CrossFit for the brain

There is a small gym up the road from where I live. It is a CrossFit style gym where they seem to throw lots of stuff around, from barbells to kettle balls and the occasional sledge-hammer bouncing against a truck tyre at full velocity. I love watching the high intensity of it all as people shuffle from one station to the next.  It seems like a great way for people to decompress and build strength and conditioning at the same time.

I wonder if someone will ever build a CrossFit gym for the brain, the type where you turn up and build strength and conditioning for the mind. The type where you intentionally practice and expose yourself to complex or challenging tasks. The kind of workout where if you can just relax a little more whenever you are presented with a challenge and try and stay focused for just a little longer each time, you might actually build an extra layer of muscle ready for the next challenge.  

Even when your mind starts to resist the struggle, “It shouldn’t be this hard!” “I can’t get through this!” “Why is this so difficult?”, you pause, take a big deep breath, shake the tension out of the body and stay on task just a little while longer this time. You keep practicing, keep conditioning and with each and every challenge you are teaching yourself that it’s actually not such a bad thing to struggle; that if you can relax and persevere, you will eventually get through.

Just like CrossFit, you stretch and bend first thing to activate the muscles. In the CrossFit gym for the mind, this is practicing with daily challenges. Steadily, you increase the load. 

You stop resisting, you let go of the struggle, you stay on task just a little longer each time around. You do this over and over again until it simply becomes a part of your daily habits and rituals. You keep practicing this way, building mental muscle and conditioning so that when a real challenge comes along you create space, you breath, you relax.