Before I carry on with explaining how the conscious and subconscious minds can either lift us up or put mental barriers in the way, I thought I'd share something that I've been doing for the past few weeks. It's not a miracle cure or provides super powers but is has helped me feel a bit more like I'm in charge of my own life. Give it a go with an open mind, it took me about a week or so to notice that I was less stressed and less reactive, especially on the nightmare drive from Wigan to Moss Side and that alone helps deal with the ups and downs of being a PT right now. Try This Tomorrow Morning: 20 Minutes That Will Change Your Day Before you reach for your phone. Before you check emails. Before you scroll social media. Give yourself 20 minutes. That’s it. Just 20 minutes without the noise. When we wake up and immediately dive into messages, headlines, and notifications, we let the outside world set the tone for our day. Other people’s demands, opinions, problems, and expectations hit us before we’ve even had a chance to think for ourselves. Instead, try this: First 5 minutes — Just breathe. Sit comfortably. No phone. No distractions. Use a simple technique like 4-7-8 breathing: Breathe in for 4 seconds Hold for 7 seconds Slowly breathe out for 8 seconds Repeat a few times It calms your nervous system and gives your mind space to wake up gently instead of being jolted into reaction mode. Next — Be present with your morning. Make your coffee or tea. Prepare your breakfast. And actually taste it. Notice the warmth of the cup in your hands. Notice the smell. Slow down enough to enjoy the food instead of rushing through it while staring at a screen. This isn’t about being perfect. It’s about being present. Then — Gather your thoughts. Ask yourself: What kind of person am I going to be today? How do I want to respond to challenges? What really matters today? Decide your mindset before the world decides it for you. Because once you open that phone, the pressure starts. Messages. News. Expectations. Noise.

Hi! So, back to how our minds can work against us. Why focus on this right now? Well, because when I was trying to improve my own mindset, I didn't realise that negative thoughts were quite common,, we all have them, I thought I was just someone with a dark outlook, no matter how many times I told myself ' ffs, man up, cheer up, be positive!'. When I did my NLP course, this was all dealt with, and once you know what you're battling with then there's suddenly solutions to the problems. The way our minds perceive and process thoughts really can make life more difficult and challenging thanit needs to be and here's 10 different examples of how this happens with what's know as Cognitive Distortion 1, All or Nothing Thinking Seeing things in a rigid black and white way, no middle ground. An example of this would be that you've followed a meal plan, rigidly for two or three weeks and then have a blip. This gives your mind the chance to throw in a ' right then, I've ruined everything, might as well pack this up, I've failed!', scenario. 2, Catastrophising Turning an initial thought about a relatively small issue into a huge problem. An example for this one is having a slight headache which ends up a full on Google self diagnosis of a brain tumour! OK, a bit extreme but at 2 in the morning, minds will and definately can run wild with misery, a bit like Eeyore on steroids 3, Mental Filtering Focusing on the negatives of the day while ignoring any positives and giving yourself a hard time for it, a gym based example for this one, you've had 10 compliments on progress throughout the day and one person has said something like, ' you're looking a bit tired!'. Guess what you're reliving time and time again. 4, Personalisation This one has you're mind convincing you that something is down to you when in truth, you're not even in the equation. You know when someone doesn't smile when you say hello to them, they reply but just don't smile and the cheer leader in our heads happily tells us, ' you've upset them!,. When in truth, they're just wondering if they left the heating on

Hello and welcome to my little corner of Skool. So first things first, let's go through the who, the what and the why of Solid Mindset. First, who am I?? Well I'm a PT and lifelong gym rat, competitive body builder for the past 10 years or so. My names Dirk, some of you will know me from maybe training in the same gyms, maybe you are or have been a client, or you know me from the socials. However we've met, or if we haven't yet, great to see you and welcome, kickoff your virtual shoes, grab a seat and make yourselves at home!! So what's mindset all about? Initially it's all about the ways our minds work, how they can be either our greatest asset or our biggest adversary. We live in a world of hyper stimulation, mobile phones, social media, news, emails and a hundred other things, an information overload and a mental minefield overload. This will hopefully offer a bit of a shelter, an oasis of a slower paced place to look at what's going on, how we perceive and absorb information, how it can affect us and how we can combat any adverse affects it has on us, both in a gym environment and in everyday life. How will. It work? Not sure right now as I have a host of ideas but initially I'll post some stuff that I think might be helpful to others, both from personal experience and from what I've learnt and picked up from a life time of both good and not so good decisions. Eventually I'm hoping it will become a succesfull community where we can learn, grow and support each other on the way to a calmer, clearer way of dealing with today's high pressure lifr