Maintain your mental well-being

Great article by David Rock for HBR.

He identifies 7 different essential mental activities that will keep us mentally healthy, provided that we get the balance right! Rather like a balanced food plate we need some of all of them but not too much of each. They are:

1. Focused Time - When we focus on goals and tasks, thinking about things and problem-solving in ways that make deep neurological connections in the brain when we are in the Beta brain wave state.

2. Play Time - When we allow ourselves to be spontaneous or creative, playfully enjoying novel experiences, which also help to make new connections in the brain, but in a different way to Focused Time.

3. Connecting Time - This is social time when we connect with other people, either in person on on the phone and it richly activates the brain's social circuitry.

4. Physical Time - When we move our bodies, aerobically if possible, which strengthens the brain in many ways.

5. Time In - When we quietly reflect internally, such as meditation, focusing on sensations, images, feelings and thoughts, in the Alpha brainwave state which helps us to heal emotionally, mentally and physically.

6. Down Time - When we are non-focused, without any specific goal, and let our mind wander or simply relax, which helps our brain relax and recharge.

7. Sleep Time - When we give the brain the rest it needs to consolidate learning and recover from the experiences of the day.

If you want to read the full article, go to
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/06/this_week_the_us_government.html

My best wishes as always,
Fiona

Mindfulness

For anyone who has an interest in Mindfulness, the UK's Royal Society of Arts had a fascinating open forum lecture on it last week.

The full video will shortly be available on the RSA's website. In the meantime, here's a link to an article about it.

http://projects.rsablogs.org.uk/2010/09/mindfulness1/

Mental Fitness in the US military

I sometimes think that only my business partner and myself really 'get' what being cognitively fit means, i.e. I worry that no-one else really understands cognitive fitness or really cares about a topic that we are so passionate about!

So it was great to come across this article on the North Star Mental Fitness Blog in the US about cognitive fitness.

Here's the link

http://www.northstarmentalfitnessblog.com/2009/08/the-army-validates-mental-fitness.html

My best wishes as always,
Fiona

What actually IS Cognitive Fitness?

I guess that's a question that you're interested in or you wouldn't be reading the blog! What IS Cognitive Fitness? What does it mean either personally or professionally to BE 'cognitively fit'?

There are a number of places that you can go to to find the answer that's the right one for you - by which I mean finding an answer in your own words rather than simply using mine .........

I have 3 suggestions for you: the first is the Cognitive Fitness website where we have an article that explores what WE mean by it (and naturally of course other people will have their own definitions although you won't necessarily find them published anywhere!)

1) Click http://www.cognitivefitness.co.uk/documents/eurograd/insearchofcogfit.pdf to be taken directly to the article

2) Click http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=2591135&trk=anet_ug_hm to go to the Cognitive Fitness special interest group and discussion forum on Linked-In. You will need to join Linked-In to access this group though.

It's completely free to join Linked-In (which is a professional networking site rather than a personal one like Facebook or Bebo). It's entirely up to you how much personal/professional information you want to share with people on your profile.

3) Take the FREE Cognitive Fitness Questionnaire which you will find at http://www.cognitivefitnessservices.co.uk You will receive a FREE 8-page report and some suggestions for developing your cognitive fitness such as keeping a 'thought diary'.

I hope you find these suggestions helpful, for more up-to-the-minute information I suggest that you find me via the Linked-In site!

Thank you for visiting,

My best wishes as always,

Fiona

Hello and Welcome

Hello and welcome to my blog,

I guess that I should start by explaining why I've set it up and what you can expect to find here over future months and years.

The Cognitive Fitness Consultancy was established in 1996 to coincide with the launch of the psychometric tool Thinking Styles, as a way of helping people at work to understand themselves and others more effectively. As a psychologist, one of the things that I'm passionate about is trying to find ways of understanding relationships between people; why is it that we feel so comfortable with some colleagues, and yet others unleash in us all sorts of varied and complex emotions from mild irritation to active dislike?

My first book, Thinking Styles - Relationship Strategies that Work! was published in 1999 in an effort to explore how our thinking influences our behaviours and our relationships with others. Over the years I've received many letters from people telling me how this little book has helped them to understand not just their colleagues, but friends, family and life partners as well! I'm delighted to hear it, - that's just what it was written to do.

Of course, over the years, we have added other psychometric tools to the Cognitive Fitness stable; all of them designed to increase self-awareness and add value to the quality of people's working relationships and therefore to their lives. And if that sounds a little over-the-top then I can only apologise, - but I do mean it very sincerely as we really are an organisation driven by Purpose (which is why our new on-line Cognitive Fitness questionnaire and report are available to you via the website completely free of any charge).

One of the other things that I'm passionate about, apart from encouraging people to become more self-aware and achieve their potential, is personal and leadership Authenticity, and I will be writing much more about those subjects in future blogs.

If you don't want to wait, please feel free to have a look at our Resources page where you will find articles on Authentic Leadership and developing Cognitive Fitness, as well as information on how to avoid flabby thinking and on the psychology of teams.

My best wishes,

Fiona