Hi, Paul here again, welcome to the next part of the course, which is creating mind fitness. In this video, we will be looking at what mind fitness is what that means. And also we will be delving into certain areas of our lives that we need to keep in balance in order to create that mind fitness. So when you think of mind fitness, perhaps easiest word to define in that term is fitness. And when you think of fitness, we have this tendency, obviously to think about a physical fitness, in that if you go to the gym, for instance, every day or if you're training for a triathlon, and sooner or later you're going to say the physical effects of that work of that training become fatal. To become healthier, and it's physically evident.

Now mind fitness is a little bit difficult, or more difficult, I should say. So define because the mind is an intangible thing. We don't see we don't physically see the effects on the mind if we're doing all these things, keeping them in balance that is leading to a healthier, happier mind. And it's for this very reason that a lot of people are somewhat reluctant to take up mind exercises or to meditate on a frequent basis because you don't physically see the results. At least when it comes to meditation for a number of weeks after. So, in defining mind fitness, I would say this, I would say mind fitness is about developing self awareness.

Mind fitness is also about having an understanding as to how your mind works, and putting measures in place, and balancing certain variables such as having, you know, a good diet, good nutrition, adequate sleep, exercise and practicing things like mindfulness and meditation, that's how we create mind fitness, but by balancing these certain measures, then that will lead to the creation of a healthier, happier mind. So, in the first section of this course, we, we looked at your brain and the effects that certain things can have on our brain, such as stress and technology, for instance. Now, on a very basic level, you should understand that you know, we are wired our brain is wired to more or less survive to keep this vessel safe from danger. You know, the human mind has only been evolving for about two minutes. In years or so, and in that time, you know, we've seen a new structure, which is the prefrontal cortex.

So this is the most evolved part of our mind. And you can see from some of the materials you've read so far, it's responsible for things like decision, concentration, cancer control, focus, okay? Now, more primal part of the brain is what we call the limbic system, which sits very much the central part of the brain and leads down to a spinal cord. And within that limbic system, we have the amygdala gland, which is responsible for fight or flight. And this is more or less a device, an internal device that we have to keep our body safe, and we have been wired. For the past 2 million years we've been conditioned to think a certain way in order to ensure its safety.

We've also spoken about the subconscious program. Okay, your view of the world, your beliefs, your concept of self identity. These are the parameters if you like, or your main frame or your foundation, your program from which you filter the world from which your brain filters rapidly when you're dealing with adversity or a challenge. So, the point here being is that the brain is wired to survive. And in many instances, we are restricted in that a lot of us view the world with these blinkers on for instance, our senses filter out a lot of information. Okay?

And by doing so, we, we live in this world, that becomes our reality. Okay, but through practicing things like mindfulness and meditation and emotional intelligence and critical thinking, which we'll be talking about in this calls, what you begin to do is you begin to widen or take away slowly take away these blinkers so to speak, because there's so much more potential residing up here. And that's what creating mind fitness is all about. It's about tapping into that potential. It's about having an understanding of things like your emotion and what your natural tendency might be when you're confronted by a challenge or adversity, which is to revert back to your subconscious program. Okay?

But again, mind fitness is having an awareness about all of this having an appreciation that our brain is wired to keep us alive to react in a very confined way, in accordance with what our reality has become. Okay? But there's a lot more going on in this reality. And there's a lot more we can tap into in order to extract our potential to find resilience. So that, you know, I'm going to swim it when so When shit hits the fan, you have the ability, you have the mental capability to deal with that, to look at your life from this objective perspective, and say, Okay, well, this is how I'm wired to react. This would be my normal course of reaction.

But through implementing some of these tools that I've now learned, such as emotional intelligence, critical thinking, again, we're going to get this get to these things in the very next video, I can then respond to the situation in a different way. Okay, this is what creating mind fitness is all about. But in order to get there, you need to have discipline just like you're going to the gym with training for a triathlon. In order to get there, you need to upkeep the certain mental exercises that we'll go through. And again, you might not see the benefits straightaway. But what that is, in fact doing is it is recalibrating, reconditioning the prefrontal cortex.

It's giving you that ability to really operate in that crucial gap between stimulus right Something happens in your physical environment and response. That's a short gap, not in five seconds. Sometimes I say that prisons are full of people who haven't adequately responded in that crucial gap. But creating and sustaining mindfulness is all about widening that gap or giving yourself the ability to exercise some of these mental tools. Because life they say is, you know, 10% of what happens to us, and 90% of how you react to it. So, I'd encourage you also to think about your own definition of mind fitness.

But in a nutshell, mind fitness to me is having an appreciation of how the mind works in taking responsibility to look after it and how we do that is finding the balance finding the balance between a few very important things, and I've already touched on them. First is nutrition and diet. Okay, you've heard the saying you are what you eat. There is now overwhelming research that there is a direct correlation, for instance, between your gut bacteria, right what's happening in your stomach, the food you eat, and your mental performance and your mental health. So nutrition is key, make sure you're getting enough fiber neat heaps of fruit and veg. You know, and I'm not here to be your nutritionist.

I'm not saying you can eat cake or, or binge occasionally on fast food, but you have to find that balance that balance between good food and the occasional treat in order to optimize your mental well being and your mind fitness. That's the first thing. Secondly, make sure you get enough sleep. We've spoken about the parasympathetic nervous system, the rest and digest mode, you need to get enough sleep to be recharging for your body to detoxify to recharge itself. So I encourage you don't be on your devices before you go to sleep. And I might put up some further information on the downloadable Materials if you are having trouble sleeping for you to access, that's the other thing getting enough sleep.

Exercise is paramount. I read somewhere today that doing 15 minutes of exercise a day find exercise 15 minutes is equivalent to taking an antidepressant, right? We know now that exercise based oxygen to the brain and enhances memory, you know lowers the chance of diabetes and various diseases. So you got to get physically fit in order to be mind fit. And the other thing is you need to be doing mental exercises like meditation, and mindfulness. But again, we're going to get to this in the last part of the course, which is sustaining your mind fitness.

It's very important to to do this. So that's more or less what mindfulness is all about finding that balance in the downloadable materials. Now, you're going to find a Balance we'll that's going to ask you to more or less write certain areas in your life so you can pinpoint where you're perhaps focusing more of your energy and where you should be trying to rebalance your life. So there's things there like your home life, your work life, your life purpose, if you have an awareness of that, your health, your friends, your romance, your development, which is, you know, this ongoing education, always self improving, which is what you're doing right now. So I commend you for that. And I don't know if I mentioned it but your work life as well.

So these are areas of your life that are meaningful that you spend a big chunk doing and it's important to have adequate balance, okay. So that's what the downloadable material is. So encourage you right now, go to that we'll pinpoint it will be all be self explanatory, but pinpoint where you're spending most of your energy. And then we're going to see at the end of the course, there'll be a bit of a challenge to we're going to see if that in fact changes. So that's it for this particular video, please download that particular sheet and do that now. And I'll see you very shortly in the next video.

Thank you