Increasing Mental Flexibility
Strategies for changing unhelpful patterns of thinking and behaving
Cognitive flexibility can help us adapt to change
Mental flexibility is the ability to adapt cognitive processing strategies — such as thinking and planning — to face new and unexpected conditions in the environment.
I often become anxious with unexpected change, especially on short notice, even if it’s change I would otherwise be happy about. For example, I enjoy going to watch hockey, soccer, or football games (and playing hockey and soccer).
While I enjoy sports, going to a crowded arena or stadium requires quite a bit of mental preparation for me. If we’re offered last-minute tickets or are invited to join friends on short notice, my first response is feeling anxious and my first impulse is to say no, I don’t want to go.
Conversely, if I expect something to proceed in a certain way, and then we have to change course with little time to prepare, I get really thrown off, and this creates a lot discomfort for me.
Cognitive flexibility is the ability to go with the flow, to roll with changes, think on our feet, and move laterally. In some circumstances (such as my professional life) I can be very good at this because I am creative problems-solver, but in others (such as my personal life), I find this very challenging.
Cognitive rigidity can cause us to feel “stuck”, and to be closed to new experiences or trying new things.
Increasing our cognitive flexibility
- Try mindfulness, meditation, or guided breathing exercises
- Play brain games
- Read books, or listen to audiobooks or podcasts that challenge your established ways of thinking.
- Read books with unique characters who think differently from you — read books you enjoy, you’ll learn more and you’re more likely to stick with it!
- Learn new things (if you don’t like reading learn through watch tutorial videos or taking classes)
Talk or write it out
- If you have a trusted person who will listen to understand, but also give you their honest opinion when asked, it may help to talk things out with them when you feel stuck.
- If you don’t, or you’re not ready to talk, it may help to write out your thoughts. Sometimes this helps process and organize your feelings.
Take your time
- Try starting with very small changes that are non-threatening or not highly impactful for you.
- We need practice when building new skills and creating new neural pathways in our brains.
- Don’t force yourself into a significant change if you aren’t ready, as a highly negative experience could backfire and cause you to become more rigid or anxious about change.
Give yourself breaks
- Our brains need rest and time to process new information and new ways of thinking or doing.
- Opportunities to sit quietly with your thoughts (I know, I know!) can help you process things and may allow you to come up with new ways of thinking.
- I personally can’t just sit doing nothing and think. However I find when I am out walking, my mind is more likely to wander, and I stumble upon thoughts and ideas I hadn’t known were there.
Set yourself up for success
- If you really struggle to transition away from scrolling your phone, for example, use the screen time settings to limit your time on certain apps, or set yourself alarms as reminders to put the phone away.
- Keep new things you want to try in plain sight and within easy reach — out of sight often means out of mind!
Try to pick your battles wisely
The goal is not for us to try to think and behave like the statistical majority of people (or neurotypicals) — they have their own issues. The goal is also not to “fix” or change things about ourselves that other people think we should change.
The objective is to increase our flexibility in areas or situations where our own rigidity is causing us difficulty.
“Treat distress, not difference.”
— Joel Salinas
Even when we recognize that our own inflexibility is causing us problems, this does not mean our feelings don’t matter. Our feelings are real and our feelings do matter.
Validating our experiences, acknowledging our emotions, and allowing ourselves to process them will help us move on to exploring possible alternatives.
© Jillian Enright, Neurodiversity MB
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References
Cañas, José. (2006). Cognitive Flexibility. https://doi.org/10.13140/2.1.4439.6326
