You've probably heard the expression many times before, but still ask yourself, "what is mental training anyway?". In fact, you're not alone, it's a subject that's still unknown to many. Therefore, in this article we will explain what mental training means and also give you some tips on how to get started.
The road to better mental health
To keep your car running, service it at regular intervals. You exercise regularly to keep your body from breaking down. To help your brain work better and recover, you use mental training. Yes, it's actually the same principle as going to a gym when you start working on your brain. Just like you won't see a result after your first gym session, you won't notice the biggest difference after your first meditation. However, most people get an immediate increase in well-being of about 25% the first time. In other words, the path to better mental health is through mental gymnastics.
Mental training
Mental training means practicing to control your awareness and it is more difficult than many people think, but quite possible! Meditation and mindfulness are terms that often come up in these contexts. So it's good to know what they mean and how they differ from each other.
Mindfulness means presence of mind or conscious presence and can easily fconfused with meditation. Just as the name suggests, mindfulness in practice is about being present in the present moment. Meditation, on the other hand, is about focusing your awareness on an object, a thought or an activity, in order to practice attention and mindful presence. Mental training is basically about learning to become aware of your thoughts, quieting your mind and thus opening up to learning and recovery.
The leading figure of mindfulness in the West describes it this way: "Mindfulness is being consciously present in the present moment, without evaluating or judging what we experience. Mindfulness is about seeing what is. Mindfulness replaces denial and distortion with the clarity of acceptance, which leads to wisdom and better choices."
John Kabat-Zinn (1944)
Meditation - the foundation of mental training
Meditation is something that for many people feels alien, difficult and perhaps even a little scary. In fact, we tend to be afraid of anything that involves changing what we know or that is simply unfamiliar to us. Therefore, there will be a threshold to cross when you start meditation. Just as if you had gone to a gym and started lifting weights, you may feel some uncomfortable feelings at first. No, you won't get workout pains in your brain. However, you may feel emotions that you are not used to, this is because you are now getting closer to being aware of your thoughts and feelings.
"But what is meditation?"
The Shaolin monks have a good parable that explains what you are doing when you meditate. They call it "monkey brain" and explain it like this:
"Imagine that your brain is a monkey, so it sits in your head and chats all the time. When you meditate, you tell the monkey in your head to focus on one thing, your breathing, for example. Of course, the monkey won't be able to do this for very long at first, it needs to train itself first. However, don't get angry with it when it starts chattering about something other than your breathing. Instead, just remind it gently over and over again. When you meditate regularly, the monkey will reduce its chatter both during meditation and in everyday life."
In short, it's about focusing on one thing at a time without judging all the other impressions and thoughts that come up. It's impossible to control your thoughts, but you can choose what to do with them.
Choose your thoughts with mental training
Did you know that your brain is bombarded with about 70,000 thoughts every day? That's because every impression you receive, good or bad, is registered by your brain. You are not aware of most of these thoughts, but you can still control them to some extent. No matter how much mental training you do, the thoughts will keep coming throughout the day. However, most people don't realise that it is YOU who chooses which thoughts to focus on and give energy to. This is called mindfulness and is a key to good mental health. In fact, you may be constantly having a negative dialogue with yourself without being aware of it.
By practicing mindfulness, you can learn to let "bad" thoughts pass and put energy into the "good" ones. Learning this is a lot like raising a child. If a child is always screaming when you are in the store and you react by getting angry, the child will continue to scream in the store. You are giving the child attention and therefore "reward" whether it is positive or negative attention. On the other hand, if you had acknowledged the child's feeling and then continued with what you were doing, the child would calm down quite soon and the behaviour would probably disappear over time.
Your brain and your thoughts work the same way!
When a thought or feeling that you perceive as negative arises, you always have the choice of whether or not to give it attention - Good huh? However, it's not as simple as it sounds. First of all, you need to learn to become aware of your thoughts. Only then can you perceive that you are stuck in a negative thought loop. Then, it's not just a matter of stopping thinking those thoughts or feeling those emotions either. Paradoxically, if you actively try to stop thinking about the thought or feeling, you are giving it attention. Therefore, through mental training, you need to learn to use mindfulness to accept that the thought was there and then just move on to the next thought. Then it will disappear into the crowd and after a period of mental training, the number of negative thoughts (that you perceive) will be significantly fewer. Imagine what an opportunity for better mental health, changing behaviours and emotions in yourself this is!
Summary
Mental training is the regular practice of paying attention, focusing, concentrating and choosing which thoughts you give energy to. By training your brain, you can achieve better mental health in the long term and also release energy through recovery. Meditation and mindfulness are two key ingredients in mental training, but there is so much more to explore!
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