Mental Fitness Mondays: Weird Ways to Build your Mental Fitness

1st June 2026

Three tiny things you can do that will boost your Self Care muscles

Mental fitness is all about building up the habits and practices that your future self will thank you for across the Four Core Muscles. So today we’re going a bit weird, with three tiny things you can do that will boost your Self Care muscles.

The three are:

Tapping
Humming
Saliva pooling

Let’s dive in!

Tapping

I’m trained to use EFT (emotional freedom technique) and I have to say that it’s great.

The recommendation is gentle repeated taps with two fingers on points such as the top of the head, the inner corner of the eyebrows, just under the collarbone and on the karate chop point of the hand, or to the side of your fingernails.

How does this work to boost your mental fitness? By helping your nervous system to regulate. The repeated gentle movement can help a stressed-out body to calm down, signalling to the nervous system to react to life from safety rather than threat. This short video tells you more. How 'tapping therapy' could help calm your mind | BBC Global

Now here’s the important thing: Tapping can be preventative. This makes it a brilliant short mental fitness exercise to do BEFORE you feel stressed.

Humming

Similarly, humming has also been shown to stimulate the Vagus nerve, which links our brain and digestive system and heart. This pair of nerves operates more effectively and helps us feel mentally fitter, if we look after it. Humming activates the rest and digest (parasympathetic) part of the Vagus nerve, inducing calm.

Saliva pooling

Now the really weird one! Pooling saliva in your mouth has benefits for your oral and digestive health, but it also helps your mental fitness! When our nervous system is well regulated, we naturally produce more saliva compared to when we feel stressed out. Holding saliva in your mouth for a little while, signals to your body that you’re safe. When we’re safe we can think clearly, make better decisions, be more creative and more. It doesn’t have to be for long, but it’s definitely worth a try.

The key to mental fitness is setting up the habits and practices that will serve you well, before you think you need them. This keeps you resourced so you don’t have to feel like you’re running on empty. Have fun trying these out!

Coaching Question: How comfortable are you to try more unusual ways to stay mentally fit?