ONE OF THE most under-appreciated and overlooked aspects to achieving true fitness is mental health. Just as you won’t see real progression if you don’t eat right, you’ll never achieve true fitness if your mental health is compromised.
Times are changing, but there is still a stigma attached to mental health issues in our society. Those dealing with depression, anxiety and other issues—in many cases the result of modern life’s stresses and strains—often feel like they can’t come forward and talk openly.
Addressing these issues is essential for a healthy and fulfilling life, however. From a physical standpoint you can never reach your true potential – strength-wise and endurance-wise – if you don’t take steps to address your mental health.
It is now clear that one’s mental and physical health are linked. A little bit of stress, for example, is okay — there’s nothing wrong with a little adrenaline or nervous energy given the right circumstances — but too much stress can lead to illness.
For the sake of your physical health, it’s important to take a mindful approach to stressful situations. It’s a long hard process of trial and error, but it’s important to learn how to react to situations in way that end up with you stuck in a cycle of negative thought patterns, anger and depression.
Part of this process involves understanding that there are situations in which you have absolutely no control over. For example, you can’t change certain people: you can’t change the way they think; you can’t change the way they act. All you have control over is the way you think and the way you act.
Don’t get sucked into other people’s negativity. Deal with situations compassionately and sensibly — be a good person — but understand that there is only so much you can do.
Learn to love yourself and to respect yourself. It’s an important step on the road to good emotional health. You can never truly love others, and treat them with the dignity they deserve, until you’re able to treat your own self with that love and dignity. Think of the really angry people that you’ve interacted with in your life — that anger often comes from a place of fear and self-loathing
While it’s important to acknowledge the wrongs that have been done to us — to talk them over and to heal from them — it’s also important to, over time, not let those wrongs hold us down and dominate our thoughts. It’s important to let go. When you stew over past injustices you cede the power to heal; you take the ability to heal out of your own hands and you leave it in the hands of those who have done you wrong.
‘Free your mind and your ass will follow!’ It’s a catchy, light-hearted mantra, but one that sums up the link between mental and physical health. It’s just a starting point, however. Developing strong emotional health — speaking to family, friends and professionals about your problems and responding to events in a healthy manner — may require a long, hard journey. But it’s a journey that you need to undertake in order to achieve true fitness. The destination is a rewarding one.
