Techniques for building up mental toughness?

[Frylock]

What are some ways to build up mental toughness? I hate to say it, but I'm mentally weak right now. So far, I know doing the following things on a consistent basis will help me become stronger:

-Meditation

-Cold showers

-Spending time in nature

-Working out

-Pickup/social freedom exercises

Any other ideas?

[BjarkeT]

Accepting the challenge and consequences that comes from facing what you find difficult and do it with responsibility don't aviod or distract your self from what you are trying to overcome if you have a goal of overcoming it as it can waste more time than necessary

be aware of how much time you waste as if you are not conscious about it you could waste years or decades from avoiding something 

it can be useful to balance between theory and pratice to overcome it effectively but just be aware not to spend to much time in theory 

don't wait until external circumstances force you to take action take responsibility your self for when you should take action 

https://www.fs.blog/2016/06/the-four-tools-of-discipline/

I recommend checking this out 

"the first step to fixing a problem is to realize there is one" i think thats a great quote from a movie scene I unfortunately can't remember the name of at the moment 

editted: never mind i found it but its a bit unrelated to mental toughness but i think still could be an usefule quote for it

https://youtu.be/-RVA3Xayr3A

 

Edited March 25, 2018 by BjarkeT

[7thLetter]

You listed a lot of the most important ones, I can't really think of any more but maybe you can add deep-breathing exercises or self-awareness exercises. But instead of looking for hundreds of ways to improve your mental toughness, start small. Start with all of the ones that you've listed here and focus on those. Once you've felt that you have built a habit of doing each one of those daily, then start adding other habits. Maybe listening to motivational audios/videos is another good one. Or re-framing any negativity in your life. For example if you started to complain about something that you don't have and re-frame it into appreciating what you do have. And practice that with every other negative thought that might come up.

But like I said, just focus on a few and build onto those that you've already listed. Build onto them in a way that you're laser focused on becoming better at each habit like if you only do 10 minutes of meditation for example, and work your way up to 15 mins then to 20 minutes. Cold showers? Build your way up from 30 secs to a minute. Working out? If you bench 40lb dumbbells work your way up to 50lb with more reps, etc. You get the point. And as you keep building yourself up in every single area of your life, you'll be a fucking boss man good luck

Edited March 25, 2018 by 7thLetter

[Joseph Maynor]

Have a good routine that you execute daily.  Very little drug or alcohol use, if any.   No News, no Infotainment.  Watch the Internet and Phone use.  Stay offline except during specified times.  Make a goal list.  Keep a task list that gets updated everyday.  Keep your daily routine list, goal list, and task list in a separate manila folder from all your other papers.  Start to keep a personal development journal on here.  Do some exercise in the am.  Do sets of pushups and situps during your day.  Give yourself a nice morning routine.  Jump on projects right away, don't give procrastination a chance to set in.  Try to fall in love with the process when you do projects.   If you can fall in love with the process, your projects will complete themselves.  Keep a clean diet.  Get plenty of sleep.  Don't shortchange your sleep, that's gotta be solid.  If your energy is screwed up, your performance is gonna suck during the day and you’ll feel like crap too.  You wanna avoid that trap by prioritizing your sleep.

Edited March 27, 2018 by Joseph Maynor

[Staples]

Run headfirst into discomfort. All discomfort. 

That being said, don't do stuff that's obviously stupid.

[mohdanas]

On 3/27/2018 at 7:22 PM, Staples said:

Run headfirst into discomfort. All discomfort. 

That being said, don't do stuff that's obviously stupid.

this

[herghly]

Do some form of MMA you like that has sparing 

i started bjj awhile ago after hearing joe rogan talk about it. Bjj is great for mental toughness , it's hard stuff 

 

i really do think for men doing some form of martial arts is amazing for mental health. It also gets you in touch with the animal inside ?

Edited March 31, 2018 by herghly

[Crazy_Monkey_Brain]

Allow yourself to sometimes be mentally weak, sometimes we want to be strong as a defence mechanism, however this is due to fear emotions, instead become so comfortable with who you are, you can be 'weak' and mentally strong. This is also very masculine.

Meditation routines & climbing works for me

[Ashton Aiden]

Everyone on here has great advice, especially about challenging your comfort zone.  I would also say that it is sometimes just as important to consider what not to do.  As mentioned already, doing very little (if any) drugs and alcohol.  I might argue there are occasionally exceptions but maybe that's for a different part of this forum.  

The part of your brain that deals with self-discipline and mental resiliency can be damaged by addiction.  This doesn't just mean drug and alcohol, but also sugar, too much TV, SOCIAL MEDIA, and especially porn (not that I am here to judge in any way).  These things disrupt the serotonin/dopamine responses in the brain, etc. etc.  When one becomes addicted to them.

I'll also second the plug for martial arts, and also believe that brainwave entrainment is a great way to help build mental resiliency as well.

 

[eskwire]

On 3/24/2018 at 4:20 PM, Frylock said:

What are some ways to build up mental toughness? I hate to say it, but I'm mentally weak right now. So far, I know doing the following things on a consistent basis will help me become stronger:

-Meditation

-Cold showers

-Spending time in nature

-Working out

-Pickup/social freedom exercises

Any other ideas?

Are you doing these?

Another vote for martial arts. That makes you deal with spontaneous adversity. Depending on the school and its culture, the personalities may also toughen you up. My teachers/co-workers basically never had a nice or encouraging word. All criticism. 

[Vipassana]

No FAP

[onacloudynight]

@Frylock I'd say strong determination sitting is one of the best ways.

[Hardkill]

Join a weightlifiting gym and do Starting Strength for a while or pick a martial art for a while, then after several months add in which one you did not pick and do that for a while. Those Heavy lifts will really develop the intensity of your mental toughness and so will martial arts to a degree. Eventually do some more cardio after doing both martial arts and weight training for several months. Otherwise, do martial arts and running for several months before you add in a weightlifting routine. The hard cardio will build the duration of your mental toughness. Get ready to choose your favorite music for your workouts.

[UDT]

9 hours ago, Hardkill said:

Join a weightlifiting gym and do Starting Strength for a while or pick a martial art for a while, then after several months add in which one you did not pick and do that for a while. Those Heavy lifts will really develop the intensity of your mental toughness and so will martial arts to a degree. Eventually do some more cardio after doing both martial arts and weight training for several months. Otherwise, do martial arts and running for several months before you add in a weightlifting routine. The hard cardio will build the duration of your mental toughness. Get ready to choose your favorite music for your workouts.

music is distraction for a weak mind to handle the pressure.

[Hardkill]

2 hours ago, UDT said:

music is distraction for a weak mind to handle the pressure.

It can be if used too much. That's why I also exercises a lot of times without music, even if I am lifting extremely heavy weight or doing a martial arts class and trying my hardest or running.

[Phrae]

Be one of his word. Do things that you say you will do. Stop saying you will do things you won't do. Build up momentum with that. I noticed I used to be sticktuitive to this and I would really really push my self much harder than I do now. I picked up some white lying stuff that is haunting me now.

Tell yourself you're going to do something and then that will have power because you know yourself.

[kieranperez]

Here’s what you do:

Do what needs to be done. If you know you can’t tackle the entire thing, break it down into chunks to get to where you want to get to. There is no magic formula or technique for working hard. 

[Joseph Maynor]

Live by a custom-designed schedule.  

[Timotheus]

@Joseph Maynor haha, oh yes!

[Hardkill]

Btw, using music will only help you block out the pain so much. It's mostly up to your willpower, at least according to my experience.