Think more about your mind
We’ve got it upside-down
Our society has an upside-down approach to mental health. When we’re well and everything’s fine, we ignore the health of our minds. It’s only when we hit a bump in the road – you might experience some mild depression or anxiety – that we begin to pay attention to improving our mental wellbeing.
We think this is…well, bonkers. We should take care of this vital piece of equipment when it’s still in good working order, rather than waiting to see if it gets broken under the weight of life’s challenges.
Let’s make mental fitness a thing
Mental fitness should be a well-known everyday activity. One that helps keep peoples’ minds in good shape and reduces the chances of experiencing mental ill-health.
With GYM, Antonia is shifting how we view mental health and how we approach mental fitness. It’s about learning to exercise your mind in the same way you exercise your body – by adopting a regular fitness routine.
Antonia’s mission
Here goes everything…
Dr Antonia Dingle is a public health specialist with a PhD from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
After having post-natal depression, Antonia was keen to find non-medication-based approaches to strengthen and maintain her mental fitness.
Search. Experience. Repeat.
Using her academic training, she studied practices with a strong evidence-base for improving mental health. Antonia explored yoga, acupuncture, giving up alcohol and caffeine, meditation, mindfulness, gratitude, self-compassion, even micro-dosing psilocybin.
She identified the practices that were particularly effective, accessible and manageable within the lifestyle of a busy working person. She then studied them further, honed them, and trained in them. That’s when the 5 Pillars were born.
It’s more than just a single thing
Antonia discovered that mental fitness isn’t the result of a single practice or approach – it’s about having a tool box of often inter-connected techniques. From this, the Five Pillars emerged as the foundation for GYM.
Antonia’s achievements
(She’s also raising two daughters)
PhD in Public Health
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
MSc in Public Health
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
MSc in Development Management
London School of Economics and Political Sciences
BA in Psychology and Sociology
University of Sheffield
Happiness Facilitator Training
Museum of Happiness, accredited by Complimentary Medical Association
Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Teacher Training
Mindfulness UK, accredited by the Counselling and Psychotherapy Central Awarding Body (CPCAB)
It works if you work it
Our dream is that regular, consistent mental fitness practice – using evidence-based exercises – becomes the norm. To achieve this, the exercises we teach are simple and fit around a busy schedule.
Antonia celebrates messy, imperfect action when starting to build a mental fitness practice. This isn’t about meditating for an hour in the lotus position.
The main thing is that you do it.
GYM services
Better manage your stress and long-term mental health by building your mental fitness through one of our signature training programmes.