From the “hey, they stole my idea!” category comes a new health and wellness concept from NBA star Kevin Love called Coa that treats working out your mind like working out your body.
According to Fast Company:
“Founded by Alexa Meyer and Dr. Emily Anhalt in 2019, Coa is a therapist-led, emotional fitness class platform that includes therapist matchmaking, group classes, and one-on-one therapy. The idea is to make mental health a proactive and daily practice—just like physical fitness. Coa’s programs are built on Dr. Anhalt’s research-driven method on the 7 Traits of Emotional Fitness: self-awareness, empathy, play, curiosity, resilience, mindfulness, and communication.
‘Coa really aligns with everything I’m about,’ says Love. ‘It’s a proactive approach to mental fitness. We’re creating a safe place to talk about these tough subjects around mental health and mental wellness, in a group setting. There is nothing like this out there. This has never existed before. It’s the first gym for mental health, which makes it super exciting to be a part of.'”
Personally, I love this idea but that’s probably because it reminds me of my Stim Gym concept from 2013! Here’s what I had to say about it at the time:
“Why is it we are only concerned with physically working out? Why don’t we care about working out our brains as well? Aside from the occasional crossword puzzle or Sudoku do any of us even make any effort at all to keep our minds sharp? Why is it that we care more about the beautification of our bodies than we do the modification of our minds? Why can’t we go somewhere to get a cardio workout and a mental workout at the same time?
I think it would be great if such a place existed. If there was a whole gym or even just a section in a gym dedicated to working out your mind. A place where instead of adding mass doing sets you could just sit on your ass taking IQ tests. A place where instead of a bench press there was a timed puzzle that challenged your ability to manage stress. A place where instead of working on your definition you could look up definitions. A place where instead of circuit training with machines laid out in a path there were several tables set up for you to do math. A place where instead of lifting a weight you could go contemplate your fate. A place where you could spend more time with egg heads than meat heads.”
And now thanks to Kevin Love my dream may finally become a reality.
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