Working out or doing some form of physical activity or exercise every day is an absolute necessity if you’re looking to improve your overall health and wellness.
You’ll find countless websites, social media fitness gurus, online personal trainers, coaches touting different workouts, diets and nutrition plans exclaiming their way is the best way… and who’s to say if they’re right or wrong?
What is rarely seen or talked about by any of the aforementioned people, is the importance of exercising the mind.
How exactly do you go about exercising the mind and really, why should you? You went to school when you were younger, maybe even went to college or university after that.
You put in your time reading and studying books, taking tests, writing papers… now it’s time to earn money, find love, live your life, right?
Well, the answer is… it all depends.
It all depends on what you want out of your life, health, and fitness.
If you just want to focus on getting your body in shape, good for you, admirable. But in doing so, remember, if the mind is weak, the will is weak and you will not be able to push yourself to the best of your abilities.
Think about this: If you don’t exercise your body, take careful care of what you put into it, over time, the muscles start to become soft, strength decreases, fat begins to accumulate, hormones get thrown out of whack, energy levels plummet, sleep suffers, and deterioration and degeneration occurs.
The same thing can be said for the mind.
If it is not constantly engaged, fed new information, made to think, given problems to solve, made to visualize, then deterioration on all levels slowly occurs.
For those reasons, just as much emphasis should be put on exercising your mind as your body.
One of the best ways to exercise the mind is by reading. I’m not talking about tabloids or social media websites.
I’m talking about books.
Not audiobooks either, though they actually can serve a purpose (more on that in a bit).
Biographies and self-improvement books are great choices. Basically, anything that you can learn from.
What’s even better is a book that also has practical exercises you can do to put into practice things that you’re learning in the book. After all, what good is knowledge if you don’t apply it, right?
Ebooks are fine and I’ve read and continue to read many ebooks, however, there is no substitute for a good old fashioned paper book. One where you turn the pages… remember those?
The very act of turning the pages, feeling the paper between your fingers, seeing the words jump out at you from the page, processing the letters and words and decoding the message it sends to the brain… all fantastic exercise for the mind.
The new ideas, concepts, thoughts, belief systems, ideologies that your mind is exposed and then forced to sort into different categories in your mind is fantastic exercise. Do you agree or disagree with the author, concept, or idea(s) presented? Why? The very act of making these decisions is a terrific exercise for the mind.
And if you are digesting an incredibly personally impactful book, then you can amplify and really help solidify its lessons by listening to the audiobook form after you’ve finished reading it.
As Confucious said, “Make savage the body and civilize the mind.”
Read more.
I have more to say about this and will also share
- How I read my books
- What books I read
- When is the best time to read
- Where’s the best place to read and where I do it
- How long and how often I read for and why
I’ll also go into some more ways I like to exercise my mind and “train my brain” including how I guarantee waking up at the same time every morning feeling energized and ready to have a productive day, no matter what time I went to bed and without an alarm clock.
I’ll give all of this away only to those who are smart enough to become “Golden Ones” when the “Members Only” section launches next month.
Until then, keep exercising, keep getting a little better every day, and really try and focus a little more on exercising your mind. You’ll be glad you did.
Until next time…
Always Activate. Get Going.
