How to keep your mind healthy

Maintaining a healthy mindset is about more than taking control of the world around us – it’s about understanding what content we consume and how it affects us. In this article, Education Executive’s Laura Williams takes inspiration from entrepreneur Steven Bartlett

Whether I’m speaking at a conference, delivering a training session or in a 1-1 coaching session, no matter what the topic, there’s one theme that will inevitably come up…

Boundaries. More specifically, what they are currently, where they should be moving forward, how to set them and how to enforce them.

I usually talk about setting external boundaries around your workload, your inbox and your time – as well as how to set some mental boundaries around our expectations and the perception of others.

But when I was scrolling through LinkedIn recently, I saw this quote from Steven Bartlett and realised I’d missed one…

“Your mental diet includes the things you watch, what you read, how you think, who you follow and who you spend your time with. If your goal is to improve your mental health, start by removing the junk from your mental diet.”

In the language of boundaries, I sum this up as ‘setting boundaries about what you consume’.

The world is a noisy place and a lot of what we see, we absorb without giving it much thought or question.

Our phones and our consumption of news and social media are a bit like our inbox – a sneaky back door to our attention, pulling our focus and intention. Our scrolling habits can be just as stealthily hijacking our mood and our wellbeing – whether we realise it or not!

But if we can get more conscious about what we mentally consume and pay attention to what makes us feel well and nourishes us and what makes us feel ill and saps our energy and motivation, imagine how things could change.

Instead of allowing others to dictate our focus, mood and perspective, we can actually self-program our mindset to be healthier and happier.

Whatever you’re up to this week, try and find some time to reflect on your own consumption habits. Think about what you consume, what’s happening, how you’re feeling and what setting boundaries in this area could help you to achieve.

PS If you want to consciously consume some quality SBL content come and join us at one of the EdExec Lives! Click here for all the info