In the past week, many Americans have been overwhelmed by raw emotions from the senseless killing of George Floyd, which has led to peaceful protests but also to riots, looting, arson, and vandalism. Coming amid the fears due to the coronavirus pandemic and the frustrations of spending months in quarantine, it’s just too much for some people to handle. You may be worrying if life will ever get back to some semblance of “normal.” You may be worrying that as a society, we’ll never achieve the equality people of every color deserve. You may also be worrying about catching COVID-19, worrying that your loved ones may die from the virus, worrying about your career, worrying about your business getting looted, and heck, worrying about why you’re worrying so much.
During extraordinary times like these, your mental hygiene is as important as your physical hygiene. If you want to put a stop to the intrusive worrying, you need to start training your mind to adopt a Warrior mentality immediately.
Start Training Your Warrior Mind-Set Now
These days, I know it’s hard not to feel like life isn’t fair. It’s not fair that yet another unarmed black man died at the hands of a white police officer. It’s also not fair that all police officers are being labeled as biased and racist even though the vast majority of them are decent, hard-working individuals who put their lives on the line every day they go to work. It’s also not fair that over 100,000 Americans have already died from COVID-19. It’s true. Those things aren’t fair. As I always say, nobody said life was going to be fair. The fair is a place with bad food and farm animals. The better question is what are you going to about it?
If you’re experiencing anxiety, depression, pain, or trauma due to the social injustice of the killing of George Floyd or as a result of the pandemic or the quarantine, you need to discover how to learn from that pain. If we just embrace it, maybe it’s not fair or maybe it is, we can challenge that thinking. Maybe there’s a reason for it. Maybe there’s something we’re supposed to learn.
That’s why I adopted a Warrior mentality a long time ago. I was tired of being a worrier, and I felt so weak and so helpless, and I needed something—a metaphor—to pull me out of feeling like a hopeless victim. That’s why I started practicing martial arts. I have a black belt in taekwondo and a second-degree black belt in kenpo—not because I’m so tough, but because I felt so weak. I wanted a metaphor that would help pull me out, and the Warrior metaphor fit so perfectly. In martial arts, you can’t wait until fight day to start training, you have to train every day.
It’s the same with your mind-set.
Train Your Warrior Mind-set
When you practice mental hygiene on a regular basis, you can kick thoughts of being a victim or being hopeless to the curb. You can become a master of mental martial arts. Your mental well-being can’t wait, so start today.
One of the best ways to train your brain to become a mental Warrior is to do an exercise called the One Page Miracle. It’s so simple yet so powerful, like many of the kicks I’ve learned in taekwondo. They look basic, but they’re very effective.
Here’s how you create your One Page Miracle. On a sheet of paper, write down everything you want for your life in the following areas:
- Health and fitness
- Psychological and emotional wellbeing
- Relationships
- Career and finances
- Spirituality
When you’ve got your main goals written down on your paper, tape it to your bathroom mirror so you can see it every morning when you start your day. By focusing on what you want and what you’re going to do to make it happen, you push those “It’s not fair” and hopeless thoughts that don’t serve you out of your head.
This can help you cope with social injustices or find productive ways to make positive changes in our society, and it can help you emerge from the pandemic with a more hopeful attitude about your future.
You can find the One Page Miracle, along with many other exercises to motivate your mind, disinfect your thoughts, and train your brain on BrainFitLife. Get 21% off your membership when you enter the code TANA21.
