Emotional fitness is making its way into the debate about our mental health. This trend, which is thriving on the global wellness agenda, involves implementing new routines for our mind, comparable to physical exercise. That is, instead of treating mental illnesses and dysfunctions once they affect us, it is about preventing all those mental imbalances caused by the life we lead.
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From a proactive approach, emotional fitness seeks to develop skills to manage stress, regulate emotions, improve resilience, or prepare us to overcome moments of crisis or adversity. It is the sport or training to keep our mind in shape. A psychological gym that includes gyms offering combined techniques of meditation, breathwork, or emotional coaching.
Experts like Andrés Martín, director of the Esmindfulness Institute and an expert in MBSR, endorse this new trend that reminds us of the importance of keeping the mind fit before it overwhelms us with anxiety, stress, or all kinds of neuroses.
Do you think emotional fitness can be a proactive practice to manage stress?
Yes, without a doubt. I started meditating more than thirty years ago, in the middle of a pretty tough personal crisis, and it changed my life. So I know firsthand what it’s like to be late to this. That’s why I strongly support the idea of training the mind before it’s necessary, just as we train the body before a heart attack occurs. Emotional fitness is about that: cultivating resources of attention and calm when we are still well, so we have them available when things get complicated. It’s not about living without stress; in reasonable doses, it’s even useful. It’s about stress not affecting you too much.
What can we do to reduce stress as a daily practice?
I would start with something small: some conscious breaths upon waking, before picking up the phone. A pause between one meeting and the next. The body scan, which we use a lot in MBSR, helps eliminate tensions we normally ignore. And then the basics, which are the most forgotten: sleep, move, do one thing at a time instead of three simultaneously. But if I had to choose just one practice, it would be this: learn to insert a small space between what happens to us and how we react. That space is where freedom lies.
What do you think about gyms for the mind that combine meditation, breathwork, and emotional coaching?
I think it’s good that taking care of the mind is normalized just like taking care of the body. But I would ask for caution. Not all techniques are the same, nor does everyone need the same thing, and some intense breathwork practices can stir up things that an instructor without solid training doesn’t know how to handle. I would look closely at who is behind it and what training they have. A mindfulness instructor is not a therapist, and you have to know when to refer someone who needs something else. I prefer a few well-taught tools by an expert rather than many things mixed without criteria.
Should we wait to have a crisis to work on the mind?
We shouldn’t, although in my case it was exactly like that: I started out of necessity, not prevention. I have spent thirty years wondering what would have happened if I had started a few years earlier. That’s why I now insist so much that you don’t have to hit rock bottom. We take care of the heart before it fails; we could care for the mind with the same logic. In the end, that’s what emotional fitness is about: not waiting to be unwell to start getting better.
Emotional management
Managing our emotions is one of the keys to our personal balance. We live in a very mental society that seeks reasons, causes, and explanations for everything.
This limits the space for the being that inhabits us and the emotions that overwhelm it.
The mental world tries to stop and impose itself on emotions. Thus, we automatically repress them until blockages occur that can make us ill.
One must allow oneself to feel emotions, letting them flow naturally and smoothly. The emotional basis involves finding balance. It’s not about being overwhelmed by them or having them nullified through a behavior of impassive coldness.
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Meditation or a small space between what happens to us and how we react, as Andrés Martín suggests, is an example of how to prevent anger, rage, or reactivity from possessing us.
The key lies in tuning mind and emotions, establishing a good connection between cognitive and emotional intelligence. When the mind and heart meet, we live in a state of harmony that benefits our health.
Francesc Miralles, a personal development specialist and author of books like Ikigai (2016) and Homo solver (2025), believes that what this new trend of emotional fitness proposes has always existed as something necessary.
Do you believe in emotional fitness and its daily practice to regulate emotions, mood, and psychological balance?
Well, we are facing a new-generation anglicism that refers to something that has existed all along, such as the practice of spirituality, self-knowledge, personal development, or whatever we want to call it.
These are terms, just like now we call meditation mindfulness or say I’m going to have a call instead of making a phone call.
The important thing is that people become aware of the importance of dedicating time each day to care for their emotions or their body, and nourish their mind with non-aggressive intellectual products. Watching the news with so many massacres and ecological disasters only makes one reactive. It is very important to watch what we give the brain, especially before sleeping or upon waking. Better novels, essays, or documentaries that help psychological balance than bad news.
What do you think about emotional coaching?
It has existed for four thousand years in India. It was done between gurus and disciples in the ashram community. It is a tradition of self-knowledge as Ramana Maharshi proposed, working the body and spirit as yoga has done since time immemorial.
And what do you think about mood tracking apps and similar?
The truth is I am very distrustful of all this because there is no person behind it. They are automatisms, and what has been seen is that in the US, all cyber therapist apps have been shutting down. Someone with anxiety or depression or any major disorder talking to a machine is not enough. At least in this area, the person who accompanies cannot be replaced, unless the interactions are more trivial, like preparing for a job interview or a romantic date. In the realm of pain or suffering, there are many subtleties that AI does not reach.
Do we wait to have a crisis to work on the mind?
Crises force us to react and take measures, to be proactive, but ideally, we would anticipate them. Working on ourselves should be part of our daily training. If we are better, it is less likely that we will have crises. When the crisis erupts and one falls into a deep depression, sometimes one is not in a condition to work on the mind and must be lifted through biochemistry or other means.
A person who takes care of themselves and knows themselves, who watches the relationships they establish, the content they consume, is better prepared if a crisis comes. It is important to take care of our mental, psychological, and emotional balance.
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