Training
Today, I’m adding something new to the mix here at RARE SENSE®—training. This Substack began as simply an article published on the first of every month. I then included a book recommendation every mid-month. Last year, I also started a podcast. However, with all of this content, my goal has always been for it to be actionable. Theory is great, but practice is better. And obviously, when it comes to any goal, you only see results if you do the work.
If you’ve been following me long enough, you’ll know much of what I discuss likens mental fitness to physical fitness. Mental health isn’t a binary proposition, as some might have you believe. There aren’t two groups of people: those who are “fine” and those who have mental “problems.” On the contrary, we are all sprinkled along a mental health continuum.
Understanding the reality of this spectrum creates an enormous upside, however—the ability to develop mind fitness through training. Some need this more than others. But even the happiest folks can be oblivious to their thought patterns or lack the discipline to make themselves smarter. And you never know what life may throw at you to test the resilience of your mind. Being prepared ahead of time is critical.
Of course, the obvious question is, how? Moving forward, that’s what I’m going to show you. Every weekend, I will publish mind training for the following week. If you are familiar with a physical fitness protocol like CrossFit, I’m basically programming a Workout of the Day (WOD). Except in this case, it’s for your mind. Think of me as a personal mental fitness trainer. I can’t exercise for you. But I can teach you how to work out.
Daily training will be the same for one week at a time, so it’s really a Workout of the Week (WOW). Somehow, that feels like a dad joke… Anyway, my reasoning for doing it this way is so you get the hang of these practices and eventually adopt some into your regimen. The ultimate aim is to have healthy mental habits that are unique to you. Try everything I suggest. But as you find something that works particularly well, I hope you keep it as part of an ongoing bespoke routine.
Lastly, I am launching this portion of the RARE SENSE® Substack in the wake of more suicides in the special operations community. As a SEAL veteran, I found these hit especially close to home for me. And I’m noticing that our collective response is always the same whenever one of my former teammates takes their own life. Most of us weren’t aware they had issues. We admonish people to seek help if they need it. We encourage others to check on friends and see how they’re doing. While all this is sound advice, it’s clearly not enough. We aren’t stemming the tide of suicide with any real success.
This is because we have a fatal flaw in our thinking, quite literally. The above guidance suggests we seek an external solution to an internal problem, that the only way to prevent a person from dying by their own hand is for someone else to intervene. It’s saying that we are all essentially powerless in this regard.
I don’t subscribe to that conclusion. We can’t ever know anybody else's internal mental workings. If someone struggles to the point where they could kill themselves, the rest of us most likely won’t know. And if they make that decision, there might not be anyone there to stop them. Right then, the only human who can prevent their death is them. That moment is what mind fitness is for, among many other things. To clarify, I’m not stating that people shouldn’t seek help when needed. But I am saying that we all have the power to save our lives, even in our darkest moments, if we are trained to do so.
Let’s also not pretend that thinking about suicide is unusual. It’s my firm belief that almost everyone considers it at some point. That doesn’t make you odd or ill. It makes you just like everybody else. Of course, many people never take a thought like this seriously. But some, including me, have gotten to the point where we believed it was a viable course of action. I will freely admit that occasionally, the idea still crosses my mind. What gets me past it is the work I now put in to prepare myself for any potential impending darkness.
Allow me to highlight what I mean by the following physically-oriented analogy. Imagine you hit a patch of ice while driving at night on a local bridge. Your car careens off the road and is now upside down in a lake with you inside. If you don’t possess the capacity to stay calm, the strength to open the door, and the skill to swim away and back to shore, you will probably drown. In a split second, your survival is 100% up to you, and the outcome is solely the result of prior preparation.
Your mind is no different. There may come a time when it’s inverted and in a very cold and dark place. Can you make it out? The more you mentally train for the moment, the likelier the answer to that question is “yes.” And even if your life is hunky dory now, you never know when it might take a turn for the worse. Regardless of where your mind sits on the mental health continuum, you can and should strive to improve its fitness.
So, if you’re ready, let’s get to it. Training might vary significantly from week to week. It can consist of meditation, breathwork, problem-solving, journaling, puzzles, games, reading, Qi Gong, Yoga Nidra, etc., or any combination. But as Julie Andrews once sang, let’s start at the very beginning…
This upcoming week, I want you to meditate for at least ten minutes daily. Any time of day is acceptable, although I suggest early morning. If you've never meditated, I’ve recorded a beginner’s session on my YouTube channel. In that video, I cover what we are trying to accomplish. But if you don’t like the sound of my voice or the cut of my jib, feel free to use another guided audio track, an app, or simply a timer.
The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. There is no tomorrow. Eye of the Tiger, Rock. Let’s start training.
DISCLAIMER: RARE SENSE® content is not medical advice. Nor does it represent the official position or opinions of any other organization or person. If you require diagnosis or treatment for a mental or physical issue or illness, please seek it from a licensed professional.