While Investing Always tends to focus on investment-related matters, I am also deeply keen on self- improvement and self-development so once in a while, you will see a post regarding, not just your wealth, but your health. And in this post, I want to talk about a different health –  mental health.

The healthy lifestyle movement has been well underway for the past 8-10 years. This had led to the boom of many health-related businesses such as salad bars, yoga studios and body fitness regime such as HIIT. While we have begun to pay more attention to our physical health, we, in my opinion, are not giving the same emphasis to our mental health – the mind.

I have once heard from a friend, Reshveen Rajendran, who is also a fitness expert that your body is like a holy temple. You need to treat it well and with respect so that you can do wonders in your life. And that is so true! Imagine all the great things that you can achieve if your body is functioning at its peak performance and you seldom fall ill to any cold and flu. Your productivity will most definitely increase many folds and you can achieve your goals and dreams.

Conversely, if your body is not well, and you are often sick in bed, your goals and dreams probably won’t progress much. As the saying goes, “the mind is willing but the body is weak”. Therefore, most of us are well aware of the importance of our physical health, and want to ensure that our body is able.

However, it is just as important for us to treat our mind like our body – a holy temple! We need to make sure that the mind is indeed “willing” and be ready for a healthy body.

Watch Your Mind Diet

Our mind is just like our body. While we can’t assess its “fitness” easily from the outside, most of us will know it when our mind is tired. Therefore we need to take real action steps to improve our mind’s health.

In our daily lives, we are concerned with what we put into our mouth, and we are always trying to eat the healthiest food possible, perhaps more greens, more protein, less fat and less salt. But, while we are busy keeping our body in tip top shape, we are neglecting the mind.

Just as we watch our diet, we also need to watch what our mind “eats” or consume. Our mind is like a sponge, and it is continuously consuming and processing information and stimulants from our surrounding. On average, 60,000 thoughts go through your mind each day! That is a lot of heavy-lifting for our mind, and it’s amazing that our mind never “breaks’ in a muscle cramp or tear like other parts of our body.

While our mind is capable of handling a lot of information, it is also deeply influenced by all these information and will respond in a certain way. This is also why retail companies spend so much advertising money. They are always devising new methods to entice shoppers to purchase their product. Essentially, they are feeding your mind with information to influence and take control of your actions.

Mind Check

In order to ensure that your daily actions are focused and contributing to your goals, you need to start a healthy diet for your mind by taking back control over what your mind consume each day, just like a diet for your body.

Step 1: Take stock of what does your mind eat every day – “mind diet”. For example, what do you watch or listen to when you wake up? What do you listen to when you are commuting to work?

Step 2: Is there a specific goal that you have been working on and have been wanting to do more about it?

Step 3: Is your daily “mind diet” contributing to the goal?

If your answer to Step 3 is yes. Congratulations! Your mind diet is good! Your mind is consuming the exact information that your goals. Continue the good work!

If your answer to Step 3 is no. Don’t worry, this post will share you some effective ways to achieve a well-controlled “mind diet”.

Podcasts and Audiobooks

For most city dwellers, we can spend a significant amount of time on commuting, ranging from 30mins to 2 hours each day. However, most of us are not maximising our time during the daily commute. We would often listen to music or simply get some eyeshut. However, these periods can be maximised to improve our “mind diet”.

For example, if your goal is to run a full marathon, instead of listening to random music on radio channel when you are commuting, you can enrich your mind by listening to an informative audiobook about High Intensity Interval Training or How to Run a Marathon. Alternatively, you can download a podcast on marathon running and listen to the sharing by experienced marathon runners. This will ensure that your mind is always consuming relevant information and building towards your goal.

Personally, I use a podcast app on my phone to subscribe to podcasts. I also use the app, Audible, to download audiobooks on my phone. By keeping them handy, I can listen to the podcasts or audiobooks whenever I am commuting.

Just to give you a gauge, an audiobook is about 10 hours on average. Therefore, I would usually be able to finish one audiobook every 10 days (my daily commute is about 1 hour). Without spending extra time to read, I was able to learn valuable information through audiobooks.

In addition to commute, I also listen to podcast or audiobooks during my exercise too! It has become a habit that I will whip out my phone to listen to a podcast or audiobook whenever I’m commuting or exercising. And of course, your ‘mind diet’ can be any category as long as it is relevant to your goals.

Create Your Own Newspaper

A common morning routine is reading the news. It is almost a natural instinct for some of us to reach out for the daily newspapers while sipping on a coffee or tea in the morning. While I would encourage people to read the newspapers and stay ahead of the news, you may realise that the newspaper often feed us information that we may not want to know. For example, I am interested in business and investment but my daily newspaper always has a section on paparazzi news and my curiosity would often take hold of my mind and devour the entire celebrity scandal.

Therefore, it is important for us to take control of what our mind “eats’ daily. And I do that by creating my own newspaper!

How do I create my own newspaper? Instead of blindly reading the newspaper, I use News apps such as Google Newsstand or Flipboard. These apps will search through the major news source and curate your daily set of news based on your selection.

For example, if you are interested in the recent development in marathon events, you can choose the category of Marathon Running in the news app. The news app would then compile all the news relevant to Marathon Running for you.

The amazing thing is that you can edit your news categories as your goals and interests develop. For example, you have completed your full marathon and would like to move on to Yoga and Pilates. You can simply change the news category to Yoga and Pilates. Your own newspaper will continue to stay dynamic and adapt to your changing needs. This is one thing newspapers or even online news website cannot tailor to.

Meditation – Mind Exercise

While we have touched on the “mind diet”, it is also important for your mind to exercise! Of course, it is not possible for your mind to do push ups and sit ups, you can adopt some mental practices to give your mind some exercise.

Personally, I practise meditation daily. Before you are put off by the daily commitment, I am happy to share that it only takes up 15 mins each day! I do it in the morning before I start my day. This will help to sharpen my mind and help me to focus on the task ahead. Good thing is that there are apps for meditation too! You can download them to help with getting started with meditation.

Below are my three simple steps to get you started.

1. Find a comfortable place where there is little distraction. It can be a room or in the park.
2. Pick a spot at your eye level in front of you and focus on it.
3. Take 5 deep breaths, 3 seconds in, 4 seconds out.
4. At the fifth breath, close your eyes gently.
5. Focus on what you need to complete today. It can be anything. A work assignment or exercise regimen.
6. Lay down the steps that you need to take and visualise yourself going through it.
7. After completing it, thinking about something happy. Your favourite music, a puppy… anything positive will do.
8. Take one more deep breath and open your eyes.
9. You are done!

The meditation exercise above should not take more than 10 minutes, and you will be ready for the day!

Hope that this will set your mind up for success!

See you soon!

Investing Always,

Pete

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