CAM DAVIDSONJUNE 13 , 2014

CANADIAN FAMILIES 12

Mental Strength

‘Definition’ of Mental Strength

Psychologist and Psychology Instructor Amy Morin defines mental strength as; the ability to regulate your emotions, manage your thoughts, and behave in a positive manner, despite your circumstances.

Developing mental strength is about finding the courage to live according to your values and being bold enough to create your own definition of success.

Mental Strength cannot be taught, though there are practices you can exercise to improve your mental strength.

Improvement of your Mental Strength

Evaluate your Core Beliefs The first step to improvement

of your mental strength is self evaluation, what’s important to you?

Expend Mental Energy Wisely

Avoid wasting your time worrying about things that are out of your control.

Replace Negative Thoughts with Productive Thoughts

Constantly believing “I can never do anything right,” will hold you back from reaching your full potential.

Practice Tolerating Discomfort

If you are aware of your emotions and how you respond to certain situations, you can know the best course of action.

Daily Self Reflection Take time to evaluate your

progress daily, consider what you have learned about your thoughts and emotions today, and what you want to accomplish tomorrow.

Signs of Mental Weakness

Self pityFear of changeWorrying about

things you can’t control

Worrying about others thoughts

Fear of taking calculated risks

Dwelling on the past

Continuing to make the same mistake

Resenting others success

Giving up after failureFearing alone timeFeeling the world

owes you somethingExpecting immediate

results

Mental Strength in the Home

Share your feelingsThis will avoid any

uncomfortable situations that may hurt others.

Connect with each other

Open up to happy conversation with family members, whether it be light hearted or meaningful.

Sleep, Diet, Exercise

Though it may seem like a cliché, enough sleep, good diet and sufficient exercise will make you feel much better. If you feel good, you will be happier overall.

Social Media Damage on Mental Strength

With a generation of young people growing up online, the media plays a big factor in how you feel about yourself.

A crucial step to being mentally strong is not concerning yourself with the thoughts of others. This becomes difficult with some people due to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more. People begin to judge their personal value based on the number of ‘likes’.

Cyberbullying can also have traumatic affect, leading to suicide in some young people.

Repetitively being told you are not ‘good enough’, or not ‘normal’, can lead to believing that it is true, and that you are worthless.

It is hard to escape the online world, and hard to maintain mental strength if you are constantly being broken down.

Mr. Steve Millar on Mental Strength in Schools

Sociology 12 Teacher at Horton High School

How do mentally strong people carry themselves?

“It’s just an air of confidence. I’d hate to use the 1950’s version of they stand up tall, they tie up their laces, they polish their shoes; it’s not the military. A student could look like the stereotype of the slacker, and still be a very confident individual in their element. Everyone just needs to find what their element is. You just need to give students a chance, give them the opportunity to be themselves. A lot of the time when they have the chance to be themselves, you can get them to do just about anything, whether it be academic or otherwise.”

Mr. Steve Millar on Mental Strength in Schools

Sociology 12 Teacher at Horton High School

Is the school system too soft on kids’ mentalities?

“No. At this stage in life you need to allow for the fact that students are still forming who they are as a person. So you can’t trample all over them. Students in high school, they need to be given the opportunity to make certain decision and choices, but we can’t allow our society to slide down to the point where we’re always falling to the lowest common denominator. You need to give students opportunities, that’s what high school should be. It shouldn’t be an environment where negative attitudes are encouraged.”

Duncan McKie on Trash Talking

QMJHL Drafted elite hockey player

Do you consider yourself an avid trash talker?

“I do. I trash talk a lot.”

Who do you target when you trash talk?

“Usually the weaker players, who kind of suck. [I] try and get in their heads, cause once ya get in their heads they play worse than they are. Most of the superstars though; you can’t get in their head cause they know they’re better than you.”

Duncan McKie on Trash Talking

QM

QMJHL Drafted elite hockey player

How do you try and affect people?

“Just try and hurt their feelings, say something that’s really close to them. To try and take them off their game.”

Do you find yourself being exploited by trash talkers?

“You won’t get affected [by trash talk] if you try and zone it out, just keep it out of your mind.

Any last remarks?

“Cam actually is not a very good athlete and he’s very weak in the gym.”

James Young on Mental Strength in Sports

Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist,

through the NSCA (National Strength and Conditioning

Association)

At Acadia Performance Training, you said you don’t just encourage physical strength but you also encourage mental strength. What do you mean by that?

“There’s several different aspects that go in to training strength and conditioning, obviously the body is important but the mind is more than half the battle. If you have a positive attitude, [if] you’re mentally focused and ready; you’re going to be a lot more successful in the gym and on the field. That’s a big thing for us here at APT, we want everyone to succeed.”

James Young on Mental Strength in Sports

Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, through

the NSCA (National Strength and Conditioning Association)

How do you encourage mental strength?

“Every day the main thing is focus for us. I think, personally, that focus is huge for mental strength. If you’re focused on one task; than you can focus all your energy on that task, and everything will work better.”

How does someone with good mental strength carry themselves? What’s their attitude?

“Confidence; that’s the main thing. [If] you ever see anybody that’s mentally tough or has great mental strength, they’re just confident. They carry themselves in a way, they walk around and they’re just confident in their abilities and they believe in themselves, and that’s a big thing. And regardless of a kids’ skill level individually, we want them to be confident.”

James Young on Mental Strength in Sports

Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, through

the NSCA (National Strength and Conditioning Association)

Is the athletic world too soft on kids mentalities?

“I think in terms of the general population, participation is huge. It’s something to be rewarded in terms of people being active and healthy, because the population is far too obese. That being said, I don’t think at sporting events, like in track and field, I don’t think the 20th kid should get a medal just like the 1st place kid. I really believe in rewards based things when it comes to competitive sports. That’s why they have house league hockey, for example, where they take the competitive nature out of it and allow everybody to participate and have fun; and having fun is a huge part of sports. But at a certain level, it needs to be competitive. If you look at a professional sport, those guys are having fun, it’s their job and it’s competitive, and there’s no room for participation medals and things like that.”

Confidence is Key

All three interview subjects stated that confidence was a sure sign of mental strength.

Though Duncan McKie may have said that superstars aren’t affected by trash talk because they know they’re better than you, it’s really because their self confidence doesn’t allow them to doubt themselves.

Find Your Element

As Mr. Millar said, anyone can be confident in their own element.

Give yourself the opportunity to discover what you like and what you do not like, and don’t concern yourself with others opinion

Find your element, and own it!

Don’t Let Others Affect You

As Duncan McKie said, you won’t get affected by others trash talk if you zone it out.

This ties in to what James Young said about focus.

“You could be the juiciest, ripest peach out there; but there’s still going to be somebody who doesn’t like peaches.”

Focus Translates to Results

As James Young said, if you’re focused on a singular task, you can exert all of your energy into that task. Though he may have been talking about weight lifting, it easily translates to the real world.

For example, turning off your phone to study for an exam will lead to better marks; just like not acknowledging others opinions of you will lead to a happier life.

Achieving Mental Strength

Focus on yourself; because those who matter don’t mind, and those who mind don’t matter.

Find what you like and stick to it.

Do not let the opinions of others affect how YOU live YOUR life.

Most importantly; remember to always be confident in yourself.

Personal Mental Strength Throughout Canadian Families

Throughout the course I found myself doing a lot of personal reflection

We talked about insecurity and self confidence

I was teased and ‘chirped’ and I sometimes let it affect me

Everything we talked about in the course drew me back to my mental strength and my confidence

I realized a lot about myself throughout the course; and the biggest thing was that I am too concerned with others opinions

This project has helped me a lot, and I will practice improving my mental strength as I take the next big step in my life.

Works Cited

www.forbes.comwww.acadiaathletics.cawww.gsdfaster.comwww.skipprichard.com