Training Our Mind

In The Right Perspective, we established that there is always a better perspective that can help us see things in a way that makes us feel better, more serene, more content, happier, more at peace.

If we fail to find or adopt this better perspective, it is because either we are applying the wrong strategies to see or find it, or because our mind is not trained enough.

Therefore, the key points are:

• How to act and practice recognizing wrong perspectives and finding the right ones through iteration when we need them
• Especially if we often fail at the first point, how to train our mind to adopt the right approach in finding the right perspective:
  • Read and reflect to develop general mental models that we then customize to our life, identifying which ones fit best and which intersections and variants work better. This expands our repertoire of viewpoints and helps us find the right one
  • Build the right habits
  • Gain experiences and take action

Cosa fare quando si è nel mood negativo perchè non si ha ancora il giusto livello di traning della mente per cambiare subito prospettiva e sentirti subito meglio?

A Strategy for Finding Better Perspectives

One strategy is to try to elaborate different points of view that make sense. If something doesn't fit, if it doesn't make us feel better, we analyze and understand why, and what we could do that is under our control to feel better. This is how we elaborate another perspective, and then another, and another.

This iterative process is itself a form of training. Each time we consciously search for a better perspective, we strengthen our ability to do so in the future.

The Gap Between Knowing and Doing

I often feel tired and stressed, and I recognize it's partly my fault: the result of wrong actions or poor choices I've made. The frustrating part is that even when I understand this, even when I can see the patterns clearly, the feeling persists.

This is the gap: understanding why doesn't automatically fix how we feel or change our situation.

This is precisely why training matters. Just as understanding how to exercise doesn't build muscle, understanding better perspectives doesn't rewire our automatic responses. We need practice, repetition, and deliberate action.

Recognizing Wrong Perspectives

Wrong perspectives often share common characteristics:

• They make us feel worse, not better
• They focus on what we cannot control
• They trap us in victim mentality
• They prevent us from taking action
• They close off possibilities rather than opening them

When you notice these signs, pause. This is a signal that you need to search for a different perspective. Ask yourself: what aspect doesn't fit? What is under my control? What would make me feel better while still being honest about reality?

Training Happens Through Action

Your mind trains itself every day, whether you're conscious of it or not. Every reaction, every choice, every thought pattern you repeat becomes a training session that reinforces neural pathways. The question is: are you training your mind intentionally, or letting it train itself by default?

When you face discomfort and immediately reach for distractions, you train your mind to avoid. When you notice a negative thought and pause to question it, you train your mind to reflect. When you choose rest when tired instead of pushing through, you train your mind to listen to your body.

Every experience you build becomes a training session for your mind.

Creating Training Conditions

To train our minds effectively, we need to put ourselves in conditions that enable better training. This means:

Understanding the root causes: When I ask myself why I feel tired and stressed, the answer often connects to how I've been using my time, the choices I've made, or the situations I've put myself in. Maybe:

• I haven't been taking care of my physical health
• I've been trying to do too many things at once without proper rest
• I'm in situations that drain energy rather than create it
• I haven't created enough margin in my life to handle unexpected stress
• My actions don't align with what truly matters to me

Understanding this is useful, but it's only the first step. The real training begins when we move from understanding to action.

Acting for a better position tomorrow: Every choice we make today shapes tomorrow. When we're tired and stressed, it's easy to make choices that perpetuate the cycle. Breaking it requires conscious action, even small ones. These actions are your training sessions.

Taking responsibility: When we recognize that our current state is partly the result of past actions, we also recognize that future actions can create different states. This is empowering, not defeating.

The Balance: Reflection and Practice

The relationship between understanding and training is circular. Good perspective informs better actions, and taking action often reveals new perspectives. The problem comes when we get stuck in one mode:

Too much reflection, not enough practice: We understand everything but train nothing. We become experts at explaining our situation without actually improving our responses.

Too much action, not enough reflection: We stay busy but move in circles, repeating the same patterns because we haven't paused to understand what we're really training.

The key is moving between understanding and practicing, using each to inform the other. When you feel stuck, ask: do I need to understand more, or do I need to practice differently?

From Stress to Training

When you feel tired and stressed, and you recognize it's partly due to your actions, this recognition is actually a form of power. It means you're not a passive victim of circumstances. You have agency.

The question shifts from "Why do I feel this way?" to "What can I do right now, even if it's small, to train my mind toward a better response?"

Maybe it's:

• Resting when you're actually tired, training your mind to listen to your body
• Saying no to things that drain you, training your mind to protect your energy
• Creating systems that reduce daily decision fatigue, training your mind for what matters
• Making one small change that compounds over time, training through consistency

These aren't just theoretical shifts in perspective. They're concrete training sessions that create different neural patterns, which lead to different automatic responses and better tomorrows.

Viktor Frankl's Ultimate Training

One of the best examples of mind training comes from "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl. Even in concentration camps, where everything had been taken away, people who trained their minds to find meaning and choose their response to suffering were able to maintain their humanity and inner freedom.

This demonstrates the ultimate power of mental training: even when we cannot control our circumstances, we can train how we respond to them. The training happens not in the absence of difficulty, but through facing it with conscious choice.

Building Your Training Practice

To train your mind effectively:

1. Notice your automatic responses: Awareness is the first step, but not the final one.

2. Elaborate different perspectives: When something doesn't feel right, consciously try different points of view. Ask what is under your control.

3. Analyze what doesn't fit: If a perspective doesn't make you feel better, understand why. What's missing? What needs to change?

4. Choose one small action: Don't try to change everything. Pick one response you want to train.

5. Practice repeatedly: Training requires repetition. One good choice doesn't rewire anything. Consistent small choices do.

6. Create conditions for success: Put yourself in situations where the desired response is easier to practice.

7. Track your training: Notice when you succeed and when you fall back to old patterns. Both are valuable data.

The mind must be trained. This is how.