Jiujitsu can be the mental oasis you need so you don't collapse

If our friend the reader got hold of this article, presumably you have tasted the pains and pleasures of jiujitsu.

And, probably, you've felt in your skin and mind the same benefits celebrated by people like Demi Lovato, Mark Zuckerberg, Ashton Kutcher, Kelly Slater, Jim Carrey, Mel Gibson, Tom Hardy and Nicolas Cage.

All of them, just like you, learned the supreme lesson of the jiujitsu training session: while the body gets tired, the mind relaxes. And the stress floats away like magic. 

To specialists like the clinical psychologist Broderick Sawyer, from Louisville, Kentucky, the secret lies in mental hygiene. We all learn early in life how to perform oral hygiene with a brush and body hygiene in the shower. It's time to start taking care of our minds, and doing so takes just 15 minutes a day. 

To Sawyer, discovering an activity that cleans our mind has the effect of clearing everything up—both that day and for the rest of our life. We often look in the mirror and see ourselves murkily, he says, adding, “Having a practice of mental health hygiene is like cleaning your mirror and looking into it, and you look in it and know what is and is not you.” 

A good activity of mental hygiene may be as simple as having breakfast on the balcony or listening to your favorite record on your way to work, and it's an extremely individual discovery. 

But, as has been attested by Lovato, Zuckerberg and many others, jiujitsu is a powerful stress cleaner. If you have also noticed this, how about inviting a friend or relative to benefit from jiujitsu as well? It may be the change they need. 

Check out a part of an invigorating lesson with Master Rickson Gracie, and enjoy your training.