4 Exercises To Lose Mental Weight & The ULTIMATE MENTAL HEALTH WORKOUT PLAN

Are you ready to get in the best shape of your life? In this episode of On Purpose, Jay Shetty shares four simple steps to exercise your mental health and gain the stamina needed to endure these uncertain times. Controlling what 2020 will bring next is out of the question, but following this plan for mental weight loss guarantees you will be ready for the next challenge no matter what! Listen in to learn how leaders use these techniques & change your life forever. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Jay Shetty?

  This episode is brought to you by AG1. Are you feeling September reset too? Shorter days, longer to-do lists, earlier alarms, all those routines you promised yourself you'd pick back up. It can feel like your whole life is recalibrating. And when everything around you is changing, it helps to have a few things you can rely on. AG1 Next Gen is one of those easy habits to keep. It's the clinically-backed, comprehensive daily health drink that supports your gut health, energy production, and foundational nutrition all in one scoop. AG1's ingredients are sourced from quality partners for absorption, potency, and nutrient density to deliver the foundational nutrition your body needs. And alongside a proper diet,

• 0:44Jay Shetty?

  AG1 Next Gen meets 94% of nutrient requirements and it's clinically shown to enrich the gut microbiome. For a limited time, save 20% on your first subscription order of AG1 Next Gen or AG1 Pro at drinkag1.com/onpurpose. That's drinkag1.com/onpurpose. This episode is brought to you by AG1. Are you feeling September reset too? Shorter days, longer to-do lists, earlier alarms, all those routines you promised yourself you'd pick back up. It can feel like your whole life is recalibrating. And when everything around you is changing, it helps to have a few things you can rely on.

• 1:29Jay Shetty?

  AG1 Next Gen is one of those easy habits to keep. It's the clinically-backed, comprehensive daily health drink that supports your gut health, energy production, and foundational nutrition all in one scoop. AG1's ingredients are sourced from quality partners for absorption, potency, and nutrient density to deliver the foundational nutrition your body needs. And alongside a proper diet, AG1 Next Gen meets 94% of nutrient requirements and it's clinically shown to enrich the gut microbiome. For a limited time, save 20% on your first subscription order of AG1 Next Gen or AG1 Pro at drinkag1.com/onpurpose. That's drinkag1.com/onpurpose.

• 2:16Jay Shetty?

  This episode is brought to you by Vinted. Value can be found anywhere, even in the clothes sitting untouched in our closets. That's where Vinted comes in. Vinted is a secondhand marketplace app where you can sell clothes you no longer want and get more value out of them. Whether you're running out of space, moving, or simply updating your wardrobe. Listing items is a quick and simple process. And once something sells, Vinted creates a prepaid shipping label for you. And the best part, there are no seller fees, so you keep what you earn. It's a simple way to clear out your closet, be less wasteful, and maybe make some extra money along the way. And if you've been thinking about a wardrobe refresh, this can make it feel a little more worthwhile. You're not just letting go of clothes, you're getting more value from what you already have.

• 3:00Jay Shetty?

  Give your clothes a second life with Vinted. Download the Vinted app for free to start selling with no seller fees, so you keep every dollar you earn. All our pain comes from not wanting to be where we are. We're like, I don't want to be here right now. I don't want to be here right now. And we don't even know where we want to be, but we don't want to be there. Or it comes from wanting to be somewhere where we're not. We're like, I should be there. I should be on the cover of that magazine. I should have a million followers. I should be the next best TikToker. I should be the parent who's getting it right. Whatever it is, right? Like, we want to be somewhere that we're not. Now, how do we become present?

• 3:37Jay Shetty?

  Hey, everyone. Welcome back to On Purpose. Now, whether you're walking your dog, whether you're cooking, whether you're exercising, whether you are running, whatever you're up to right now, I just want to say thank you so much for being a part of the On Purpose community. It has been an incredible 18 months, I think, since we launched the podcast. And your feedback, your dedication, your focus has been amazing. If you haven't yet left a review, it would mean the world to me if you just take out 30 seconds of your time to leave a review. They are so powerful. They make such a big difference to the podcast. It would be amazing. We have over 12,000 five-star reviews, and I would love to add yours to it as well.

• 4:21Jay Shetty?

  Please take a moment to do that. Today's episode is a topic that I've been wanting to cover with you all for a couple of weeks now, because I feel like 2020 has been such a heavy year. How many of you agree that 2020 has been a heavy year?

• 4:41Jay Shetty?

  How many of you feel that you're carrying weight because of 2020 and what's been happening this year? And this is happening because I've been having so many conversations with people, whether it's me speaking at virtual events or listening to people's thoughts in meetings or reading your comments or ideas. I feel like everyone's feeling that they're carrying this weight on their shoulders. They're carrying this weight in their minds and it's heavy. It's hard to carry. And I'm sure you can agree with that. I'm sure you've experienced some of that. And it's really interesting to me because I see so many people as quarantine starts

• 5:22Jay Shetty?

  to not come to an end, but is going in that direction or as the lockdown is easing. I see so many people who are talking about like losing their lockdown weight or losing their quarantine weight, right? The weight they put on their bodies. But I really believe that we have to focus on the weight that's on our minds because we forget that our mental health and our physical health are so connected. And I really believe that a lot of us are feeling weighed down. A lot of us are feeling this mental stress and pressure that we feel we're carrying because of the events that have happened this year, because of the changes that have occurred this year, because of the pain that has happened. How many of you feel that way right now?

• 6:03Jay Shetty?

  So what I want to share with you today is the four exercises to lose mental weight and the ultimate mental health workout plan, which I'm excited to share with you. I'm basically approaching the conversation today, looking at it like a workout for your body, almost like an exercise routine, like a personal trainer of sorts. But we're going to apply all of those same principles to your mind. So if you're ready, I want you to get your pencil out, when you get your pen out, I want you to get your notebook out. If you're walking, running, driving, doing any of those things, do not worry, you can consume this in your mind and I will repeat the points clearly and you can come back to it. Take a picture right now of the podcast, share it so you remember the time and you can come back to this because this is when we're about to dive in and go ready.

• 6:48Jay Shetty?

  So here are the four exercises to lose mental Weight and the ultimate mental health workout plan for feeling weighed down. Now, let's first take a look at what makes us put on mental weight. Right? What is it? Because just as we would in our health, we have to think about like, well, what am I eating that's making me put on weight? Or what am I consuming that's not as good for me? Right? How many calories am I taking in? So if we look at what makes us put on mental weight or mental stress and pressure, you've got past mistakes. Our past mistakes weigh us down. How many of us spend so much time thinking, if only I did this in 2019? If only I did this in February 2020?

• 7:31Jay Shetty?

  If only I did this just before lockdown, before the pandemic started? So you've got that. The second thing is failures. Our past failures weigh us down. Maybe you're sitting there going, oh, I can't believe I achieved nothing throughout this time. You know, I saw so and so, they did that. And I, I saw that post that says that William Shakespeare was writing plays. And, you know, so many people achieved so much during the plague. And, you know, I'm so behind. So our failures act as weight in our minds, mental weight. We've got emotional baggage. Maybe you've lost someone, maybe you've lost something. We're carrying some emotional baggage. And then, of course, we have the long-term mental weight that we carry as well.

• 8:15Jay Shetty?

  And that mental weight includes, you know, childhood issues, childhood trauma, childhood challenges, parenting, upbringing, schools that we went to. So you've got both this long-term and short-term mental weight that we're constantly working with. And it's something that we need to work through. And that's why I'm so grateful and happy that today you've made this commitment to break through and work through this, because it's so easy to put it off. And the problem is that you keep piling on that mental weight that one day it just feels impossible to break down. So just remember this, that if you're starting today, it's not too late. The experiences you've had doesn't mean you should have started this a year ago. You're doing it exactly the right time.

• 9:00Jay Shetty?

  So let's dive into the four exercises to lose mental weight. The first one, this is something that I want every single one of you to commit to for the next seven days. I'm only asking you to do it for seven days and I promise you it will blow your mind when you do this effectively. Now, when I did this as a monk, it was truly the first time that I'd done an exercise like this. And I gained so much insight, so much depth, so much, so many realizations and reflections through this one exercise that I cannot wait for you to do it. So for the next seven days, this is what I want you to do. I want you to keep a mental diary.

• 9:45Jay Shetty?

  Now, how many of you have ever been asked by a doctor, a trainer, or someone in your life, a nutritionist, a dietitian, to keep a food diary? So a food diary, if you don't know, is when you literally track what did you eat for breakfast? What did you eat for lunch? What did you eat for dinner? What did you snack on in between? How much water did you drink? I want you to do one for your mental diary. So you've probably seen that quote that goes around, which talks about, you know, our mind is constantly consuming things and most of us are unaware of what goes into our minds and what is being processed by our minds. I'll give you an example.

• 10:29Jay Shetty?

  Imagine I said to you, "Well, what did you eat yesterday?" How many of you remember what you ate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner yesterday? Okay, good if you know the answer. I'm asking you to do it, actually. How many of you remember what you had for breakfast, lunch, and dinner last week? And how many of you know what you had for breakfast, lunch, and dinner last month? Now, the chances of us knowing what happened last week or last month are very thin. And if you knew what happened yesterday or this week, that's pretty impressive. But the point being that often, our health challenges or our stress and our pressure is rarely about just one thing that happened. It's usually about a ever-growing additional change that's happening, right? It's never just, the tipping point is the part that we notice.

• 11:14Jay Shetty?

  But to get to that tipping point, there are so many other triggers that get us to that stage. So when we keep a mental diary, we start noticing patterns, rhythms, the mornings we didn't feel so well. So I want you to keep a mental diary, not a food diary, but a mental diary. And this is how I want you to do your mental diary. I want you to write down every activity that you did. Whatever it was, listening to a podcast, going for a run, cooking, right? Going on a Zoom call, having a work meeting, whatever it may be. And after each activity, I want you to write down why you felt good about that activity?

• 11:57Jay Shetty?

  And what about that activity you would like to do differently next time? Think about those two questions very, very carefully. The first is, what did you enjoy about that activity? And the second question is, how would you do it differently next time to improve it? And if you keep a mental diary in that way of what you did and how it made you feel, you start to see patterns. So you may start to notice that every time you go on a jog, you feel great, right? After it, you feel really good. But guess what? Just before it, you never feel like going. And that's why you've been missing so many days. But you see in your diary, every time after I went for a jog, I felt happier, I felt more confident, I felt more focused.

• 12:39Jay Shetty?

  Now you've got ammunition to help you make that decision again in the future. So I want you to keep a mental diary of every activity that you do. You may even want to keep a diary of the number of thoughts or ideas that come in your mind as well. Now, you can't keep a diary of all your thoughts, right? I think studies or research shows that we have about sixty thousand thoughts per day. And sometimes eighty percent of them can be negative. So I don't want you to keep a diary of sixty thousand thoughts. I mean, that would be impossible. But you may start to write down, what are the major thoughts that come into your mind? And where do they stem from? For example, are you starting to see yourself be more jealous or negative when you're browsing on Instagram?

• 13:21Jay Shetty?

  Or are you seeing yourself being more confident and competent when you're listening to a podcast? Or are you seeing yourself feeling like you're doing better at work? Because you're connecting more with your manager or your team or colleagues? Finding these patterns out through a mental diary can absolutely change the way you function and live. So don't underestimate this. Do not underestimate this. I want you to keep a mental diary for the next seven days, just seven days. And I want you to see what an incredible change it makes in your life. So after every activity or a meeting, what did you enjoy about it? What was good about it?

• 14:06Jay Shetty?

  And how could you improve it in the future? Doing this one activity is going to give you so much self-awareness. You keep hearing about self-awareness. Self-awareness is being aware of yourself. How do you get aware of yourself? You reflect, you observe, you give attention to yourself, right? So we have to be attentive to how we feel. We have to be attentive to how we work best. When we observe ourself in this way, we can improve rapidly. So that is the first exercise that I want you to do.

• 14:43Jay Shetty?

  The second exercise is I want you to create a mental diet plan. So there's that famous quote that's going around that says, you know, your diet isn't just what you put in your body, it's what you put in your mind. Right? So I want you to come up with an ideal diet plan of when you feel at your best. What do you need to do every day to feel at your best? Now, there have been days in your life that you've been at your best. There have been days in your life that you felt the most productive. They may not have happened for a while, but they are there. And there is ingredients, right? Just like you know that when you're making a pie, or when you're making a sandwich, or when you're making a pizza,

• 15:27Jay Shetty?

  or whatever your favorite food is, think of your favorite food right now. You know what are the ingredients to making it the tastiest? You know the toppings, you know the sauce, you know the ingredients, the herbs, the, you know, whatever, the garnish, whatever it may be, the vegetables, you know. My wife definitely knows, right? You know, my wife is aware of what are the ingredients to make the perfect dish? And my question to you is, what are the ingredients to make your perfect day? Right? What are the ingredients that are needed? Because guess what? It's the same thought process. Just like a pizza won't taste the same if you don't put the same herbs in it as you did on the good pizza.

• 16:12Jay Shetty?

  Every day won't taste the same. Every day won't feel the same or be experienced the same if you don't do that activity. I see a drastic difference between the days I meditate and I don't meditate. I see a drastic difference in the days that I do eat on time and I don't eat on time. I see a drastic difference on the days I sleep early and the days I sleep late. You start to see those when you come up with an ideal diet plan. Now, if you're like Jay, I've never had an ideal day. I don't even know what it feels like to be motivated, inspired, and productive. Then write down what you think it's gonna be. So your mental diet is made up of these four things. What you listen to every day.

• 16:54Jay Shetty?

  What you watch every day, what you read every day, and who you talk to every day. So what you listen to, what you watch, what you read, and who you talk to. These are the four aspects of your mental diet and your mental diet plan. So let's say you listen to a 30 minute or one hour podcast every single week. And some of you going, Jay, I listen to you every single day. And you're amazing, by the way. And you're going to feel that, right? If you're doing something daily, you're going to feel that boost daily. If you're doing something weekly, you'll feel the boost weekly. So what is your listening habit? And I want you to have a positive listening habit. Are you listening to a podcast?

• 17:38Jay Shetty?

  Are you doing an online course? Are you doing an online program? What are you doing for 30 minutes a day? While you're commuting? And I know right now people aren't commuting, but some people are driving again. While you're cooking, while you're working out, while you're with your kids and you just want to have something on in the background? What are you listening to daily or weekly? That is giving you the mental strength that you want to have? What is it that makes you feel that way? It even could be music. And what commitment are you going to make to it? You may say, Jay, I'm going to do 10 minutes a day. And we'll listen to a whole podcast in a week by listening to 10 minutes a day. Someone else is like, Jay, I'm going to do an hour a week. It's going to be one hour on a Sunday. I want you to make a commitment to yourself. I want you to make it clear to yourself. Do not leave it as an idea.

• 18:22Jay Shetty?

  This is a real workout plan, right? This is a real focused, strategic attempt at giving yourself the best mental focus. So what are you going to do listening wise? Now let's talk about watching. One of the things to remember is that you don't want to watch anything that makes you anxious, stressed, or nervous at night. Yes, that includes Ozark, right? I love Ozark. No, no offense to Ozark at all. Like, I think it's a brilliant show. But what we don't realize is when we watch shows that keep us on edge just before we sleep, the quality of our sleep is ruined. When the quality of our sleep is ruined, the quality of our digestion is ruined. When the quality of digestion is ruined, our quality of energy is ruined. When the quality of energy is ruined, the quality of our day is ruined.

• 19:08Jay Shetty?

  That's a mental diet. I ate well, I slept on time, but I still didn't feel right. What was it? Oh, I was watching that TV show that scares the hell out of me. It makes me really fearful before I go to bed. Of course, I can't sleep. That's why that mental diary helps so much. But with your mental diet, I want you to be really aware, just like we shouldn't be eating too late because your body tries to digest it while you're sleeping. You don't want to watch anything too late and you don't want to watch anything that keeps you on edge. Because guess what? Your mind is trying to process that. That's why you might have scary dreams. It might be why you sleep in a shallow state. It's really important to recognize not to watch something in that way.

• 19:50Jay Shetty?

  You want to watch things that are empowering, positive, inspiring, make you laugh. Comedy is fantastic. Watching some comedy that makes you laugh, that allows you to unwind, but also makes you think. Watching movies that are powerful messages. You know, that's the way you want to be ending your days, especially if you end your days watching something. Now, the third one is read. Now, in reading, I want to share something really important. Try and practice one inspirational or motivational teaching a week. So I'll give an example, right? I'll give you a really good example to help. So there's this quote that I put up the other day on my Instagram from Sonia to Clay. And she says, "There are people that love you.

• 20:34Jay Shetty?

  Stop focusing on the ones that don't." So for a week, how do I act that quote? Every time I start thinking about the people that don't love me, I would think about the people that do love me. Every time I start fixating on people who are treating me badly, I would say, "Okay, let me do that, but let me also be grateful for the people that are treating me well." Right? So there are so many ways of practicing that quote. And it's practicing the quote. It's practicing and putting into reality the quote that you want to do. Now, there's this other one from Steve Mariboli. He says, "When the right person hugs you, it's like medicine." Right? So that one, get hugs from the right people. Of course, right now, it's challenging, but you get the point.

• 21:15Jay Shetty?

  Like, how can you shift a quote or a thought for a week into reality? And imagine you practiced it for a week. Imagine you dedicated your time to it for a week. What changes would you see in your life? What huge changes would you start to see in your life? If for a week, read one quote but tried to apply it every single day in different ways? And you try and apply it every day. So one day you may talk about it with a friend. Another day you may think about it and you may read it in between your emails. Another one, you read it in the morning and read it in the evening. There's so many ways of trying to practice a quote, a thought, an idea that really moves you, that you really believe in.

• 21:59Jay Shetty?

  It's such a powerful way of building a really strong mental diet of what you put into your mind. Because what your mind repeats is what your mind believes. What your mind repeats is what your mind believes. So when you keep repeating the thought, "I'm not good enough, I messed up, I'm not doing so great today, I'm not happy", then guess what? You start believing it. But if your mind starts to repeat a quote, or a thought, or an idea that's powerful, then you start to believe it and you start to create it and you start to put it into reality. Right? You start to make it in reality. So I don't want you to just read

• 22:43Jay Shetty?

  one quote for the week, I want you to try and apply one lesson or principle that resonates with you deeply in your life.

• 22:55Jay Shetty?

  This episode is brought to you by Whole Foods Market. If you're talking about quality food, you can't forget Whole Foods Market, who've been holding themselves to the highest standards since they opened in 1980. That means you'll see thousands of organic products across their stores, from the produce department to the aisles. It also means you'll never see certain ingredients. They've banned artificial sweeteners and colors, high fructose corn syrup and more, so you can shop with peace of mind. Shop Whole Foods Market in-store or online. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. We talk a lot about intentional decision making, and that extends to the practical stuff too, like making sure your coverage actually works for your life.

• 23:39Jay Shetty?

  State Farm is there to meet you where you are, and they know how sweet it is to feel good about your decisions. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can choose to bundle and save with a personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state. This episode is brought to you by Wayfair. Home should be a place that feels like a sanctuary, a space that truly reflects who you are. But it can be challenging to balance style, budget and endless options. I was looking to create a dedicated calm space for my morning meditation and reading, but I was struggling to find pieces that felt grounding but could also stand up to daily use.

• 24:24Jay Shetty?

  I went on Wayfair and found a beautiful, solid wood accent chair and a bookshelf. Now that corner is my favorite place to anchor my day. The quality is incredible, it's built to last, and it completely shifted the energy of the room. Plus, you can shop with Wayfair Verified, where product specialists carefully vet items for quality and functionality, so you can shop with more confidence. And if putting it all together sounds like a headache, Wayfair can handle delivery, installation and assembly. Join Wayfair Rewards today to get 5% back on every purchase and start saving on your next home upgrade. Head to wayfair.com to shop all things home. That's W A Y F A I R dot com. Wayfair, every style, every home. And now, who you talk to?

• 25:09Jay Shetty?

  This one's a really, really important one because we all know how we feel when we get off the phone with someone. Sometimes you feel drained and sometimes you feel driven. I want you to know, who do you speak to that after you speak to them unfortunately you feel drained? Versus when you speak to some people and you feel drive. You feel like doing something, you feel determined. And there are other people that you feel calm, that you feel still. That you feel peaceful and relaxed. It's so important to know what energy you are giving and what energy you are getting. Think about that for a moment. What energy? When is it do you think you drain people? And when is it that you think people get drive from you?

• 25:54Jay Shetty?

  And when is it that people you think get calm from you? Think about it that way. Think about it that way round. And here's what I want you to do as part of your mental diary. And you can make this fun, by the way. We did this as monks as well, and I absolutely loved this one. And it was almost like, you know, like people can't count calories. And it's like, because you know, sugar as well, and you count sugar and you count calories. Uh, we used to count complaining, comparing and criticizing. So I literally used to have a scoreboard, which would put every time I complained, compared or criticized, I would write the number one under it, like a tally chart. And every time I didn't do any of them, and I had the opportunity to do, but I stopped myself, or I found a better way to process it, I would give myself a point.

• 26:37Jay Shetty?

  So it'd be like J versus complaining, comparing and criticizing. And you can make it fun, because when you play with your emotions, you don't take them as seriously. What I mean by play with emotions, sorry, let me clarify that. What I mean by that is when you are playful in pursuing the profound, you stop taking it too seriously and stop getting stressed out and thinking that you are that. So a lot of people start thinking like, oh, I'm just a complainer. I'm just a criticizer. I'm just a comparator. When in reality, you are you. You're just you. You're an incredibly amazing spark of humanity. And we think we're all these things.

• 27:19Jay Shetty?

  And that's why when we are playful about the profound, as I said, in our pursuance of the profound, then in that way, we start to have fun, we start to get playful, we start to stop taking ourselves too seriously. So I literally the J versus complaining, comparing and criticizing schedule. And you may put money into it, and it'll be like, every time I compare or complain, I'm gonna put a dollar away, I'm gonna put a pound away, I'm gonna put a rupee away, I'm gonna put a whatever it is away, right? Like, I'm gonna put this away. And then, oh, you probably wanna see it go down. But think about that, and I remember doing this. And it was like, the first day I saw myself complain or compare or criticize, like total of twenty times. The second time I got to fifteen. The third time I got to ten. By the end of the week, I was at five.

• 28:03Jay Shetty?

  And then I binge complained all weekend and took it back to twenty. But you get the point, like, you can literally, the more aware you become of comparing, criticizing and complaining in your mental diet, the less you're gonna have it. And that's the same thing we do with sugar or whatever it is, like, every time you want a donut or you want a cake or whatever it is, the more aware you become of when you did it, why you did it, you can stop yourself from doing it again and move towards a healthier balance of it. So I'm not saying not to complain, compare or criticize completely. You'll find ways to do it in a healthier way when you are hyper-aware of it. As opposed to right now, where we're just carried away in these indulgences, right?

• 28:45Jay Shetty?

  Almost like mental indulgences, just like we have food indulgences. We have mental indulgences. And comparing, complaining and criticizing can often distract us from what is truly, truly important. So I want you to become aware of that. And I want you to keep a tally as well. And I want you to turn it into a competition with yourself, but a healthy competition with yourself. So I hope you're gonna try that out as well. As you can see, by the way, this is a serious mental diet. So, I hope you're following. We're halfway through. We've done two of the exercises to lose mental weight. I'm now gonna go to exercise three and then four. So three is a mental workout. So we've talked about keeping a mental diary.

• 29:30Jay Shetty?

  We've talked about what is your mental diet of what are you putting in to your mind? You're listening, you're watching, you're reading and who you're talking to. And the third is a mental workout. These are exercises that you can do that allow you to lose mental weight. These are actual exercises, mental exercises, just like we lift weights, just like we do HIIT workouts, just like we do add exercises. This is an exercise. I'm gonna give you three exercises that I want you to do mentally. The first one is presence. Presence helps you lose mental weight because a lot of our mental weight comes from being in the future or comes from living in the past.

• 30:13Jay Shetty?

  There is no mental weight in the presence, there is only action. So I want you to repeat after me. I am exactly where I need to be. Repeat again. I am exactly where I need to be. Repeat again. I am not ahead. I am not behind. I am exactly where I need to be. Place your hand on your heart right now. I want you to believe in your body. I want you to mean it in your mind and I want you to feel it in your heart. I am exactly where I need to be. All of our pain comes from not wanting to be where we are

• 30:57Jay Shetty?

  or wanting to be somewhere we are not. Right? All our pain comes from not wanting to be where we are. We're like, I don't want to be here right now. I don't want to be here right now. And we don't even know where we want to be, but we don't want to be there. Or it comes from wanting to be somewhere where we're not. We're like, I should be there. I should be on the cover of that magazine. I should have a million followers. I should be the next best TikToker. I should be the parent who's getting it right. Whatever it is, right? Like, we want to be somewhere that we're not. And so presence. Now, how do we become present? We become present through being physically present. I've shared this before, this grounding tool of five, four, three, two, one, which is given in psychology and therapy. If you want to be grounded in your physical space, what are five things you can see? Four things you can touch. Three things that you can hear.

• 31:42Jay Shetty?

  Two things that you can smell. And one thing that you can taste. Let's do it right now. Five things you can see in your space. So I'll tell you what I can see. I can see my frames. I can see my chair. I can see some books. I can see a globe. And I can see a coffee table. Four things I can touch. Can touch the chair. Can touch the microphone. I can touch my leg. And my legs are touching the floor. Great, I feel grounded, especially that floor one. When you feel your souls on the floor or the bed, that's very grounding into the present. Three things I can hear. Let me be careful now. Birds. White noise. And I can hear some leaves. Great.

• 32:26Jay Shetty?

  Two things that I can smell. I've got my diffuser on, so I can smell that. Always good to have a scent. And if you can't smell anything, light a scent, light a candle. What are you doing? Maybe fresh air or the outdoors or wherever you are. And then one thing you can taste, I can taste green juice. Cause I had some green juice before this. But notice that, right? Like just notice that for a second, how we feel so present in the moment already. I'm sure none of you thought of anything at that time. So our mind needs to be engaged in the present. The other way of being present, and this is our second exercise, is your breath. Being present through your breath. As soon as you start breathing intentionally, you'll be present. So what I want you to do right now is place your left palm on your stomach. And I want you to breathe in and feel your stomach come out.

• 33:12Jay Shetty?

  And breathe out and feel your stomach go in.

• 33:17Jay Shetty?

  Breathe in and feel your stomach go out.

• 33:21Jay Shetty?

  Breathe out and feel your stomach go in.

• 33:25Jay Shetty?

  Breathe in and feel your stomach go out.

• 33:29Jay Shetty?

  Breathe out and feel your stomach go in.

• 33:34Jay Shetty?

  When you bring your awareness to your breath, it helps you lose mental weight because everything calms down. Usually when we feel mental weight, when you're carrying a lot of weight, your heart starts beating faster, you start panicking. But when we slow down our breathing, when we calm our breathing, we start to lose mental weight. And the third and final exercise I want to share with you to lose mental weight and to add to your mental workout on a daily basis. So presence, you should practice every time you change the room you're in. Every time you change a room, practice presence. Breathing, practice breathing every time before and after you send an email, before and after a Zoom call, just do it there for 30 seconds.

• 34:17Jay Shetty?

  And the third part of the mental workout I want you to do with yourself is check in with yourself daily. Check in with yourself. It's an exercise to just check in with yourself and say, how do I feel? How's my mind? What do I need to do to make myself feel better? There's three questions you have to ask yourself at the end of every day. How am I feeling? How can I feel better? What do I need to stop doing? It's like, what do I need to start doing? What do I need to stop doing? How do I feel? What do I need to stop doing? What do I need to start doing? More of. So that is step three, exercise three. And the final thing is how to stay mentally active. Sometimes we don't know how to stay mentally active. We know how to stay physically active. Go on a walk, 10,000 steps, right? Dance, movement.

• 35:02Jay Shetty?

  How do you stay mentally active? The first one is you learn something new daily. Learn something new daily. Literally this morning, my wife was speaking to our adorable nephew. He's in London. And she said to me, she goes, he wants to know cool facts about nature and animals and the outdoors. Right? He's four and a half years old. He's adorable, but he's really smart, really mature. And so I Googled them because I didn't know any. And I started reading off all these interesting facts. And all of a sudden, my mind was expanding. Like literally, my mind was expanding just by reading facts. And I was reading them to a four and a half years old, four and a half year old. And that's why sometimes we think, you know, what, what's going on here? Like, why is this even going to help?

• 35:44Jay Shetty?

  But I promise you, when you learn something new every day, your mind expands. You may learn a new word. I love that one. For a long time, that was my favorite one. Learning a new word every day. I love learning about a new city. Love learning a new fact. If you feel you're learning every day, your mind will grow. And this is what we see in adults who end up with Alzheimer's or dementia. A lot of it is because they stop learning. Obviously, as you get older, we retire. People stop being mentally active. They're not learning something. They're not processing anything. They've no, they're not doing any more problem solving or critical thinking anymore. And I'll get on to that. But learning something new daily. So ask yourself, what is one new thing you can learn? Is it a word in a different language? Is it a new word in English? Is it about a new city?

• 36:27Jay Shetty?

  Is it about a new leaf, a new coin? What is it that you get fascinated about? Just learning about something new every day. The second way to stay mentally active is challenge a thought, debate or discussion. This is that critical thinking. You know, problem solving mind of ours that needs to stay mentally active. Can you set up a debate with your friends? There are these great cards that I've talked about before called No More Small Talk. And I got some others the other day. I believe Red Table Talk has their own. And with these cards, they just ask challenging questions. And it's great to sit over dinner and just take one question every day. Just one question every day. Right? The question could be, what am I grateful for today? But the question could be like, if you found a suitcase with a million dollars, what would you do with it?

• 37:11Jay Shetty?

  And it's just having a discussion. You're challenging yourself mentally. You're stretching yourself mentally. And that keeps you mentally active. And the third and final way to stay mentally active is calming music, calming scents that are really powerful for your mind. I'm a big fan of this scent called, uh, and oil called peppermint halo. And you put it around your head like a halo. And having that and calming music is so great to stay mentally active because that's the mental rejuvenation and replenishing. So that is the four exercises to lose mental weight and the ultimate mental health workout plan. I want you to test it. I want you to try it. I want you to experiment with it. I want you to experience it. And I want you to tag me on Instagram and tell me the best one that you've found.

• 37:56Jay Shetty?

  Which one are you using? Which practice are you taking forward? Which one are you sharing with everyone? Please find someone to work with, do this together, get accountable, get them to listen to the episode as well, and together commit to doing this together. I promise you, just doing one of these exercises will make such a difference to your mental health. And I can't wait for you to get started. Thank you so much for listening today. Thank you so much. Please, please, please leave a review. It makes a huge difference to the podcast. I'll see you again next week. Thanks for listening.

• 38:33Speaker 01

  Now, more than ever, we need someone on our side. But Rob Whitman? Whitman's votes drove up costs, cut Medicaid, and risked 350,000 Virginians' healthcare to pay for tax breaks for himself and his donors. He's not on our side. Shannon Taylor will fight corruption.

• 38:51Speaker 02

  Cut taxes and bring down costs. This November, vote for Shannon Taylor. She's for us. Paid for by HMP, the House Majority PAC dot com. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. Mr. President, my company told me of the explosion on our rig. On October 2nd. Causing massive water displacement and triggering a tsunami. They all heap the blame on me. Tom Cruise is. Digger got us into this mess. And Digger's gonna dig us out. From the director of Birdman and The Revenant.

• 39:19Speaker 03

  What would happen if I stopped going? You stall, you freeze to death, that's what.

• 39:23Speaker 02

  With great power comes great deniability.

• 39:27Speaker 03

  I'm not the first then.

• 39:28Speaker 02

  Digger. See the trailer online. Only in theaters October 2nd. Rated R. Under 17. Not a minute without parent.