3 Ways Exercise Boosts Your Mental Resilience
Running your own business takes oodles of resilience and strength. You’ve likely heard all about the mood-boosting effects of exercise, but there’s more to it than just happy hormones. By actively testing your mental resilience, exercise helps you to understand and manage your emotions when things get interesting in ‘real’ life!
Exercise challenges our mental resilience in a safe, ‘controlled’ environment. If you’re struggling with a specific movement and you show your emotions, it isn’t risking your business, your relationship stability, or the structural integrity of your vehicle. Being stressed* during exercise in ways that bring up big emotions also isn’t as serious as being stressed by a client interview, a big deadline, or a business crisis.
*Stress itself is neutral. Whether stress has a negative or positive impact on your body depends on your thoughts about stress, the amount of stress relative to your capacity, and your ability to recover before being placed under stress again!
If you’re like me, shedding a tear in frustration, discomfort, exhaustion or elation isn’t an unusual experience… and it’s way less embarrassing to cry in frustration with your personal trainer than in a client meeting. Fortunately, fitness professionals are increasingly aware of the role mindset plays in exercise, and research is showing more and more how much the mindset lessons learned in movement apply to business, family, and other life areas. Here are my three favourite transferable exercise-mindset-lessons!
1. You’ll learn how you dig deep.
We all dig deep in different ways. Some of us retreat inward and use our values and goals to boost our resolve. Others look outward for support and reassurance from others. When you dig deep during a workout you’ll see how you dig deep in real time. You’ll hear the self-talk that gets you through (and the self-talk that derails you). You’ll see where your tolerance sits and how it varies with other changes in your life.* You’ll be able to see and understand where your unique risk factors are when things get tough.
*Fun fact! Women’s sporting performance varies throughout the menstrual cycle, not as a result of differences in ability, but due to differences in mental tolerance of discomfort and increased effort.
Try asking yourself the following questions when you next dig deep during a workout…
What’s your self talk like when you are digging deep? Are there phrases or words that you say to yourself that could help you when you need to dig deep in other areas of life/business?
Do you dig deep to a degree that feels helpful? Do you give in sooner than you’d like and need to increase your discomfort tolerance? Or are you so good at pushing through that you put yourself at risk of injury? Chances are, the way you respond to challenges here will mirror your responses elsewhere.
How does your self-talk sound on a good day? What about on a bad day?
Knowing your answers to these questions will help you manage challenges in your business too. Yippee!
2. You’ll learn your ideal approach to setbacks.
Everyone approaches challenges in a different way, and knowing your ideal way forward can help in surprisingly transferable ways. I’ve personally used the same approach to a difficult technique in horse riding and in singing lessons - the activities were different, but my response was the same!
When faced with a challenge while exercising, you can play with different approaches. Depending on the nature of your challenge you could try:
Repeating the offending movement
Taking a break and doing something else
Immediately moving onto a movement you do like
Stopping completely and coming back another day
Asking questions
Watching others perform the tricky movement
Trying different entries or exits from the tricky movement
Breaking it down into even smaller chunks
… to suggest a few!
This type of exploration isn’t always an option when delivering for our clients. By using exercise to learn your most optimal approach to a problem you can respond quickly and effectively when you need to in business!
To help find your best approach, ask yourself the following questions:
What’s your natural inclination when trying to overcome a setback or block?
What has helped you overcome previous problems?
What makes everything feel better? Worse?
When you know what you need to perform at your best during a challenge, you can make space for that approach in your work. You can tell your clients how you’re going to approach the issue, and you’ll avoid added worry or frustration on their part!
3. You’ll practise showing kindness and self-compassion
If you get things done at the expense of your self-esteem, self-trust, or basic needs… is it really worth it?
To be truly resilient, we don’t just need challenges and stress. We need rest, recovery, and the ability to build ourselves back up. When you are challenged during a workout, you’ll need to recover mentally and physically - that means training your ‘build-back-up-ability’ too!
Aaand of course, I’ve got three questions for you to expand this skill too:
How do you show yourself compassion during a challenge?
How do you treat yourself after a challenge? Is there anything you do that prevents or slows your recovery?
How do you celebrate your successes - no matter how small?
Feeling big emotions while exercising is a passage for many of us, whether positive or negative. By experiencing new highs and lows, facing ‘safe’ challenges, and having a playground for self-study you’ll improve your performance across life and business.
That gym trip isn’t just good for your booty, heart, and hormones. It’s good for all of you!
If you want all of these awesome positive influences in your life but you’re struggling to get started, my book is for you. Why You Skipped Your Workout is available to buy right here!
