How to develop mental toughness

Mental toughness, or resilience, is the key to peformance, behaviour and wellbeing. It is defined as a state (which can be learnt), rather than a trait (inherent in personality) and is embodied by people who seek challenges,create change, dislike routine, and like problem solving.

Mental sensitivity is the opposite of mental toughness: it means you let things get to you. Mentally tough people DON'T, adversity happens and they remain calm: instead of getting stirred up they are inspired to achieve despite setbacks.

When it comes to mental toughness, men and women are equally tough. And it can be learnt. You can develop mental toughness: NLP is a powerful tool, as is YogaNidra.

Mental toughness when combined with emotional intelligence leads to wise resilience - which i think is essential for every leader. If you want to get to the top, get mentally tough: one common thing is top people are all mentally tough. The higher position they hold the more mentally tough they are.

The components of mental toughness are commitment, control, challenge, confidence.

Commitment refers to being energised by goals and challenges and ’staying power’.

Then there is control over one’s emotions and one’s life (self efficacy).

People who seek challenges create change, dislike routine, and like problem solving. They actually seek out difficult challenges because it energises them.

Finally confidence has an external and internsl dimension: self belief and interpersonal confidence.

Mental toughness can be developed through the following six aspects

1. Thinking skills
2. Visualisation and mental rehearsal
3. Control of anxiety – fretting can tax the body and promote cardiovascular problems.worry elevates heart rate and lowers HRV. Learn to let go
4. Attention control – my friends tell me that my 30 min YogaNidra sessions give them-stamina, energy and focused performance.
6. Biofeedback – for example, heart waves entrain brain waves; physiologically the heart is a regulator of the ‘bodymind’ system, it entrains the system to coherence.