How a Sports Psychologist Stays Mentally Fit

Melinda Nicci is the founder and CEO of MBody — and the CEO and founder of our sister app, Baby2Body — she holds several Board seats, speaks regularly as a women’s health expert and sports psychologist, and lives the life of an ever-networking entrepreneur. Her calendar defines crazy, and she’s in the throes of perimenopause while she’s at it. We often ask ourselves… how does she manage it all?

Well, she attributes being able to find balance, mental sharpness, and energy to working on her mental fitness. In her words, “you have to work your mind like you do your muscles”.

In honor of #mentalhealthawarenessmonth and all the mental health support we’ve been sharing this month, we grabbed Melinda’s go-to guidance for staying on top of her brain game.

A sport psychologist’s proven mental fitness routine…

Just like you would structure a program for your physical fitness — like a weekly workout plan — you need to do the same for your mental fitness.

Structure is crucial to keeping you motivated, on track, and moving forward. 

Practicing mental fitness will ultimately help you develop your resilience, which allows you to stay strong when life presents you with challenges. Your mind is a muscle, and exercising it regularly is essential to building up this mental strength and resilience that supports your mental health. It needs to be part of your routine just as much as your physical fitness does. 

I recommend you start with 3 days of mental fitness exercises per week, and as they become a normal part of your routine, move up to 5.

Before you start to give me the side-eye, thinking “I haven’t got time for that”, hear me out… We are all so busy, and it can be difficult to find time to fit in time for these exercises. But trust me, they’ll pay dividends down the line, and they’ll allow you to make the most of your waking (and even your sleeping) hours. Your future self will most definitely thank you.

These 5 exercises are the building blocks of an effective mental fitness regime:

1. Guided breathing

This doesn’t need to be half an hour of sitting in a cross-legged position with your hands in meditation prayer.

It could be a simple 5-minute guided breathing exercise — and we have these in the MBody app for free! I use these when I’m having a busy or stressful day, and just need to take a step back and catch my breath.

It’s so powerful to press “pause” and breathe in…. and out. It really settles you, and makes you feel so much more grounded. It’s an essential part of your self-care toolkit. 

2. Visualizations

When you’re busy, your mind can feel cluttered and you can find yourself overwhelmed as your brain jumps between different tasks and worries. A great way to still your mind is with visualization.

I always think of the ocean (probably because I’m South African and grew up by the ocean), and it calms me down. Pause for a moment now and think of something that calms you: the flickering flame of your favorite candle, wind rustling gently through the leaves on the tree, or a positive memory that makes you feel happy.

As you visualize this, bring your thoughts back to your breath, and keep them slow and steady.

3. Podcasts

Once a week, I try to listen to a podcast that is uplifting and makes me feel relaxed. Most of my time is spent focusing on business, fitness, and nutrition (the list goes on!) so I make sure that it’s not related to any of those topics.

I pick something a little bit different, such as philosophy, positive thinking, or motivation -- something that takes my mind away from the day-to-day grind. They really improve my mood, and I like to listen to them when I’m feeling a bit down (which let’s face it, we all do sometimes).

4. Body scan

I put on a relaxing playlist (you can listen to one I love here), sit down, and focus on connecting with my body. Now, you’re going to “scan” your body from head to toe.

Start at the top of your head and connect with how your physical body is feeling, and scan slowly down to your toes. Where are you holding tension? Does anything feel sore? Tight? Tense? Now, scan down your body by tensing individual muscles and relaxing them, one by one.

You’ll feel amazing afterward.

5. Gratitude journaling

Once a day, I slow down to write (or mentally think through) 3 things I’m grateful for. I love to do this in the evening before I go to bed. This is my processing time at the end of the day, but pick whatever time of day makes the most sense to you. There’s something really powerful about actively recognizing what you’re grateful for.

Try putting these in your calendar throughout the week, just like you would schedule a meeting or a workout. It’s really rewarding to tick them off, and it increases your self-efficacy, which is your belief in yourself that you are capable of achieving what you set out to do. 

It’s taken a long time to get to the point where I know what works for me when it comes to maintaining mental fitness. The same will be true for you: if you're new to mental fitness, it will take a little time to figure out what works for you, but you'll get there. The important thing is to stay consistent -- you'll see a real change, and it's incredibly rewarding!

Let me know in the comments what mental fitness practices work for you, and if you have any questions for me, just send a DM to our Instagram @mbody.official and I'll be more than happy to answer.