At this time of ever-growing COVID19 anxiety, conditioning our mind for mental vigor and fitness may be more important than many other steps we are all taking during our heightened awareness of disease transmission. At the very least, it will lead to less hand wringing and could lead to more hand washing. Now before you think this column is about physical exercise and muscle growth, Im talking here about another type of being F.I.T., one that Ive been writing and speaking about for many years. This F.I.T. has to do with being a Fundamentally Independent Thinker. Oh, right, the link is what you think, remember? Lets delve into this a bit and see how being an independent thinker, not hooked into external events, can help you through the COVID19 upheaval.

Epictetus, the Greek Stoic philosopher, often credited with laying a foundation for what we call Rational Emotive Behavior or Cognitive Behavior coaching, observed, Men are disturbed NOT by (external) things, but by the principles and notions (the beliefs and thoughts), which they form concerning things. He also noted, Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, what are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions.

Indeed, RichardDavidsonin The Emotional Life of Your Brain, wroteI would go so far as to assert that of all the forms of human behavior and psychological states, the most powerful influence on our physical health is our emotional life.Thats the power of your mental fitness on your mind-body wellness.

And WilliamJames, one of the most noteworthy psychologists throughout the ages, wrote,The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives. Again, thats the power of your mental fitness on your overall wellbeing.

This awareness isnt new. Clearly, a stressed out, erratic, impulsive survival mindset can lead toan unhealthy, truly ill, body. So, to keep yourself fully healthy, its required you begin by being inside of your own mind.

Mental fitness, according to Dr. Davidson, consists of cultivating an upgraded emotional style, that is comprised of six dimensions:

A first step in upgrading these six areas is to become aFundamentally independent thinker (F.I.T.). A fundamentally independent thinker understands that nothing outside of an individualmakesa person upset, angry, or depressed; rather,what a personthinksabout things determines how they feel.As HenryFordonce said, If you think you can or you think you cant, youre right. There is no motivation without this important inner game. Rid yourself of thoughts of inadequacy, predictions of failure and assuming others are reacting negatively to you especially in the gym or while working out on your home Total Gym. Remember that MarcusAureliusin his Meditations noted,If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.

To boost your mental fitness and become F.I.T., delete these words from your vocabulary:

Nothing, nobody, outside of you makes you feel or do anything. Be FIT! When you catch, challenge and change those words and no longer say It makes me so angry, worried, sad you will be on the road to becoming a fundamentally independent thinker. A client told me, The size of that dumbbell scares the heck out of meI cant lift that! This is a form of makes me. How can a dumbbell climb into your noggin, sort through your brain chemistry, and result in an emotion? Its not possible. Delete makes me.

No, you dont get, an emotion, rather youcreateyour feelings. Emotions arent like a little bug that suddenly lands on you when you arent expecting it, takes a bite out of you and gets you upset or even happy.Emotions are entirely from insidefrom your own thoughts. You dont get angry, concerned, upset, but rather you are your own script-writer, producer and star in your own emotional show.

You didnt get anxious and you dont need to escape from it. You actuallydiscardan emotion you dont like because its within you to begin with, in your perception, vision, view, of something outside of you.Escapingis victim talk.Discardingis victor talk. MarcusAureliusonce again,Today I escaped anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions not outside.

Delete these externalizing, dependent, blaming words and youll create an unconquerable mind, the F.I.T. mindset, and the victory you genuinely desire to grow healthily through COVID19. To do otherwise, to keep these words in your vocabulary, to continue to give your power away to the news, things, events, conditions, circumstances and outcomes, is to fill your thinking with victim thinking while hoping to be a victor. You wont become physically fit thinking like a victim.

The biggest obstacle we face at this time is deep within usour mental fitness, being F.I.T., is the answer.We limit ourselves in our everyday life, in our quarantine mindset, in our diets, in our accomplishments, and in our relationships.

Having difficulty growing mentally F.I.T.? Struggling through quarantine? Give these tools a try:

1. Stay in the present

2. Expand your unconditional self-acceptance and self-compassion

3. Serve others and ask for others to help you when necessary

4. Take a learners attitude towards every adversity that comes across your path, What can I learn from this?

5. Stay in a positive mindset your mental fitness requires it and your physical wellbeing depends on it. Being quarantined leads you to feel rejected by the world? No, you havent been rejected, but rather redirected. Instead of complaining, try exclaiming the positive in these seemingly negative circumstances. Can you be happy even though this unhappy event took place? Sure, you arent happy about the negative event, but you can remain positive about life regardless, right? Thats the kind of mental fitness that leads to healthy physical wellbeing.

6. Finally, follow the DALPO recipe for mental and physical wellbeing:

D. Avoid demanding that anything in your life be different than it is. Prefer it to be, desire it to be, but stay away from shouldhood.

A. Avoid thinking that occurrences are awful when theyre just unfortunate or too bad. They may be hard, but not too hard.

L. Avoid low frustration tolerance, believing that you cant bear or tolerate an adversity in your life.

P. Avoid personalizing events and labeling yourself negatively. Cultivating habits of positive thinking with mindfulness will help you develop a more compassionate and resilient approach to life.

O. Avoid overgeneralizing, thinking erroneously that negative things always happen to you and good things never happen to you. This will help youto more fully enjoy your journey through life, regardless of outcomes or destinations, consequences or costs.

Follow this link:
Why Being FIT is Essential to Thriving Through COVID19 - Thrive Global