Mental Fitness, Burnout Recovery & The Mindset Shift That Reduces Stress | #184

Well, what if I just got up 10 minutes earlier and just read positive content first thing in the morning? Just 10 minutes of positive mental nutrition. For me, the definition of mental fitness is anything that you do to train your mind to work for you instead of against you.

It feels very much like pampering yourself, but it's work. You're exercising deeply every organ of yours.

If we think of any professional athlete, They're going as hard as they can, but they're also recovering. And most of us, and it's like we're doing a high-intensity workout for our minds and with zero recovery and then wondering why our minds seem like they're exploding. Before you start injecting email, news, social, like all that stuff, answer this question when your mind's clear. What am I pretending not to know?

I can't wait to dive into this because I myself would love to get some tips. On how, what do we do? I mean, we are, life is not easy. I mean, that's like an age-old adage, right? Anywhere in the world for as long as we know seems like. So, stress is part of life, but modern life has more stress than what we had in the past, right? Would you agree?

Well, I think we have different stress. And a lot of the practices ironically that I call mental fitness and even that we use today like breathing or meditation, journaling, that stuff literally has been around since the beginning of time. It's not like this stuff is new. I think what's shifting, especially for our modern lives, is we can't just do nothing for our minds. Like, we can't just let them run wild and on default mode, because then that leads to us becoming mental health statistics. And I don't wish that upon any of us, but I just unfortunately know the data that's out there. And if we do nothing, that is actually what, uh, what happens. So we have to do something like that's where we have to start shifting.

Yeah. And when did you even become passionate about mental fitness?

Well, it, it's interesting because I mean, I, I wasn't calling it this, but when I, when I started in the corporate world, I had my original role, I was in sales and I remember thinking, okay, we're all being trained in the same way. You know, we all have these, these products and, you know, the same tools and so forth. And because it was a sales function, obviously, you know, the, The incentive is to, is to be the best. But then I'm thinking, okay, but we're all being trained in the exact same way. So, uh, for whatever reason, the, the thought came to my mind around, well, what if I just got up 10 minutes earlier and just read positive content first thing in the morning? And so I started doing that, just 10 minutes of positive mental nutrition is what I call it now, and quickly started to realize that No, no matter who I was studying, if I was reading about Oprah or Steve Jobs or Tony Robbins, all of these people were asking themselves powerful reflective questions personally and professionally. And they were using those questions to help guide their decisions in their lives and so forth. So I would write down the question, grab a notebook, and then journal using whatever that question was in relation to where my life was at and did that for well over a decade. And I mean, I went through different roles and I did win the sales trip that year. And, you know, then I started working on these massive brands, but always had that consistent practice early in the morning. And it just allowed for, at least for me, to start the day kind of on my own terms and with a clear mind and a mind that was a little bit more focused. Because I started to notice that with my friends and colleagues that 'cause we're doing, you know, same roles. But I think that was the thing that was standing out. And the only difference I could see was I had this practice in the morning that I don't think they were doing. And that was, that was the, that was the deciding factor. What that all led to, like the jump-off point was at that time there was nothing that existed in the market that would help guide you in. 'Cause essentially my practice, the primary one, primary one was journaling. With good questions. And there was nothing that existed like the meditation apps. So there was nothing for journaling. And that, that was the kind of the aha moment or the gap in the market, at least for me, that it's like, well, what if we created something that would guide people into a practice like this? And then that's when I left the direct corporate space, started Kio, which is the Japanese word for today. And, uh, we were trying to bring moments of intention and, and calm to people's mind on a daily basis. And it, it was pretty wild. We reached almost 90 million people in the first couple years with that product, then started this podcast, the Behind the Human Podcast. That started the books, that started the work with companies directly in the mental fitness space.

I'm guilty of it, of just pushing and pushing, pushing without refueling. It's like driving your car. You just drive, drive on empty and you just keep driving, but that's not the smartest thing to do. So I think one quick hack I have is a trampoline. So I have some, you know, high energy music. You get to jump on it. It doesn't take very long until, you know, your system is shifted.

And that's why I call this stuff mental fitness because you can relate it back to physical fitness. You know, we know that, you know, exercise, physical exercise is generally good for us as humans. But if for some reason you don't like to run, it doesn't rule out all of exercise. There's a million different things you can do. So same thing with mental fitness. If you don't like to meditate, then don't meditate, you know, do something else. For me, the definition of mental fitness is anything that you do to train your mind to work for you instead of against you, which opens up a huge— it's everything essentially, right? So find what works for you. I know I want to ask you about your situation because I, I I, we don't have to get into the detail of, I know this week was stressful and there was a lot going on and it's a, but it's a perfect use case. Like obviously there's a bit of like, you've got to kind of push through and so forth, but then now that you're kind of somewhat on the other side of things, like where most people kind of just continue and where the mental clutter starts to happen is they don't take a bit of time to release some of the emotion and like everything that you took in, right? Like there was a lot. So is there something, a practice for you that just allows you to just mentally just let go of the experience?

Yeah, I think I have shorter strategies and ones that it's going to take longer. So the shorter one will be my Shiftwave. So I can meditate for whatever, 15 to 30 minutes, and then I get into my infrared sauna. So when you are hot and sweating, it's hard to be, it's a little harder to stay stressed because you just, physiologically, you just have to get into a whole different state. Then, with the— so I have red light panels in the sauna. So, I get into, you know, I play meditative music and I just, you know, just really kind of just go into a different place. Yeah. And, I remember there was one time I was really stressed, actually sad, and I got into the sauna and it was so hot, I realized I couldn't be sad anymore. I was like, "Wow, this really works." that I just physiologically couldn't feel sad because I had to focus on how hot it was.

Yeah.

Yeah. So, that's pretty good. But, for like a deep recharge, I go to this spa. There's a natural hot spring spot in LA. So, I'll go and just do hot soak, and it's so hot. And then, I go into a cold plunge. And so, that wakes you up. I do that 3 times, and then I get a massage. So, that is, I think, deeply refreshing. But that takes, you know, hours and hours.

You need that this week, this weekend for sure, right?

I'm able, but I have a seminar going on, so I may not have time. So I do my shorter ones, but that one is, it feels very much like pampering yourself, but it's work. You're exercising deeply every organ of yours.

Well, for some reason, this makes sense for if we think of any professional athlete. They're going as hard as they can during their game and their sport and their practices, but they're also recovering. There's more and more people that, that are speaking and sharing those practices, and historically it's been— no one really talked about that. But you, you can't perform at that level without proper recovery. And most of us, and we're doing that with our minds daily. It's like we're— it's like we're doing a high-intensity workout for our minds for 12 or 14 hours a day, and, and with zero recovery and then wondering why our minds seem like they're exploding. They can only take so much, right? So it's just, I think it's just giving us ourselves the permission and not to judge ourselves, but just, yeah, you know what, today was a bit intense or this week was intense in general. How can I recover? I just want people to wake up feeling great more days than not. Everything else follows from there. But to your point around just health in general, I think like if we really just pause and if we're honest with ourselves, you can see how this starts starts to spiral, right? Like stress gets higher, so then all of a sudden we turn to the crutches that we have, and, and maybe we'll, we'll pick the easy foods and comfort type foods that are there, which are also not good for us. And it just, it continues to spiral, right? When, when you're in a good place and you're, you're feeling inspired and motivated, that's when you want to map out your plan. Do that for your nutrition physically, but also mentally, and the exercises, the things that you know work so that it's mapped out, it's there. And then when we get into those loops, when life just throws us curveballs, our number one job at that, at that point is actually not to trust our mind. And it's to trust the plan because the mind is just trying to bring us into the safety zone kind of thing. And, you know, it's all this outdated biology, unfortunately. And then we start making bad choices.

And I'm sure some of the listeners right now are stressed and, uh, maybe has been chronically stressed. What do you tell them how to release themselves from that?

Yeah, well, I mean, everyone's different, of course, but I think— and I'm not saying mental fitness is the end-all be-all, but it definitely can help reduce and be— and, and help be proactive around stress and so forth. But first and foremost, I think we need to understand, like, what's the fuel source behind our stress or our anxiety or whatever it is that, that you're struggling with and see, okay, well, if these are the elements that are contributing to that stress, what's within my control that I can maybe turn, you know, cut off some of the fuel and just start making some micro changes. But a lot of people don't check in with themselves, so they don't even know what the fuel sources are. And this is what I mean by, you know, like maybe it's when your coffee is brewing in the morning, or, or cup of tea, or your first glass of water, something as simple as, if I had to pick one word to describe how I feel today, what's that word, right? And, okay, well, I feel stressed. Okay, and that's when you ask the follow-up question of, okay, well, where's the stress coming from? Is there anything I can do, um, to release that? And often just even identifying and going through that process releases a lot of the emotion. And then the follow-up question is, how do I want to show up today? I haven't seen anyone say, yeah, I want to show up super angry today or something like that. Right? It's always something motivating. Like, if people just did that, so basic, it takes a minute or two. You want to take it to pro level, you throw an inspiring book beside the coffee machine, some Stoic philosophy or someone that is interesting that you just read one page and you immediately shift your mind. Just those couple of practices that take 5 minutes total, you're miles ahead of most of the population. And over time, that stacks, because then you want to do more, because you're like, wow, I'm feeling a lot better, I'm feeling more clear.

So first, identify your stress. If it's your husband—

yeah, yeah, get rid of them.

Think about what to do. Yeah, you know what to do. And to dig deep, and you will figure out the answer. Or if it's your, your job, well You know, think about what you can change. Or is it your physical health? Well, you know, work on it. And then 5 minutes a day next to your coffee, tea, whatever, your morning drink routine, something that's inspiring or just, you know, mentally healthy for you.

It's just a good question to help really identify really like truly what's going on, especially if it's bigger things with relationships or your health and so forth, is before you start injecting email, news, social, like all that stuff. Answer this question when your mind's clear. And it's just, what am I pretending not to know? Like, you know that there's something there that's off, but you're— it's uncomfortable to deal with it. But then we also know that at one point we're going to be forced to deal with it, and it's going to be way more uncomfortable and probably a hell of a lot harder and so forth. And it's the same thing with health and business, like all that kind of stuff. So just give ourselves the opportunity to surface that on our own, and then we don't have to tackle it all in one hot, but at least you have the data or the information. That's the parallel I always try to make on, on the business side. We would never run our businesses without information to then guide our decisions, right? But we, we do that when it comes to our minds. We just kind of wing it and see how it goes. And often that doesn't work out very well, or it makes it just a lot harder than it, than it needs to be.

Thank you for watching and listening. If you enjoy this kind of content, please subscribe and turn on your notification bell so you don't miss any of my future content. And if you want to learn more about regenerative medicine or other modalities in anti-aging medicine, please go to my YouTube channel, Joy Kong, MD, and there are all kinds of videos to help you keep learning.