The Four Foundations to Building Mental Wealth

I recently watched the an old pitch from John Foley, who is the CEO of fancy ride-at-home bike Peloton (if you want to see how to build a story into a pitch, this video is a masterclass!). In there he explains how recent the idea of structured physical exercise like gyms or jogging actually is (30-40 years!). It only really gained steam in the 80s. Since then we experienced a physical health revolution, culminating in the cult like experiences of SoulCycle that (as Foley puts it) resemble a modern form of religion.

The Mental Revolution

And I feel something very similar is going on with mental health right now. For the past ten years terms and practices like yoga, mindfulness, self-care and meditation reached the masses. BUT just like we did with physical health 40 years ago (and to some extent still today), we only think about it when something goes wrong.

To the wider public, mental health is still synonymous with mental illness. Our notion of physical health is, however, very different than our notion of physical illness. And we fix (and name) symptoms instead of pursuing an understanding of the underlying issues. Having trouble falling asleep? Oh, that’s called insomnia. Here’s a pill. Feeling sad for more than two weeks straight? Oh that’s depression.

I argue, that we might benefit from looking at mental health like we do at investing in other areas of our lives like personal finance, career, physical health, relationships etc., where we build wealth by consistent and conscious investment.

Whether you want to admit it or not, most of us will deal with a life-interrupting mental health crisis (pervasive anxiety, depression etc.) in our lives at least once (but likely several times). What if we take a conscious effort to build mental resilience and cultivate a toolkit AHEAD OF TIME so we are able to deal with the overwhelm when shit hits the fan.

The Five Foundations of Mental Wealth

The term mental wealth did not grow in my mental garden, but is a brain child of the brilliant founder, writer, podcaster and investor James Beshara. He came up with the five foundations we can cultivate to build our mental wealth. Let's go through them one by one with one tip/habit from Beshara to focus on.

But first a precourser from Beshara:

Let's go from a lens of “fixing” to “investing” — in other words, instead of fixing something that is by implication broken, it’s investing in its durability to withstand the wear and tear that comes with modern life. And this begins well before the internal or external life-interrupting event itself (in fact, that is the whole point).

😴 Sleep - The importance of sleep is very well documented and has been covered extensively in very good books like Why We Sleep. However, when we look at the literature and research, the number one thing you can do here that might not be common knowledge is to wake up every morning at the same time. In fact, if you believe the science, the amount of sleep is less crucial then sticking to your biological circadian rhythm.

🥑 Diet - Everyone has their own diet habits, but no matter what yours are, figure out what foods you’re allergic to and avoid them. In Beshara's words: "The inflammatory response in our bodies to foods we’re allergic to (when it comes to mental and physical health) is like subjecting yourself to an infection or cold each day". There are a plethora of tests you can do either in a lab or via mail-home-kits. Google something like "food sensitivity test" and get something similar to Everlywell.

💪 Exercise - Going 80/20 here, 3 times per week of minimum 15-30min HIIT aerobic exercise (high intensity cycling, running, eliptical etc.) is enough to give you significant improvements in mood and anti-inflammatory effects (which both are directly linked to mental health. What I found works for myself is that I rather commit to 30min 3x per week consistently than trying to cram in one hour every day for two weeks and then quit. This is a life-long habit, not a hack.

⚡ Stress Management - Again straight from Beshara's playbook: Take 15min every morning and do the following: 1) Write down five things that are going great in your life, 2) Take 2-3min and do the 4-7-8 breathing exercise, 3) Outline your todo list for the day (I focus on the three most important things that actually move the projects that mean most to me forward). Again these are not revolutionary ideas, but I can attest from my own practice that if you do them consistently your mood and your anxiety will be lowered dramatically.

So there you go. A proposed shift in how we think about mental health as a society, from fixing to investing toward mental wealth — followed by some practical viewpoints on what that investment strategy could look like.

I am aware that there is nothing revolutionarily new here. But I can also say from experience that if you do the above (or similar practices) consistently BEFORE AND NOT ONLY when shit hits the fan, you will amass a mental resilience to weather the mental storms that await you (whether big or small). The hard part is to realize that these are not nice-to-haves, but an investment into your mental wellbeing and a life-long practice that will colour the quality of every other aspect of your life.

Do them consistently and invest in your mental wealth. ♥️