Mental Health… A Congruent Perspective
For those who aren’t aware, many health professionals, life coaches and holistic experts classify 7 target areas of life for all of us to nourish to live congruently.
I want to share with you my learnings, insights and perceptions on Mental Health and how we can all maximise this target area of Life.
The 7 target areas:
1- Physical Health
2 – Mental Health
3 – Spiritual Health
4 – Social Health
5 – Your legacy/Mission/Career/Business
6 – Financial Health
7 – Vacational Health
Mental health refers to our cognitive, and/or emotional wellbeing. It’s referring to how we think, feel and behave.
As a coach in High Performance Sport, mental health covers areas of Mental Resiliency, Mind Power, The Belief Effect and much more. All athletes must work on their mental resiliency for their performance, but more importantly for their personal lives.
What i’ve learned with my external studies is the power of investing into our mental health from a nutritional perspective AND a cognitive perspective congruently.
First of all, if we can fuel our brains with the energy required to operate at it’s best, it will boost our productivity and clear thinking. This essentially clears the highways for us to move forward as desired. (As i’m not a nutritionist I won’t tell you what you should and shouldn’t be eating for optimal brain health, but i’m happy to answer any questions via emails).
It’s all too common that we hear of “Brain Foods” and most people have an idea of what they “should” be eating. This knowledge and understanding isn’t enough. Making the choice and taking Action to actually implement these foods and supplements into your diet is key – as with all things in life when wanting to develop and grow in the right direction.
When people ask me what I do to optimise my mental health, I explain my food and supplement choices, but pay more attention to the respect I give to the brain and the time i’ve taken to understand the power of our mind and it’s processes.
When I invested into Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and then my own personal Life Coach, I gained a deeper understanding of our mind than I ever knew possible.
I was exposed to a new paradigm that completely blew my mind and changed my perception of the world and what was possible…. Now believing that anything is possible.
I believe there is nothing more powerful than the human brain. When we can understand that our thoughts create our feelings, and our feelings create our actions (behaviours), we have unlocked a powerful tool to personal development and mental health optimisation.
This is a skill and an art we all have within us and that’s why I teach my athletes and clients how to tap into their inner mind power.
Mental health is also optimised when we learn how to use Adversity to our Advantage and become Mentally Resilient in our lives.
Mental resiliency in sport refers to ‘Being In The Moment’. If an athlete is at the start line of a race and thinking they didn’t have a great start in their last competition (thinking in the past), they are not in the moment. If they’re thinking about what position they might cross the finish line (thinking in the future), they are not in the moment. The athlete needs to be fully aware in that present time, at that present moment, to be able to execute the required tasks at hand.
Mental Resiliency outside of sport refers to a person being able to overcome adversity – bringing all the pieces of the puzzle back together and using their experience as a leverage of strength, not an anchor of weakness.
Adversity, when explored and experienced for its positive aspects and not the negatives, can lead us down a path of understanding Emotional Intelligence in ways that cannot be felt or described by others. When we invest into our Emotional Intelligence we become mentally resilient beasts with a much greater understanding on how we can help influence other peoples mental health positively.
As with anything in life, these skills are attainable through committed practice. We don’t need to be putting in hours of extreme dedication and hard work like elite athletes, but we do need to pay respect to this important key area of our life to help ourselves live optimally.
To achieve congruency, it’s also extremely important to understand and believe that ‘Movement Is Medicine’. Physical exercise triggers a physiological response in our mind and body that makes us feel great, and helps us function much better. Once again, we don’t need to try and be elite athletes, we just need to pay respect to our physical health in order to improve our mental health.
Meditation and mindfulness are buzz words these days, but for great reason. They’re scientifically proven to create permanent positive change to our brain function (known as neuroplasticity). Apps like are amazing tools to help everyone tap into these skills with ease.
An all time favourite tool of mine to help you feel mentally alert and positive is by Be grateful for everything in life, even the very small things, and you’ll be amazed at your change in energetic state. Gratitude is a way of being, not a phrase of saying.
Remember, optimal living isn’t just about us feeling great for the period of our lives. Optimal living is about operating at a frequency that allows everyone in our presence to energise themselves and create prosperity in our existence.
Stop and ask yourself this question: Am I nourishing and optimising my mental health for my prosperity, and that of the people around me?