Stop, close your eyes for a moment and, I was going to say... breathe! But, you're doing that already, use the next couple of moments to really experience and appreciate your breathing. Breathe in the reality of the moment with each sensation in your nostrils. Experience the here and now - that's all it take to be here, now.

If I've heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times: "I meditate when I'm in trouble!" There are a variety of variants to this statement but they all boil down to the same thing... I try to get my head straight when it's too late.

Of course, it's better late than never and it's never too late but how much less likely would be be to reach that point of need if we looked after ourselves with such regularity that we never, as one client puts it, "get to the verge" - or, worse, go over it!

Mental fitness is like physical fitness - it impacts every single aspect of your life and wellbeing. But, unlike the rigours of a physical fitness regime, your mental fitness can be done in small "gaps" in your day and, even more unlike physical fitness, every little investment you make in your mental fitness is, as another client puts it, "banked" - you keep building on the progress you've already made and, even though, when you do reach that verge, you might think to yourself that you've slipped backwards, you never do! Those slips are momentary and always and immediately recoverable.

So, what kind of "gaps" are we talking about? Well, a five or six minute gap first thing in the morning is hardly tantamount to my asking you to rearrange your day or your life! You spend more time reading or listening to news that you shouldn't be wasting your time on at all. And, even if you set your alarm to get up five minutes earlier, it's going to make no difference to the amount of sleep you get - but will make the world of difference to your waking hours.

And, then, you need to find, make or take gaps during the day - for just 90 or 120 seconds - the time it takes to read an unnecessary email or, more to the point, the time it takes for your mind to drag you down a blind alley and mug you with some counter-productive thought. Smokers take more time to have a cigarette!!! Most importantly, every ninety seconds you take is not only banked, it reboots you there and then (here and now, actually!) to get back into the zone, feel the flow and enjoy the ride.

Look after your mental fitness when you don't need it so that you're fully fit when you do.

• Purposefully focus - it doesn't come naturally, we're actually "wired" to not focus
• Set goals in a way that energizes your subconscious into focused effortless action
• Make your very best decisions and solve problems with ease - your brain can do this effortlessly
• Banish stress - we're ordinarily "wired" to be stressed