Women and mental fitness

While women are multifaceted, as they balance work, home and personal life, their mental well-being often gets neglected. But just like exercise builds muscle, simple mental exercises can help to sharpen focus, reduce anxiety and promote more positive thinking.

Prithvi Raj Banerjee, founder of the MindGym Initiative, offers practical ways to train the mind, enabling people to engage with their thoughts in a more open, curious and playful way

Mindfulness is particularly important for the younger generation which is increasingly exposed to social pressures and distractions of modern life,

says the serial entrepreneur and author in his latest book, Mindful Thinking: Simple Ways to Let Go of Your Anxiety, Boost Your Productivity and Rewire Your Thoughts .

“MindGym is about bringing mindfulness to the masses,” says Banerjee. “It is designed to be fun and involve some gamification so that people can engage with it in a playful manner. At the core, it is about building awareness around thought patterns and helping people break away from constant external stimuli.”

Training the mind like the body

Constant exposure to smartphones and social media as well as other means of distractions makes it difficult for many people to maintain their attention. For women, who often have to balance their family and professional responsibilities, as well as social engagements, this has become even more difficult. Although their bodies may rest at the end of the day, their minds are busy racing due to lack of ability to focus during the day, which leaves them exhausted MindGym considers attention as a muscle that needs to be trained. Through training, individuals gain the ability to recognize when their mind wanders off, disrupt harmful thought patterns and shift their attention back to the desired point or activity. These exercises require only a small amount of time to do and can help people to break away from continuous meetings, as well as in work and study breaks throughout the day.

Simple techniques to build mental fitness

Banerjee’s new book guides the reader through his techniques over an 8-week programme. The following are some of the most effective exercises for building mental fitness and promoting calm and focus:

Belly breathing: This is a grounding exercise which involves breathing into the belly for a count of four and exhaling slowly. It helps to centre the self in the present moment.

Bumblebee hum: This involves humming like a honeybee to stimulate the vagus nerve, relax the body and interrupt negative thought patterns.

Balanced breath: Also known as box breathing, this technique encourages slow, steady breathing to promote mental clarity and focus.

Body radar: This is a simple scanning exercise to heighten awareness of different parts of the body, which can help to interrupt negative thought patterns.

Word anchor: This technique uses a chosen word as an anchor to help bring the mind back to the present moment.

Catch and drop: This exercise helps to observe negative thoughts and emotions without judgment and then ‘drop’ them to move on.

Play and pause: This technique encourages pausing to observe one’s thoughts and emotions in a curious, scientific manner.

Mental fitness accessible to all

Founded in 2017, the MindGym Initiative has held hundreds of workshops, reaching thousands of young people, helping them to build better focus. As an IIT (BHU) and MIT-trained technologist and mindfulness coach, Banerjee uses a mix of gamification, biofeedback and neuroscience to make the MindGym techniques accessible to all. Mental fitness is not about doing complex workouts, but rather about building better awareness around the mind and how it works. For women, who live busy lives, this can mean setting aside just a few minutes each day to focus on their breath or observe their body.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The Hans India