Physical and Mental Muscle | @caroline-cavanagh | The Anxiety Alchemist

22 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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1:04

In this brief talk, the speaker critiques the current school curriculum for focusing on biology and physical education while neglecting the training of the mind as a muscle. They argue that, just as students learn to use their bodies through PE, they should also be taught to exercise their mental faculties. The speaker highlights basic cognitive filters—generalizations, deletions, and distortions—that shape how information is processed and learned. By introducing these mental‑muscle concepts early in education, students would develop stronger cognitive skills, making them better prepared for exams and overall learning.

Chapters

So in schools, we teach biology to children, how the body works. We teach them PE so that they learn how to use their body. But how much do we actually teach them how to use their mind beyond just putting more information in? The mind is very much like a muscle. So because we teach them how to use their muscles in the sports hall, we really should be teaching them how to use this mental muscle too. How the mind filters information, things like generalisations, deletions, distortions, all filters that will change how information is learnt. They're basics, but they're brilliant, and I would love to see this kind of stuff going into schools at a young age, because by the time they get to exams, their mental muscle is going to be so, so fit.