There鈥檚 been a lot of buzz about physical strength training in recent years, but what about your mental strength?

Building strength is a feat that encompasses both body and mind. Learning to navigate cognitive challenges means you increase your capacity to do all manner of difficult things, from navigating anxiety to staying in . It鈥檚 all connected.

鈥淯nderstanding self-discipline, perseverance, and strategies for living according to your values are all hallmarks of mental strength,鈥� says , psychotherapist and author of . 鈥淚t鈥檚 about being able to manage your behavior.鈥�

The Benefits of Mental Strength

This fortitude touches all aspects of your inner landscape, from logic to motivation to the way you feel your feelings.

鈥淢ental strength involves knowing how to control your feelings,鈥� explains Morin. That means understanding when to embrace them, when to shift them, and what you can learn from them.鈥澛燭his training is about reframing the way you process and respond to thoughts and feelings, creating a reaction pattern that鈥檚 more useful for you, adds Morin.

Another benefit of increased mental strength is more focus. 鈥淭here is an emotional piece of mental strength that requires wisdom and emotional intelligence, then there is the focus piece,鈥� says yoga teacher . She adds that each arena definitely requires some practice.

鈥淢ore focus is not only good for getting things done, but it allows you to have control over the spotlight of your attention,鈥� says Arrington. 鈥淚n this digital world where we are constantly distracted, our attention can be hijacked every few seconds. Mental strength means not letting these outside forces determine your behaviors for the day.鈥�

Morin adds that gaining stamina within your inner world can help you perform your best, improve your relationships, bolster your psychological health, and find confidence in your ability to manage life鈥檚 ups and down.

7 Mental Strength Exercises to Build Your Stamina

From mindfulness practices to getting uncomfortable on purpose, these exercises can make your mind a stronger space.

1. Name Your Feelings

Kicking off your mental strength training can be as simple as defining your feelings. 鈥淧ractice naming your emotions a few times a day and you鈥檒l find that your emotional vocabulary increases and you鈥檒l get better at understanding how you feel,鈥� says Morin. 鈥淲hen you can say, 鈥業 feel anxious鈥� or 鈥業 feel sad right now,鈥� you shift the way your brain is processing the emotion. You raise your logic, reduce the emotion, and help your brain make sense of what is going on.鈥�

2. Use the 10-Minute Rule

Whether your goals are multi-level or simple, starting small with whatever challenge you assign yourself sets you (and your mind) up for success. 鈥淭ell yourself that you only need to do the task for 10 minutes,鈥� says Morin. 鈥淎t the end of the 10-minute mark, give yourself permission to quit. You鈥檒l likely find that you want to keep going.鈥�

3. Practice Gratitude

The upsides of are 鈥攁nd for good reason.

鈥淕ratitude empowers you to focus on the positive and reduces the energy you spend dwelling on the negative,鈥� says Morin. Maintaining a regular gratitude practice鈥攚hether journaling or the moment or noticing of joy throughout your day鈥攃an help train your brain to look for the good.

4. Try Mantra Meditation

Learning to still your mind and quiet your incessant internal chatter is a lifelong pursuit, one aided greatly by meditating with a mantra. Start by adopting a simple mantra such as , , or to give your mind something to play with whilst you let your thoughts come and go with ease.

鈥淲hen we learn to observe and learn from our thoughts rather than getting pulled in all directions by them, we can feel a weight lifted,鈥� says Arrington.

5. Breathe With a Metronome

For an accessible breathing exercise that focuses the mind, Arrington recommends focusing on the timing of your inhalations and exhalations.

Start by sitting near a ticking clock or downloading a metronome app. 鈥淪et your timer for 10 minutes and close your eyes,鈥� says Arrington. 鈥淐ount your inhale and whatever number that is, slow down your exhale to double that number. If you inhale for five seconds, you will exhale for 10 seconds.鈥� This practice slows your heart rate (and your nervous system) while compelling you to pay attention to a very specific (and calming) task.

6. Lean Into Discomfort

Seemingly uncomfortable actions鈥攊ncluding balancing in or taking a 鈥攃an double as tools to increase your sense of security.

鈥淒o something that sends signals to your brain that say, 鈥楳ake it stop! I鈥檓 uncomfortable!鈥� while simultaneously doubling the length of your exhale, says Arrington. The former activates your fear response while the latter sends signals to your brain that say, 鈥淚鈥檓 safe. Everything is fine.鈥� This creates a new neural connection that makes it okay for you to be uncomfortable,鈥� she explains.

7. Get Vulnerable

You (hopefully) know by now that your vulnerability is a strength, not a weakness. Morin notes that asking for help and allowing yourself to quit when appropriate are practices that denote courage and promote toughness.

鈥淚t鈥檚 mentally tough to have the strength to actually feel that pain of someone hurting you, tend to it, learn from it, and take action,鈥� agrees Arrington. 鈥淭his may mean putting up some boundaries or ending a relationship.鈥� It may also mean opening yourself to having difficult but essential conversations and experiencing the possibility of pain. Letting yourself remain soft is among the strongest things you can do.

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I鈥檓 the owner of a small hiking gear company that I founded five years ago when I was 33 years old. I鈥檝e put my everything into it: long hours, 24/7 availability, and my own savings. Many longtime members of my team share my work philosophy. We love this brand and believe in its mission, so we鈥檙e willing to go the extra mile for it鈥攅ven if that means taking on additional work or staying on the clock a little longer to finish up.

As my team has grown, we鈥檝e started to hire a staff of young, fun, mostly Gen Zers, and I love the energy and creativity they bring to the table. But I鈥檝e noticed their perspective on work differs from my more senior staffers鈥�. They tend to sign off right at 5 P.M., even if it means running a little late on a deadline, and they rarely volunteer to take on any task that isn鈥檛 mapped out in their job descriptions.

On one hand, I really admire this clear boundary they鈥檙e setting between work and their personal lives. It鈥檚 the opposite approach of the 鈥渢he harder you work, the more you get ahead鈥� philosophy millennials like me came up under. But on the other hand, I spent years in the corporate world eating dinner at my desk, raising my hand for every extra opportunity, and taking zero vacation days to climb my way up the career ladder.听

I believe my work ethic and rapid career growth led to my own company鈥檚 success, but I know burnout is a real issue, too. How can I respect my employees鈥� work boundaries without resenting them or, deep down, feeling like they鈥檙e disrespecting me?

We鈥檝e all heard about love languages. But when I brought your question to two friends鈥攐ne Gen Z, one boomer鈥攊t became clear that something parallel exists in the workplace, which is that different people, and different generations, have different languages of respect.

For older generations, respect often meant giving your all. 鈥淚 remember being told, 鈥楧on鈥檛 call in sick, call in dead,鈥欌€� my friend Laurie鈥攁 Gen X/Boomer cusper who works with an intergenerational team鈥攖old me. In exchange, employees expected that they were working toward retirement, a pension, and healthcare that would last them throughout their lives. Although that social contract doesn鈥檛 exist anymore, older generations may still see signs of a healthy work-life balance, like leaving work at five despite a looming deadline, as fundamental shows of disrespect. After all, how can young employees be truly committed to the team when they鈥檙e always the first to get up from their desks?

Laurie says that Gen X and boomers often value punctuality, professional dress, respect for authority, attention to detail, and 鈥渇ormal鈥� professional communication: 鈥淲e come down on the side of full sentences.鈥� Even if Gen Z employees don鈥檛 agree with all of these values, they should understand that skipping them may create tension that they don鈥檛 intend to create鈥攁nd that, while it鈥檚 important for older people to understand how young people show respect, it鈥檚 just as important to do the same in the other direction. It鈥檚 also strategic: the people in charge of promotions are generally millennials or older.

Gen Z, by contrast, tends to value humanity in the workplace. 鈥淭he main difference I鈥檝e seen between myself and my boss is that I have multiple identities outside of my work, and she ties much of her own identity to her work,鈥� says my friend Maggie, a 22-year-old college senior who鈥檚 pursuing a career in education. But Gen Z employees don鈥檛 just value their own complex lives and layered identities; they extend that understanding to others, too. They may be unusually empathetic, flexible, and willing to take on extra work when they see that someone else is going through a hard time.

Maggie told me that she recently saw a video of a Gen Z woman resigning from her job, with her boss鈥檚 voice audible over zoom. 鈥淭he boss was saying things like, 鈥業鈥檓 so excited for you and this next opportunity. It鈥檚 totally OK聽to cry. It鈥檚 the end of an era for you! Don鈥檛 worry about me for a second,鈥欌€� Maggie recalls. 鈥淭hat Gen Z employee learned that she鈥檚 allowed to look for big things, and she learned what it feels like to be seen as a human in the workplace. Isn鈥檛 that what we all are?鈥� By engaging with her (former) Gen Z employee on a deeply human level, the boss was speaking her language of respect, which made her words and excitement all the more meaningful.

If one of your employees does something that feels disrespectful to you, remember that they may be prioritizing different languages of respect than the ones you anticipate. Someone who often shows up late鈥攂ut with a bright smile and genuine warmth for their colleagues鈥攊s probably not trying to be dismissive or rude. Their lateness could still be an issue, of course, but it鈥檚 more likely to be a problem of time management than contempt. And because their intentions are good, it鈥檚 more likely to be a fixable problem, too.

In your letter, you mention that your Gen Z staff bring energy and creativity to the table. That is no small display of respect. It means they鈥檙e being fully present鈥攁nd that they care. It鈥檚 also no coincidence that the generation that most prioritizes work-life balance聽balance is able to bring a unique level of energy to the team.

As for you, it鈥檚 time for some reflection. What are your languages of respect in the workplace? What were you taught by your bosses, mentors, and older colleagues? Do all of their teachings ring true? You鈥檙e in a position right now to shape the work culture that you believe in, and it sounds like you already have been doing that. Be intentional in your decisions. And know that even if times are changing, your hard work got you to where you are, with a company and vision that you鈥檙e passionate about. That鈥檚 something to be proud of鈥攁nd I respect the heck out of all that you鈥檝e done.

writes our聽Tough Love聽column. Previously, she has given advice on working with friends.

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On college campuses across the country, students are taking care of their mental health with movement. But not just with the or workouts trending on TikTok. Instead, they鈥檙e turning to a practice that we鈥檝e known about for ages: yoga.

At the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, dozens of students take yoga classes at , a studio located on campus. Studio owner and certified yoga teacher Jessie Bryce Lipkowitz says some students have told her that the practice has eased their depression and anxiety, while others say it鈥檚 been a way to manage stress or improve their body image.

At in Chester, Pennsylvania, the athletics department provides a weekly yoga class for student athletes. They learn breathing exercises, which helps them regulate their response to tough emotions, says Larissa Gillespie, the associate director of athletics. She says that the yoga class also aims to help them manage the pressures that come with being high-performance athletes.

鈥淲ellness is trending,鈥� says Marcelle Hayashida, associate vice chancellor for wellness, health, and counseling services at the University of California, Irvine, where students can take yoga classes at the gym located on campus.

The need is there. Between 2013 and 2021, the percentage of college students with mental health concerns skyrocketed by nearly . In addition, a 2020 nationwide which included 33,000 undergraduates found that nearly 40 percent felt depressed, while more than 30 percent were anxious. Loneliness was also a top concern. Even before then, a 2016 survey revealed that many students issues with roommates, relationships problems, and academic stress.

Unfortunately, many college counseling centers don鈥檛 have enough therapists to meet the rising demand, says in Princeton. New Jersey. Wilson, who counsels college students in her private practice, says that students sometimes have to wait more than a month for an appointment in a college counseling center, and depending on insurance coverage, cost can be an issue.

There鈥檚 no clear-cut solution to this ongoing problem, but many colleges and universities are offering wellness classes like yoga to promote self-care.

Colleges See Yoga As a Powerful Wellness Tool

Yoga draws on the tradition of physical movement, breathwork, and mindfulness and has been backed by science time and again for its influence on reducing emotional and physical tension.

A 2020 study published in Frontiers in Psychiatry found that students who participated in a including yoga, meditation, and positive psychology training felt better equipped to handle stress and reported fewer symptoms of depression. Yoga has also been credited with reducing in students and improving .

aUM鈥檚 Lipkowtiz can relate. Not long after college, she hit a rough patch. 鈥淚 was in a toxic relationship, and I was drinking too much,鈥� she admits. It was the 鈥渓owest point鈥� in her life, says Lipkowitz, who was 22 years old at the time.

Like many other young adults, Lipkowitz found solace through yoga. 鈥淢oving my body made me happier,鈥� she recalls. Attending classes also helped her connect with others, which eased her loneliness. Experiences like these can be invaluable, especially since the mental health crisis has made therapy harder to access.

Her experience inspired Lipkowitz to start aUM Yoga, where she strives to provide a community for students. Along with offering yoga classes, the teachers emphasize general wellness and creating a safe space for everyone, says Lipkowitz.

Since aUM yoga isn鈥檛 affiliated with the University of Michigan, classes aren鈥檛 free. However, Lipkowitz includes outreach to the student population by offering a select number of scholarships each year.

At many other colleges, the cost of on-campus yoga is included with the fees students pay each semester to use facilities on campus.

Maximizing the Effects of Yoga for Stress-Management

Certified yoga therapist is accustomed to teaching populations who rely on yoga as one component of a larger wellness program. Crane teaches yoga at an intensive outpatient program at in Chula Vista, California and explains that focusing on your breath during yoga and making sure your exhalation is longer than your inhalation can activate the parasympathetic nervous system. This, in turn, eases symptoms of anxiety, which can include an upset stomach, sweating, and a racing heart.

Depression, on the other hand, can make you feel lethargic and numb. Crane says that sequences of poses, such as Sun Salutations (Surya Namaskar A), can get your blood flowing and heart pumping and reconnect you to sensations in your body.

It鈥檚 not just the physical exercise that bring benefits. The ancient practice is anchored in ethical principles, known as the and niyamas, which are essentially rules for living. When these are explained in a yoga class, they can become a guide for students outside of class as well.

For example, Crane says that the principle of means caring for yourself, as well as for others. Extending kindness toward yourself, or having self-compassion, is one way to practice ahimsa. This can be a powerful antidote to rumination and catastrophizing, which are common symptoms of anxiety, according to Crane.

Yoga also provides an opportunity for self-study, called svadhyaya. 鈥淚t invites you to examine what鈥檚 going on in your life and how it impacts the way you move through the world,鈥� Crane explains. Like self-reflection, this practice can spark insight. When used in conjunction with talk therapy, it can be a powerful tool.

This same approach has been relied on for years among incarcerated populations, such as what is provided by . indicates yoga can bring relief from and contribute to changed behavior, including enhanced self-compassion and .

Distinguishing Yoga From Therapy

Despite its proven benefits, yoga shouldn鈥檛 be mistaken for a cure-all. Wilson cautions that with the rise of wellness culture, almost anything can seem therapeutic. On social media, for instance, influencers tout the merits of ice baths for depression and lettuce water for insomnia. When it comes to any 鈥渞emedy,鈥� including yoga, it鈥檚 also important to understand the limitations.

This is especially the case with depression, generalized anxiety, eating disorders, and other serious afflictions. In these instances, yoga should never be relied upon as the answer. Mental illness can鈥檛 be fixed with movement alone. 鈥淵oga can be part of a wellness program, but it鈥檚 not a replacement for therapy,鈥� Hayashida says.听Instead, yoga is a practice.

Most yoga classes are taught by certified yoga teachers which differ from certified yoga therapists, such as Crane, who complete 鈥測oga therapy training鈥� designed to teach instructors how to help students with specific needs. Even then, the teachers who complete this training are not licensed psychotherapists.

There are also that are meant to help survivors of sexual violence and other traumatic experiences regain a sense of safety in their bodies, Hayashida says. Unlike a regular yoga class, who are trained in the subtle ways that post-traumatic stress disorder can present. These classes are designed to support survivors in ways both overt and less obvious. Teachers emphasize breathing as well as establishing safe boundaries with others and can foster a sense of community.

While there鈥檚 no denying that yoga can feel therapeutic, feeling better isn鈥檛 the same as recovery, especially in students who struggle with addiction, eating disorders, and trauma. This is where talking with a therapist comes in. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) helps individuals examine their feelings and question unhelpful thoughts.听shows that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) with a psychotherapist who has years of training and experience can reduce the symptoms of anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 鈥淚t鈥檚 evidence-based care that helps you heal,鈥� Hayashida says.

Bottom Line

If you or a college student you know are feeling sad, anxious, stressed to the point of overwhelm, or just not yourself, yoga might be able to help, but not in place of therapy. Yoga can, however, function as a complement to therapy or it may be able to moderate symptoms until you can access other forms of support.

Despite all its benefits, practicing yoga is like taking vitamins or any wellness routine鈥攊t can be beneficial for your mind and body when taken on a regular basis, but sometimes it鈥檚 not enough.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that yoga classes are provided to students at UC Irvine free of charge.

About Our Contributor
is a psychologist and freelance health writer who specializes in service journalism and human interest stories about women鈥檚 health topics. She also converts scientific findings from the latest mental health research into meaningful information for the everyday person. She has written for The New York Times, NPR, The Washington Post, Self, WIRED, and Real Simple.

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A lot of people got divorced during the COVID-19 years, and a lot of people fell deep into their addictions. Being an overachiever of sorts, I did both.

As the pandemic worked its way through the U.S. in the first six months of 2020, my three adult daughters, one of their boyfriends, my niece, and my son, who was a high school senior, were all living with me and my wife, Lisa, at our home in Camden, Maine. We sewed masks, worked out in the basement, cooked elaborate meals that sometimes took all day, baked better sourdough bread than 95 percent of you, played Scrabble and Boggle, and got into massive arguments during episodes of Jeopardy! As we stayed safely hidden away in mid-coast Maine, it was a never-ending summer-camp-cum-house-party.

Perhaps inspired by this atmosphere, we also drank. Some of us more than others鈥攚ell, me mostly, and way more. I drank fancy drinks in the evening with my kids, and I also drank alone in the afternoons from a bottle hidden in the garage. The pandemic was the perfect excuse for increasing the everyday drinking I was already doing.

Lisa would occasionally suggest that I take a break, especially after catching me downing a slug of gin or smelling like alcohol in the early afternoon. I, however, wasn鈥檛 worried. I didn鈥檛 drink in the morning. I was fine. More important, to my way of thinking, I still had a choice about whether to drink or not.

But as the months went by and my own private party continued unabated, that first gulp of the day occurred ever earlier. By June, I was drinking before noon, and even I knew I had to do something. It wasn鈥檛 uncontrollable, I told myself. I just needed to stop for a while, and I decided to do it with help from an outdoor adventure. Setting an impossible physical task, getting in shape, and then achieving it鈥攖his was how I had operated for decades.

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A few years ago, after suffering a mental health crisis during a mountaineering expedition, National Geographic photographer Cory Richards walked away from his climbing career. In 2016, after a terrible rafting accident, 国产吃瓜黑料 writer Katie Arnold nearly ended her marriage. This summer, they are both telling their stories in powerful new books. In Richards describes using the body to heal the mind. In , Arnold talks about using the mind to heal the body. They spoke with contributing editor Florence Williams at , in Denver.

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Three days in total blackout darkness doesn鈥檛 sound that hard, until you hear this story about someone who tried to do it. Following in the footsteps of a famous quarterback who made headlines for his dark cave retreat, 国产吃瓜黑料 writer Tim Neville went underground looking for nothing. And wow did he find it.

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When PTSD from military service in Somalia changed the course of Chad Brown鈥檚 life, the subtle art of catch and release fly fishing changed it back. In this episode, the filmmaker, fisherman, soldier, and survivor tells the story of how giving back鈥攖o his community, to the river, to the fish鈥攇ave him a template for rebuilding his life.

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The darkness has a name, but I don鈥檛 know that yet. All I know is that I鈥檓 scared.

I鈥檓 sitting with my feet in a creek in the scrubby mountains southeast of Ashland, Oregon, watching how the water spills over gray rocks into a shallow pool. All day long, I鈥檝e been alone and unplugged, doing my best to savor moments like this one. I note how the sunlight filters through the black oaks and flickers in the water like coins in a fountain. Colors get special attention: the denim-blue lupines, the amber grass, and the plum-colored mountains around me. I squirrel these images away to return to later, like nuts before winter.

A forgettable dirt road follows the creek out of Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, which surrounds this place, but that鈥檚 as much as I鈥檒l say about the location. A lot of famous people keen on their privacy come up this way, but even plebs like me are welcome. Once you鈥檙e here, you have to become no one anyway. In a metaphorical sense, which doesn鈥檛 feel metaphorical at all, you must be ready to be buried alive.

I walk slowly, deliberately, uphill to a small clearing ringed by aspen and oak. The anxiety that鈥檚 been ricing my lungs turns steely and sharp when I see a pale wooden door built into a hillside, framed by lava rock. It looks like the entrance to Bilbo Baggins鈥檚 house. I go in. A stairway tumbles down to a windowless, 300-square-foot room with textured walls, a bathroom, and a wooden bed that smells like sage. A single low-wattage bulb hums faintly overhead. It鈥檚 controlled by a switch covered with a hard plastic guard, which makes it difficult to turn off and on. That鈥檚 the point.

This room and two others like it in these secret woodlands are the heart of what might be the country鈥檚 only established commercial dark retreat. This is a spiritual place, where visitors pay good money to spend long periods of time in crypt-like blackness, devoid of all light and most sounds, in an attempt to uncage their minds and, they hope, discover something deeper within. I鈥檓 here to give it a shot, but the mere thought has left my hands clammy and my breathing pinched. I flip the switch to see just how dark the dark is, and terror presses into me like 13,000 vertical feet of seawater. I implode and race outside, gasping.

All humans know the feeling. This isn鈥檛 the dark of the inside of a tent on a moonless night, when the forest sways in purple starlight, nor is it a creepy basement where a thin ribbon of light can weasel under the door. You can feel this kind of dark at a place like Carlsbad Caverns, where 830 feet under the New Mexican desert, the rangers turn off the lights and let the children scream. It鈥檚 the kind that triggers some atavistic line of code that sends your amygdala rag-dolling over evolution鈥檚 awful ledges. How can I survive this? How can I escape it? And the worst: What else is in here, and is it hungry?

Evening comes. Time to be brave. I take one last look around outside and gather a few more nuts. A mountain chickadee twitters about. Deer slip through the grass. I go inside and seal myself into the room with a few necessities I鈥檒l be able to locate by touch. A toothbrush. A Hydro Flask. A gray cotton onesie my wife got me for Christmas, because of the way it feels and smells鈥攖wo senses the dark can鈥檛 steal. I light a small candle and turn off the overhead light, hoping to feel a sense of control for one last minute.

You can do this.

I blow out the candle and swallow the panic as the enormity of the situation settles in. My eyes will never adjust to this. Today is Sunday. It鈥檒l be Thursday before I see a single photon again. That鈥檚 82 hours, alone, in the absolute absence of light.

I can鈥檛 think about any of that now. Instead, I go to bed early and pretend everything is all right. But it isn鈥檛. Things are about to get really, really weird.

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The turning point, for me, was Eliud Kipchoge鈥檚 smile. In the late miles of his 2017 sub-two-hour marathon attempt at a racetrack just outside Milan, as the effort mounted, he kept flashing a beatific grin. It was a deliberate tactic to help work through the pain, he later explained. Kipchoge鈥檚 reputation as the Yoda of endurance was just taking off, and I was torn between wide-eyed admiration of his mental game and my own long-standing skepticism of anything you can鈥檛 easily measure. Then, a few months later, sports psychologists in Northern Ireland published a study in which they asked runners to smile and measured a 2 percent drop in energy consumption. Kipchoge was right鈥攁nd by extension, I reasoned, sports psychology was a real and measurable thing.

Since then, I鈥檝e become a booster. I鈥檝e written enthusiastic articles about sports-psych topics like mindfulness, self-talk, and mental focus, touting the emerging evidence that they really can enhance athletic performance. In parallel, I鈥檝e grown ever more skeptical of conventional sports science鈥攊ce baths, compression socks, ketone drinks, and so on. My entire column in the last issue was devoted to ripping the 鈥渨eak and biased鈥� research underpinning virtually all sports supplements. So I got a jolt of severe cognitive dissonance from a in the journal Sports Medicine. Put simply, the evidence is not that good.

A group of researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, led by Gustaf Reinebo, pooled the results of 111 studies that tested the effects of various psychological interventions on athletic performance. The studies included a wide range of sports, with outcomes like finishing time, free-throw percentage, putting performance, and so on. A few interventions, like mindfulness and mental imagery, had 鈥渕oderate鈥� effects鈥攂ut when low-quality, non-randomized trials and subjective-outcome measures were removed from the analysis, the benefits disappeared. And some of my favorite approaches, like motivational self-talk, didn鈥檛 even have enough comparable evidence to merit their own meta-analyses. So am I guilty of holding a double standard, giving mental training a pass for the same research failings that I criticize in, say, supplements?

When I鈥檓 assessing new research, one of the biggest red flags is someone trying to get rich off the results鈥攚hich, when you鈥檙e talking about supplements, is 100 percent of the time. In contrast, 鈥減sychological interventions are less overtly commercial,鈥� points out Nick Tiller, a physiologist at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, and鈥攎ost relevantly鈥攖he author of . 鈥淭here鈥檚 a limit to how much one can package and sell a construct or abstract concept.鈥� That鈥檚 not to say it doesn鈥檛 happen: companies like Calm and Headspace have made fortunes on the back of mindfulness. But it鈥檚 a little easier to take a study at face value when the key ingredient isn鈥檛 for sale on the internet.

There鈥檚 another, more fundamental reason we might cut sports-psychology research some slack: it鈥檚 uniquely hard to study. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very difficult, if not impossible, to link a particular performance outcome to something that may or may not be manifesting in the brain,鈥� Tiller says. If you鈥檙e selling a pill and you don鈥檛 have solid evidence of its purported physiological effect, that鈥檚 either because it doesn鈥檛 work or because you haven鈥檛 bothered doing the necessary research. But the absence of evidence that self-talk really boosts performance can be blamed, at least in part, on the fact that it鈥檚 almost impossible to study properly. The gold standard of evidence is a randomized, controlled trial鈥攂ut how do you blind participants to whether they鈥檙e receiving self-talk? What鈥檚 the placebo? How can you get them to 鈥渦nlearn鈥� what you鈥檝e already taught them when they switch groups?

The most damning part of the new review, to me, was that the positive effects of sports psychology had been measured subjectively, via athletes鈥� own performance ratings, rather than objectively, using data like race time. If you felt as if you had a great race but you didn鈥檛 go faster than normal, that doesn鈥檛 impress me.

But Carla Meijen, a sports-psychology researcher at the University of Amsterdam who edited a , urged me to think more broadly. Coaches are always most interested in tangible and immediate outcomes, she acknowledged. 鈥淎s a performance director, you鈥檙e not asking your athletes, 鈥楢re you enjoying it a lot more?鈥欌€夆€� But as a sports psychologist, she鈥檚 targeting outcomes like self-efficacy, motivation, attention, and anxiety. Maybe that won鈥檛 make you measurably faster tomorrow. But if you鈥檙e thinking long-term, the less anxious you are and the more your immediate motivations align with your values, the more likely you are to improve over the coming months and years鈥攁nd the less likely you are to quit altogether.

None of this means that sports psychology research is as good as it needs to be. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got a long way to go,鈥� Meijen says. As skeptics like me are won over and the popularity of sports psychology grows, one of the challenges in scaling up its reach will be figuring out which interventions are suitable for a do-it-yourself approach and which require one-on-one work with a trained practitioner. Self-talk and goal setting are two strategies Meijen suspects people can use on their own. But that question鈥攁nd many others鈥攚ill take more and better studies to answer.

Despite all the gaps in our current knowledge, I remain intrigued by the role of the brain in endurance, and by the possibility that we can manipulate performance with relatively simple techniques like self-talk. After all, Tiller reminds me, the terrible quality of most sports-science research, and the massive size of the global health and fitness industry, actually demonstrate the awesome power of the mind. 鈥淚f we accept the premise that 99 percent of products are not supported by evidence, then the $4 trillion worth of sales derive primarily from people convincing themselves that these interventions work,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 all psychology.鈥�

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