I am a strong believer in the balance and connection between mental and physical fitness (I have more to say on this topic but will leave it for another post), and it seems to me that while most parents understand how to implement strategies to help improve their child's physical fitness through good eating habits and exercise, many struggle with children that show symptoms of poor mental fitness such as short attention span, lack of discipline and boredom. Often the extent of the problem can be hidden because some of the physical activities that they do will help address some of the underlying cause, but the lack of mental fitness will surface in areas of life outside these activities.
But before I talk about some of my thoughts on how to improve mental fitness, let me try to define what I mean by drawing the comparison and connection with physical fitness. As most people know, physical fitness is commonly defined by two related but separate attributes, one being the strength/power related (e.g. how much weight you can lift) and the other being the endurance/aerobic related characteristics (e.g. how far you can run). An optimal level of fitness is generally considered as having a level of strength and endurance that allows you to perform most common tasks without causing your body to suffer from physical strain.
How does this relate to mental fitness? Just as you can measure/define strength and endurance as being physical traits that relate to physical fitness, you can also do the same for mental fitness and in fact there are also similar traits. I tend to measure mental fitness by creativity and focus, the former being the equivalent of strength and the latter being the equivalent of endurance. Think of creativity as the burst of mental energy in the same way that strength is the burst of physical energy that allows you to generate a lot of force, and focus as the steady release of concentration that allows you to complete something that takes a lot of mental power.
Something that we are all aware about physical fitness is that you have to increase the level of resistance to build up the physical strength (e.g. by lifting increasing heavier weights) or in the case of endurance you need to exercise at a reasonably high level (apparently around 80%) of your maximum heart rate, which means you can't get fitter by walking around at a gently pace (although you can probably burn calories slowly). Also, physical inactivity, especially from a sedentary lifestyle of sitting in front of computers can cause physical fitness levels to fall back to your basal level or in worst case scenario be life threatening.
So it might not be surprising to see how some of the issues with behavioural problems in children can stem from the lack of mental fitness, and how they might be addressed by helping them develop habits that will continually build up their mental fitness and well-being, thus preventing problems that are much harder to address later on in life.
In the next post, I will talk about some of the observations and experiences that has led me to develop some strategies & methods you can implement to improve your child's mental fitness.