTICE → REFLECT → REPEAT
That's Mind Fitness.
Not collecting information.
Not filling your phone with screenshots.
Not highlighting another sentence you'll never look at again.
Not listening to someone else talk about changing their life.
Actually using what you're learning to change yours.
Give Your Mind Something New to Work With
Perhaps one of the most powerful questions we can ask ourselves isn't simply:
What do I need to stop doing?
Maybe it's:
What do I need to learn?
What information could help me become a better communicator?
A healthier partner?...A more confident leader?...A calmer parent?
A more fulfilled person?
And then:
What am I willing to practice until knowing it begins to become living it?
Because we can't change everything we learned or experienced in the past.
But we can decide what information we're going to give our minds now.
We can expose ourselves to different ideas.
We can question what we thought we knew.
We can learn another way.
And then we can practice that new way enough times to give our brains the opportunity to make it a familiar experience that it can remember.
Don't just save the quote.
Don't just highlight the sentence.
Don't just write down the idea.
Give yourself the experience of actually using it.
Because the goal of Mind Fitness isn't simply to know more.
It's to have something new to draw from when life gives you the opportunity to respond differently.
You have goals for your body. You have goals for your career. You have goals for your finances.
Maybe it's time to have goals for your mind.
What will you feed yours today?
Want to learn more? Want to teach your brain a new, better way? Let us help you get there faster...Book your FREE 30 minute Consultation, and let's get Mindfit.
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