BITESIZE | How to Improve Your Mental Fitness | Natasha Devon #217
This episode features Natasha Devon MBE, a mental health campaigner, who discusses the importance of mental fitness and actionable self-care. She emphasizes dedicating daily time to activities like physical exercise, relaxation, and creativity, and highlights the interconnectedness of mind and body.
Deep Dive Analysis
8 Topic Outline
Introduction to Mental Fitness
Personal Journey and Defining Mental Fitness
Perfectionism and Intrinsic Value
Body Image and Exercising in Nature
The Power of Fractals in Nature
Gendered Shame Triggers and Body Image
Interconnectedness of Physical and Mental Health
Practical Tips for Mental Fitness
5 Key Concepts
Mental Fitness
Mental fitness is distinct from mental illness and can be thought of as the vertical axis on a graph. It involves proactively dedicating time daily to restore one's chemical balance, similar to how physical exercise maintains physical health.
Perfectionism
This trait leads individuals to constantly criticize themselves, believing nothing they do is good enough. It also causes them to avoid activities they don't think they'll excel at, even if those activities possess intrinsic value.
Self-care
Self-care is not a trivial or commoditized concept, but rather the essential practice of ring-fencing time every day to restore one's chemical balance. It is a fundamental component of maintaining mental fitness.
Shame Triggers (Gendered)
Research suggests that for the majority of women, the primary shame trigger relates to beauty, often leading to food restrictions. For the majority of men, the shame trigger relates to strength, frequently manifesting as an obsession with exercise and muscle building.
Fractals
Fractals are unique geometric shapes found exclusively in nature, such as in trees, grass, and coastlines. Scientific evidence indicates that observing fractals can lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, suggesting humans are innately wired to benefit from natural environments.
7 Questions Answered
For some, like Natasha Devon, a diagnosis can bring immense relief by identifying the condition, allowing them to understand it and make necessary life adjustments to live with it, similar to managing a physical illness.
Mental illness refers to specific conditions, while mental fitness is about proactively maintaining one's mental well-being, akin to physical exercise for physical health, by dedicating time daily to restore chemical balance.
Perfectionists constantly criticize themselves, believing nothing they do is good enough, and they tend to avoid activities they don't think they'll excel at, even if those activities have intrinsic value.
Exercising outdoors can magnify endorphin production, and looking at fractals (geometric shapes found in nature) has been shown to lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, suggesting humans are hardwired to benefit from nature.
For women, body image issues often stem from a 'shame trigger' related to beauty, typically starting with food restriction. For men, the shame trigger relates to strength, often beginning with an obsession with exercise and muscle building.
No, the body and mind do not exist in silos; they are deeply interconnected. Many physical ailments, such as stomach aches in children or back pain, can have psychological roots related to anxiety and stress.
While Mental Health First Aid England recommends an hour, Natasha Devon suggests aiming for a more realistic half an hour daily for the average person.
6 Actionable Insights
1. Ring-Fence Daily Mental Fitness
Dedicate a specific amount of time each day, aiming for at least half an hour, to activities that restore your chemical balance and empty your stress bucket, which is essential for mental fitness.
2. Diversify Mental Fitness Activities
During your daily mental fitness time, engage in activities from three categories: physical activity, relaxation, and creativity, such as listening to or making music, writing in a journal, or going for a walk.
3. Exercise Outdoors for Joy
Exercise in nature to magnify endorphin production and experience joy, celebrating your body rather than punishing it, as looking at natural fractals can also lower stress hormones.
4. Prioritize Intrinsic Value
Engage in activities for their intrinsic value and enjoyment, even if you don’t excel at them, rather than solely pursuing external validation or perfection.
5. Embrace Natural Body Diversity
Recognize and accept the radical diversity of human body shapes, particularly for women, instead of aspiring to a narrow, unrealistic ideal of beauty.
6. Seek Mental Health Diagnosis
If you are struggling with mental health symptoms, seeking a diagnosis can provide significant relief and enable you to make necessary alterations to your life to manage the condition.
5 Key Quotes
When I received the diagnosis, it was just such a huge relief because I could make the necessary alterations to my life to live with this thing, you know, and just the same as if I had diabetes. It's part of who I am, but it's not, it doesn't define me.
Natasha Devon
What all self-care is, is ring-fencing time every day to restore your chemical balance. And that's what mental fitness is.
Natasha Devon
We're meant to look radically different from one another. And yet we're all aspiring to this very narrow idea of what beauty is.
Natasha Devon
The body and the mind don't exist in silos.
Natasha Devon
I think human beings have known intuitively for thousands, tens of thousands of years, how to take care of ourselves.
Dr. Chatterjee
1 Protocols
Daily Mental Fitness Routine
Natasha Devon- Ring-fence 30 minutes every day specifically for your mental fitness.
- Engage in an activity that falls into one of three categories: physical activity, relaxation, or creativity.
- Examples include listening to or making music, writing in a journal, or going for a walk.
- The purpose is to 'top up' your mental fitness or 'empty your stress bucket'.