Hi, everyone, It's Carlie Talor here for this week's Mojo Monday. So I want to kick off a bit of a Mojo Monday series on the fundamentals of being mentally fit. At this stage, it's going to be around five episodes, and after you've listened to this episode in particular, if you think there is someone you know that could benefit from what I talk about in the series, please share it.
This is part of my mission in life is to help people who are struggling with life, and we all need life skills, we need knowledge so we can make choices that take us in a direction towards energy, towards health, towards living life to the fullest. So we hear the term mental health all the time. It's become a bit of a catch phrase for anything to do with our
mental state. And when things get overwhelming and when life feels too much, the default solution is often that there is something wrong with us and that we need to maybe see a psychologist or a counselor and talk through it. And that can absolutely help. Talking can ease the load, it can offer clarity, it can get us through a tough time, but it's not the full picture. And it's certainly not the only way to move up the mental health continuum. And that's why I prefer the term mental fitness,
especially when we're talking about the general population. What it does is it shifts the focus from what's wrong with me to Okay, what can I do? What can I train? What do I need to strengthen and build to be more resilient and flexible in the face of whatever life is throwing right now. And I just want to be really clear. For those people who are living with a diagnosed mental health disorder, and there is certainly a spectrum of mental health disorders, medication and therapy can be essential.
But even then, if the goal is to live optimally even with these conditions, whatever that looks like for you, then talk, therapy and medication alone are rarely enough. And the research tells us that if you are someone who struggles to get out of bed or even struggles to leave the house, I really want you to know that I see you, So take from this what you can and shape it in a way that works for you.
I am fully aware that I can't be all things to all people in a podcast, but I deeply respect each unique person that's listening, so you decide whether any of this resonates and how far you want to take it. I'm going to give you the information. It's up to you what you take from it. So here's the key idea. Mental fitness is a continuum, and we're constantly all moving up and down that continuum depending on what life throws
at us. The more mentally fit we are, the better we can handle the challenges of life, those stresses, the setbacks, the emotional curve balls. And I know this because when my son was diagnosed with Cushing's disease, a really really rare disease. He had an active tumor on his peturitary gland, causing major physical and emotional symptoms. It was a huge time. It was such a hard time, and it was very challenging.
But I can reflect back on it now and I don't think I would have coped as well as I think I did if I hadn't have laid the foundation of mental fitness. And this matters because your brain and body are not just connected, they are one. The idea goes all the way back to the seventeenth century philosophy with this concept of monoism, which is the opposite of dualism. Monoism says you don't have a brain and a body. You are a brain body system, so you are one
integrated whole. Yet we often talk about our mental health as if it's separate from our physical health, and it's not. We now know with our question that how we move, eat, sleep, connect and breathe affects how we think, feel and behave. And when your brain is tired, your body is tired. When your body is run down, your brain is too. So if we want to be mentally fit, we need to take care of both, not separately but together as one system. So that brings me to the first foundational
pillar of mental fitness, which is movement and exercise. Now this may surprise some people. According to the Royal Australian New Zealand College of Psychiatrists Clinical Guidelines for mood disorders, exercise should be considered a frontline treatment before medication or psychotherapy. So if that's the case, if that's their guidelines, then exercise must also be one of the most powerful preventative strategies that we have and the science is crystal clear
on this. If you're not moving your body, you are limiting your mental fitness. You are living below your potential. Your normal may be far lower than it could be. We all have a baseline normal, so it's good to start thinking about what that is. Your stress will be hard to manage, you'll be less flexible in your thinking, you'll feel more fatigued, and then the cycle continues. So what exercise does is it changes your brain. It's one of the most powerful tools that we have for managing stress,
lifting mood, and improving focus. And in our house, we've instilled this in our kids so when they have exams, it's not just about the study. So it's not just about studying and trying to retain information. It's about moving their bodies too. So we're taking on that concept of monoism. Why because when we exercise even one minute, a one minute burst of intense effort, our brain produces this compound. It's a protein called BDNF, which is called brain derived
neurotropic factor. You might have heard Paul talk about it if you listen to his wisdom Wednesdays. And if bd and F could be bottled or put in appeal, somebody would be a multi billionaire right now. Because what it does is it helps your brain grow new cells, it improves memory and learning, it regulates mood, and it's like a fertilizer for the brain. So when I say exercise helps with stress, this is part of the reason why.
And of course exercise reduces those stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline, which are often you know, which are high when we are stressed, especially with chronic stress. And it also improves our sleep and it gives us a break from the worries that are swirling around in our heads. Now, I am aware that there are barriers to exercise for many people, and of course, if you have a health condition or
a disability, often these are beyond your control. But for the rest of us, the time, the motivation, and the initial discomfort of exercise, those barriers we can often overcome in the service of something far more important, and that is your one and only life. So if you hate exercise, find something that you enjoy. And that's really important that what we do is something that we enjoy doing, and the more we enjoy doing it, the more motivated we will to go. So there are some really fun options
out there. Pickleball. Actually, I hadn't heard of pickball until a few weeks ago, but it looks like such a fun thing to do. And I've got friends who meet up with their friends on early on a Saturday morning and they play pickleball. There's cardio tennis, there's group woorts, there's social sports, or maybe you loved a sport as a kid, you can go and find a local team because there are always adults out there wanting to get
together and play their favorite sport. I personally am not really into team sports, but I am loving and a bit addicted to CrossFit, which I discovered at the age of fifty four. Fit is high intensity, which is great, but you do you go at your own pace, and the community is incredibly supportive. There's a wonderful culture there
and I personally can't get enough of it. But also outside of those so that that sort of formal exercise, movement counts too, And this is something to keep top of mind if you have a job where you're required to sit for most of the day, So movement snacks, short bursts of exercise you can do throughout your day, they really matter. So whenever I'm at my desk, I do mainly stand up. I've got to sit to stand desk.
But if I am sitting, I will get out every half an hour, do a few minutes of some sort of movement, then get back to work things like housework, gardening, washing the car. It all adds up. So just make sure you include some high intensity movement in there to really reap the benefits of exercise. And if you've got a smart watch, use that as data. I am every night, I review my movement throughout the day and you can
set goals on it. And if you don't have a smart watch and you can afford one, they are really good because what they do is they give you data, and that data is really good for checking in to see how you're going and also for motivation. So that's it for today. This is the first of several episodes where we'll break down the pillars of mental fitness, and I would really encourage you to start thinking about your own mental fitness rather than mental health and what you feel.
Do a bit of a review and work out what you think you need to do to move up that mental fitness continuum. And of course, depending on where you're at, just start small. You don't want to be taking big leaps. You want to start small, and it's what you can do every single time. That's then going to bring up momentum, and I will be giving you practical tools and ideas to help you do this so you can build a life with more energy, with more resilience, and also with
more purpose and meaning. So, as I said, if this episode helped you, or if you think someone else you care about could use it, please share it. Let's get this knowledge out there and these tools into the hands of more people, because we all deserve to live a full life and mental fitness is the foundation of personal wellbeing and that helps make it possible. So I will look forward to catching you next week. Seeya