In this episode, I chat with Bek Smith, founder of Smith and Wellness, speaker and subject matter expert in health and wellbeing. Bek has a background in psychology, spent ten years working as a physiotherapist, is a group fitness instructor of 17 years and was sponsored by Reebok for 5 years in her role as a dance program presenter. She was also the inaugural Lead Trainer for the Wellbeing and Resilience Centre at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, and in 2019 did a TEDx talk on the importance of mental fitness.
This insightful and joyful discussion is full of practical strategies and focuses on the concepts of mental health and mental fitness, and its alignment with general health and fitness concepts that are better understood. We also delve into how it is useful to balance our mental strength, flexibility and endurance, as focusing too much on any one of these leads to dysfunction.
Key episode highlights include:
The permission you need to stop and relax, comes from you
Sometimes the most valuable use of your time is to unplug, but sometimes it’s to actually plugin and get things done, because it will give you a sense of fulfilment and release the emotional baggage
Allow for there to be space and silence in emotionally heavy conversations
Don't try to 'fix' someone, instead partner with them to solve a problem
Start to cultivate a growth mindset around mental fitness
When you follow what brings you joy, not only does it make you happier but it makes you more productive.Bek was also kind enough to pass along these mental fitness tips:
Mental Fitness Tip 1 - focusing on our strengths of character helps us overcome our internal negative bias
Mental Fitness Tip 2 - compassion starts with self-compassion, and the three steps to cultivating that are mindfulness, self-kindness and remembering our common humanity
Mental Fitness Tip 3 - emotional mastery is about recognising the utility of our negative emotions as well as cultivating positive emotions
The best place to connect with Bek is via LinkedIn, the Smith and Wellness website and Facebook Page.
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