There are some things I just can't help
you with because I'm not that kind of
doctor.
Psychological self-help strategies? I'm
all over that. I've got some good ones
for you. What? What am i doing?
Haven't you ever heard of Mental Floss? I
know that's a little ridiculous. My
friend Tim guard gave me that idea. And I
think it's awesome because when it comes
to our psychological health, we don't
often think of daily flossing. Like we
might with our teeth. You always brush
your teeth right? Why? Because you know
that that's essential for good dental
health. What about our mental health? We
don't often have practices in place like
brushing our teeth and flossing our
teeth and taking a shower. What is the
equivalent of that when it comes to our
psychological health? I think of
everything that we have. Our mind is
probably the most important part. And yet
that's the one we're most likely to
neglect or to overlook in our self-care
strategies. So, let's take a look at some
things that we can do now. First of all,
before I give you a few specific tips.
Take this seriously. Your mind, your brain
is the control center of all this. And if
it's gone haywire, we're in big trouble.
You are not going to survive long without
your mind. So, let's take this seriously. I
can always tell if people are taking
things seriously by 2 documents. 2
specific documents that I could check
from you. Your checkbook and your
calendar. Those 2 documents will tell
me what you're really taking seriously.
If you're going to get serious about
your own mental health, it needs to show
up
on your calendar. And it's probably going
to hit your checkbook too. So, don't be
surprised when that happens. That's how
we'll know that you're taking it
seriously. You know, what that's going to
mean at a minimum is that you're going
to make some time and space for the
psychological self-care strategies that
I'll be sharing with you today. The first
strategy is gratitude. I'm not talking
just feel grateful or thankful for stuff.
I'm talking about practicing daily
gratitude. This is a powerful way to
shift your mind from negativity to
positivity. And it has to do with the
evaluation process that we can't turn
off. Because we're constantly evaluating
things. Gratitude puts us in a positive
evaluation of our life. The way it is
right now. Without changing anything.
Let's structure this in a way that can
help you to start practicing some Mental
Floss. What I would suggest is a 5-day
initial trial for gratitude. Let's set it
up in a powerful way. I call this 25-5. 5 stands for the 5 days.
Start today. Make a physical, written list.
I say physical. I know you got a tablet
and a smartphone. I don't care if it's
digital. But you're going to make a list
of 25 things for which you are sincerely
grateful. And don't make this up. You have
to be grateful for it to put it on your
list. Here's what powers it up. At least
half of your list every day. That's 13 if
you're doing the math. At least half of
your list every day is about something
that is hard, difficult frustrating.
Something that is kicking your trash a
little bit.
The other half of your list can be the
easy stuff. I call these the freebies.
Stuff that's easy to be grateful for. You
know like your family your health.
Puppies and rainbows and indoor plumbing.
Anybody can be grateful for that stuff.
The hard stuff is a little more
challenging. But that's what is so
powerful to power up your mind in a
positive mode. Let me give you an example
of what I mean. Cancer, for example. That's
one of those challenging things. And I
know that it's pretty likely that you
either are experiencing this it's in
your family or someone that you know
that's close by. So, I'll use that as an
example. Cancer hit our family a couple
of years ago. When my sister-in-law was
diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
2 months from diagnosis to funeral. Now,
what if it's cancer. I'm not saying be
grateful for the cancer. What I'm saying
is open it up.
Okay? Peel it back. Look inside of there.
Rummage around a little bit until you
find something in there for which you
are sincerely grateful. And put that on
your list. 13 of those every day, okay?
From that cancer,
I found a relationship with my niece. My
sweet niece. 20 years old, special needs.
She got to live with us for 2 months
while her mother was passing. Now, am I
grateful for the relationship? Yeah.
Honestly, I really am. She's such a
sweetheart.
Am I grateful for the cancer? See,
that's harder. But that's where I found
it. That's what I'm talking about.
Now, don't repeat anything on tomorrow's
list that was on today's list. You do a
whole new list tomorrow. Don't get lazy
on me.
This is powerful. This is life-changing.
No, I would even say it's life-saving.
I can tell you. People whose lives were
saved by just doing what I just shared
with you. Practice gratitude. Get into a
daily habit. Now, I said start with 5
days. Start with 5 days at
25-5. Where you're doing a list of 25 things. And then after those 5
days, let's go into maintenance mode.
Where you come up with 3 things
every day. And you get one freebie. One
easy thing, 2 from your hard list. And
that will maintain a practice of
gratitude. This is your mental floss
we're talking about. It's powerful.
Absolutely powerful. And the research is
backing me up on this. Okay, here's your
second tip. Associate with people who
will support your positivity and mental
health. There's a couple of different
levels that you can consider this. Let's
start at the top of those levels. We're
going to talk about mentors, coaches and
peers. Now, at the top level, mentors are
those thought leaders. Those inspiring
people in your world. Who are you reading,
who are you listening to, who do you
watch on YouTube. Well, thank you for
including me in that list. It's important
what kind of input you put into your
mind. Find mentors who will challenge you
to go to a higher level of psychological
functioning in health. This will enhance
your relationships as well. Which is
pretty darn cool. So, that's it the mentor
level. Pay attention to who you're
reading, who you're watching, who you
listen to. Now, let's go down to the next
level. Coaches. I put coaches at this
level because coaches don't have to be
there to help you improve. I've got a
good friend --Brad Barton. Who is a
world-class runner. And at my age... He's
basically my age. He's setting World
Records. How's he doing it? He's doing it
by getting coaching. Coach Chick Hislop
was on my show Live On Purpose Radio.
He's Brad's coach. He's in his 80s. He
can't run a world-record mile but he can
certainly coach Brad to do that. So,
that's why I distinguished between
coaching and mentoring. The mentors are
those that you're looking up to. The
coaches, you you may well be looking up
to but they're in a position that they
can support you and help you and give
you input and feedback. One of my
colleagues shared that our whole
experience is kind of like it's on the
inside of a box that we're in. Its
projected there and that's all that we
know. There's instructions for getting
out of your box. But they're printed on
the outside of your box. That's why we
need coaches to read the instructions to
us. To give us some feedback. I get paid a
lot to coach people. I pay more to
coaches than most of my clients do. We
all need coaching. So, get a coach. Now, at
the at the lower level is our peers. And
I don't mean that they're lower than. All
I mean is this is a different level of
Association. We've got our mentors, we've
got our coaches. And then we have our
peers. These are the people who are on
our level.
Forming a mastermind group, for example
with other people who are at about the
same place you are. Powerful. But also who
do you hang out with? Who do you
associate with? It makes a difference. If
you find that the people you hang out
with the most tend to be negative or
discouraging or pessimistic, guess what?
That's going to be rubbing off on you. We
tend to do whatever our friends do.
Whatever our peers are involved with. And
that's not just true for kids. That is
true for us as adults as well. Here's the
next tip. Pay
attention to the kind of input you're
putting into your mind. What kind of
media do you consume? What are you
listening to? What are you watching?
I mentioned this when I talked about the
mentors because you're gonna find people
who inspire you. But I'm talking about
just in general. What kind of input are
you putting into your mind. Pay attention
to that. Remember, we're doing daily
Mental Hygiene here. So, what you listen
to on the way to work matters. What you
watch when you get home from work
matters. Now, one final tip before we wrap
this up. There's a lot of reasons for
this that I won't go into detail here on
this video. Engage in meaningful service.
You find a way to use your skills and
your talents and your abilities to reach
out and lift others up. Improve their
life, improve their condition. Like I said,
there's a lot of psychological reasons
why this works. And you've probably heard
it forever. You know, that you got to get
out and serve. You got to get outside of
your own sphere a little bit. It's true
for a lot of really great reasons. Find
ways to engage in consistent service. If
you'll engage these tips, you're going to
find that you enjoy a higher level of
psychological functioning. Your life gets
to improve because you're doing your
daily mental hygiene. Get some Mental
Floss. These are all really doable
strategies. If you would like some
assistance from our coaches. Liveonpurpose.coach has several resources
for you to find people who can assist
you with your mental hygiene. I hope
you've enjoyed this. Please take a moment
to share this episode with someone that
you think would really appreciate it.
I'll see you tomorrow.
