Cognitive Science and Mental Health
Break the Chains of Cognitive Rigidity and Gain Greater Flexibility.
A 6-step approach to overcoming cognitive rigidity and gaining flexibility for better mental health and life satisfaction
I believe most of our personal and societal problems are caused by cognitive rigidity. This undesirable mental state adversely affected humanity throughout history, causing wars, creating unnecessary dramas, and making our lives miserable. In contrast, cognitive flexibility brought novelty, hope, optimism, and enlightenment to humanity.
Cognitive flexibility allows us to adapt to new situations, changing our thinking and considering multiple perspectives using the power of our thinking brain. Conversely, cognitive rigidity gives us a fixed set of rules, contrived strategies, and negative beliefs, causing difficulty adapting to new events or unexpected situations originating from our emotional brain.
Cognitive flexibility is a critical and valuable skill impacting many aspects of our lives, from personal relationships and health to professional success and social engagements. This valuable skill impacts our daily lives on multiple levels.
On a personal level, it helps us adapt to changes in our routines and approaches new events and challenging situations with an open mind and optimism. Shifting our mindset and habits from a sedentary lifestyle to a more active one requires cognitive flexibility and eliminating rigidity.
In the workplace, cognitive flexibility allows us to adjust to job responsibilities, work collaboratively with diverse teams, and solve complex problems effectively. For example, a flexible manager can adjust to market changes and develop new strategies to keep their team ahead of the competition.
Cognitive flexibility is essential in managing interpersonal relationships. Understanding and appreciating different perspectives can lead to more harmonious and productive relationships. For example, a partner willing to listen to their significant other’s point of view and work towards a compromise can build a healthier relationship.
In political discourse, cognitive flexibility helps us engage in civil, respectful debate and find common ground, even when disagreeing. For example, it allows us to consider different viewpoints, evaluate evidence, and make informed decisions for better outcomes.
In this post, I compare cognitive flexibility with rigidity and provide six practical steps and valuable tips to gain a flexible mind and eliminate rigidity based on my decades of research and experience in the field.
Cognitive rigidity can put us in an unproductive and miserable situation. We must understand the consequences of cognitive rigidity to appreciate the value of cognitive flexibility. Thus, I want to highlight the ramifications first so that my steps for cognitive flexibility make sense to you.
Dire Consequences of Cognitive Rigidity
Medical doctor James Coplan called cognitive rigidity the 8-ball from hell. He associated it with “insistently repetitive behavior, unmet expectations, perfectionism, compulsions, perseveration, agitation, anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts.”
Cognitive rigidity can make it formidable to adjust to new situations or circumstances. This can lead to anxiety, stress, depression, and even suicidal thoughts in extreme cases.
Cognitive rigidity can make adjusting to new situations or circumstances challenging because it limits our ability to change our perspectives or behavior even if we know they don’t serve our best interests.
Cognitively rigid people tend to rely on established thinking and behavior patterns, which can be difficult to modify. This rigidity can result in several challenges I’d like to touch on briefly.
Cognitively rigid people may have difficulty adapting to new situations or changing circumstances, as they might resist altering their established beliefs and behavior patterns.
When faced with a problem or life challenge, cognitively rigid people may struggle to generate creative or innovative solutions, as the insistent focus on established patterns limits their thinking.
Cognitively rigid people may struggle to make decisions, particularly when faced with options or information that challenge their existing beliefs or assumptions. They might struggle to communicate effectively when they need to adjust their communication style to match the needs or expectations of others.
They may experience extreme stress when faced with unexpected changes or challenges, as their established patterns of thinking and behavior might not be effective in new situations.
Therefore, they may struggle to bounce back from setbacks or perceived failures, as their limited thinking patterns may make it difficult for them to see alternative solutions or perspectives.
Cognitive rigidity impacts our relationships. Cognitive rigidity can make flexibility in our thinking or behavior difficult. This may cause a struggle to build and maintain strong relationships, as the limited thinking patterns might make it difficult to empathize with others or see things from their perspective.
The rigidity can stifle creativity and make developing new and innovative ideas difficult. People with cognitive rigidity may tend to be perfectionists, leading to anxiety, depression, burnout, and nervous breakdowns. Thus, cognitive rigidity can adversely impact the quality of life, decreasing happiness and fulfillment.
Cognitive rigidity can make it challenging to tolerate ambiguity or uncertainty. People struggling with cognitive rigidity might find solving problems and developing new solutions challenging, preventing their progress.
People with cognitive rigidity may find it challenging to make decisions when presented with new or unfamiliar information. It can lead to a narrow-mindedness to see things from a broader perspective.
Definitions and Theoretical Framework of Cognitive Flexibility and Rigidity
Cognitive flexibility is effortlessly switching between cognitive processes and mental frameworks, allowing us to seamlessly adjust our perspectives and behaviors to changing environments and situations.
Cognitive flexibility requires thinking about concepts, actions, events, and situations differently, generating alternative solutions to problems, and shifting attention and focus to priority items as needed.
In contrast, cognitive rigidity is a tendency to stick to one way of thinking, even when it might not be effective or appropriate for a given situation. This can lead to hardships in acclimating to changing circumstances, problem-solving, and social interactions.
Our brains can change and adjust throughout our lives. Therefore, cognitive flexibility is associated with greater neuroplasticity and neurogenesis, putting the brain in a growth mode by optimizing biochemicals and increasing growth factors like BDNF.
On the other hand, cognitive rigidity is associated with a lack of neural plasticity, limiting our ability to learn and adapt to new situations.
Dialectical thinking theory proposes that the world is complex and contradictory. Cognitive flexibility is necessary to navigate these complexities. Dialectical thinking involves the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and to reconcile them.
The concept of default mode network (DMN), which I introduced in a previous article regarding procrastination, and the dual process theory of thought have attracted considerable attention and have been extensively studied in the past decade, as confirmed in this paper.
Dual-process theory suggests that our thinking can be divided into two systems — one that is fast, automatic, and intuitive, and another that is slower, more deliberate, and more rational.
Cognitive flexibility is associated with both systems, which allows us to consider multiple perspectives and think intuitively and critically at the same time about complex issues. Cognitive rigidity is associated with binary thinking covering issues at a shallow and surface level.
From Cognitive Rigidity to Flexibility in 6 Steps
In this section, I summarize the key points of my approach that helped me to transform from a rigid mind to a flexible one.
1 — Watch out for cognitive dissonance and cognitive distortions.
Cognitive dissonance and cognitive distortions can contribute to cognitive rigidity by reinforcing existing beliefs and making it difficult to consider alternative perspectives.
In contrast, developing awareness of these cognitive biases can help to promote cognitive flexibility by encouraging us to be open to new information and different perspectives.
Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort and psychological stress that arises when we hold two or more conflicting beliefs or values. This can lead to a narrowing focus and a tendency to reject information incongruent with existing beliefs.
For example, if someone strongly believes a specific social change is a hoax, they may resist information that challenges this belief, even if the evidence is strong. They can strengthen cognitive rigidity.
Cognitive distortions are inaccurate and irrational thoughts and beliefs. They can interfere with your perception of reality and influence your emotions, judgments, and behaviors.
These automatic thoughts come from your unconscious mind, coded as emotional memories. With strengthened neural pathways in your brain, these memories can evolve into habits and become unrecognizable. Therefore, it can be challenging to change them.
Cognitive distortions might manifest as unfavorable self-talk leading to low self-esteem, worthlessness, anxiety, fear, frustration, anger, envy, depression, guilt, and shame, causing physical and mental disorders.
Cognitive distortions are inaccurate or exaggerated ways of thinking that can contribute to cognitive rigidity. I talked to myself intimately and frankly to identify them.
I explained it in a previous article and provided practical steps to deal with cognitive distortions. It took me years to eliminate them. I wish I had known about my irrational thoughts and inaccurate beliefs much earlier.
2 — Develop a growth mindset with optimism.
We must distinguish between a growth and a fixed mindset. Those with a growth mindset achieve more, enjoy better health, and experience greater happiness. They approach life with optimism.
We could develop an optimistic growth mindset by paying attention and putting in some effort. We could gradually create a growth mindset by expanding our knowledge, sharpening our skills, and gaining positive experiences.
We must be mindful of our habits. For example, eliminating and replacing destructive habits with beneficial ones can be invaluable.
It is essential to see the big picture, accept reality, notice truth neutrally, believe in possible solutions, and take personal responsibility for our circumstances.
When we achieve an optimistic growth mindset, setbacks and failures will not resemble unconquerable obstacles. Instead, they become opportunities for growth and learning. We find ourselves embracing challenges with newfound optimism, joy, and resilience.
3 — Practice mindfulness and meditate.
We must understand and value our fundamental cognitive capabilities (focus, attention, memory, task switching, and problem-solving). Although we all inherit these capabilities, not everyone uses them to their total capacity.
However, the good news is that we can develop these mental skills as we do our muscles. Early education by parents and schools helps somewhat, but significant effort and time are required to achieve the desired state.
I experimented with different techniques to improve my cognitive skills, but nothing helped me as much as mindfulness practices and meditation.
The critical skill is learning to live in the present moment while still being able to reflect on the past or plan for the future. It sounds paradoxical, but it is possible to be aware of the now while assessing past situations or planning for the future thanks to rapid task switching of our cognitive system.
Regular meditation is an effective tool to improve our mindfulness skills. It can serve as a training tool for our brain while reducing stress and anxiety. It can also contribute to working in a flow state.
In addition, some types of meditation can increase self-love, empathy, and compassion toward others. Meditative practices can improve our sleep and optimize elevated cortisol levels for a better stress profile.
Meditation allows us to challenge our bodily activities. For example, meditative practices let me expose my body to thermogenesis more comfortably and consciously. Meditation helped many people change their behavior by eliminating detrimental habits like smoking and binge eating.
By practicing mindfulness in all walks of life and meditating regularly, we can improve our cognitive capabilities, strengthen them, and create new neural pathways giving us a more flexible mind and better behaviors.
4— Leverage the power of fun and humor.
Our emotional and older brain parts are hardwired to worry and tend to rigidity, even when there is nothing to be concerned about. This creates unnecessary stress and anxiety, holding us back from being productive. But a viable solution is scheduling fun activities and a sense of humor.
Intentionally planning enjoyable experiences can quiet our worried minds and reset our mental state. Fun is not about wasting time. It is about making our minds more flexible and optimizing our performance by giving our brain parts a necessary break.
Scheduling and committing to regular fun activities can reduce stress and boosts flexibility, creativity, and productivity. It’s a paradox. The more we enjoy life, the more we get flexible, and we get done.
Therefore it is vital to have enjoyable activities and intentional fun like a mindful walk, laughing with loved ones, reading a favorite book, listening to music, dancing, yoga, or whatever gives us joy apart from our work and chores. But we can turn our work and chores into fun activities with a mindful approach giving us more cognitive flexibility.
Humor is a valuable tool for cognitive flexibility. It can activate various brain regions (the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus) associated with cognitive processing and emotional regulation.
Activating these brain regions can enhance cognitive flexibility by boosting the ability to switch between different perspectives, consider alternative solutions, and approach problems more optimistically and open-mindedly.
Humor can lower stress and anxiety, which can impair cognitive flexibility. By reducing stress levels, humor can improve mental flexibility and help us approach problems with a more relaxed and creative mindset.
Humor can also enhance social connections and improve communication, facilitating the exchange of diverse perspectives and ideas and leading to greater cognitive flexibility.
5 — Calm the limbic system by regulating emotions.
Emotions are integral to our inner world, affecting our cognitive function and performance. They communicate important messages to us. However, some emotions can create unpleasant feelings that make us uncomfortable and mentally rigid.
Rather than suppressing or rejecting them, we must acknowledge and understand their meanings to transform them consciously using our neocortex (thinking brain), which can calm the limbic system (the emotional part of the brain).
We must recognize, acknowledge, and feel all our emotions. Then we can take action to convert unpleasant emotions into pleasant ones.
For example, envy can cause us to feel displeasure and resentment towards others who possess better qualities or have something we value. Therefore, we must neutralize envy and replace it with admiration.
To achieve this, we can understand the root causes of envy at the subconscious level. By shifting to a growth mindset and consciously assessing the situation, we can transform envy into admiration, appreciation, or gratitude. We can also convert boredom into excitement.
Emotional regulation requires developing social intelligence and improves social connections, making us more mentally flexible, collaborative, creative, and productive.
We can also use cognitive-behavioral therapy (individually or with assistance from therapists) can help us identify and challenge rigid thinking patterns and develop more flexible thinking styles.
6 — Optimize metabolic and mental health with nutrition, time-restricted eating, joyful movements, and restorative sleep.
Previous items only touched on psychological aspects, but our cognitive health also requires focusing on physiological factors like nutrition, exercise, and sleep. The body and mind are closely connected.
Nutrition and energy from food are crucial to physical, emotional, mental, social, and spiritual well-being. What we eat affects our hormones, other biochemicals, thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Therefore, optimizing our nutrition can improve our cognitive flexibility.
One of the best mechanisms I found to improve my metabolic and mental health is time-restricted eating (fasting). By consuming food in a specific window and remaining fasted at other times, my body could rest, digest, and heal. Fasting can optimize our hormones and neurotransmitters.
Moreover, fasting can create an alternative energy source for the brain known as ketones. As a signaling molecule, ketones, especially BHB, provide clean energy to the brain.
Fasting can also reduce inflammation, decrease oxidative stress, and increase BDNF, enhancing cognitive flexibility. It can also initiate autophagy, clearing the harmful materials from cells and neurons.
Exercise can increase blood flow and oxygenate the brain. Like fasting, exercise can also induce ketosis and increase BDNF. It can also activate the lymphatic system and clear garbage.
Sleep, involved in many biological processes, can improve brain function, cognitive performance, and mood. We gain more cognitive flexibility when we get nightly restorative sleep.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
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