Building Mental Toughness
Learn the following lessons from the Navy's hardiest, toughest, and strongest breed: the Navy SEALs! They practice mental fitness so that they are ready to face whatever comes their way. Here are the tried-and-true strategies that they use daily.
Put shipmates first.
Belong to the team, fit in, and be altruistic and responsible! Look out for and help your shipmates and your command (or your teammates and supervisors).
Breathing
Suck in several belly, gut-filling breaths; count 4 seconds with each inhale and exhale. The diaphragmatic breathing helps relax the body and the mind. It distracts, changes the focus, and gives you control!
Thinking
Everyone has negative and bad thoughts from time to time, such as throwing in the towel, blowing it, or failing. Do not let that thinking bother you, as it usually happens to the best of people! Release, and let those thoughts go. Move on to the next thoughts, which are usually more positive and constructive, and focus upon them!
Address fears.
Everyone gets afraid and scared; it is part of the human experience. Reaching out to others and talking and sharing is important! Fear gets wired into people's brains. The good news is that you can overcome past experiences and learn new positive memories. By repeating an action over and over, you are developing a new experience and habit. This helps you to overcome fear, so face it, and recondition yourself to control and master it.
Mental Walkthrough
Training before something occurs makes a difference. Everyone can coach themselves through an upcoming experience. Think about as many details as you possibly can: sounds, smells, sights, tastes. Practice walking through the different operations and experiences. This builds confidence, mental conditioning, and strength.
Have faith in yourself.
Have confidence and believe that you will do okay and figure things out. Most people are much stronger, physically and mentally, than they think!
U.S. Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center. (n.d.). From Building mental toughness. Retrieved February 4, 2019, from https://www.med.navy.mil/