Onto this week’s main theme then.
Psychological flexibility is important to me, my clients and my students – or
at least, I do my best to help them make it important to them.
“Develop flexibility and you will be firm, cultivate yielding and you will be strong” – Liezi, The Book of Master Lie.
A great deal of our suffering can be caused by rumination (read this article
to get more focused on that topic by the way: How To Stop Rumination and Overthinking Being Your Downfall) and the fact that when we are often unable to un-tangle ourselves from our
thoughts, we can also become enslaved and/or led by them.
We get set in patterns of thinking and do not like to step out of those patterns. Sometimes those patterns of thinking are simply biases or heuristics that we are not even aware of, that forge and run our reality.
From a contextual behavioural science perspective, this is called psychological rigidity and the opposite is psychological flexibility. The principle of psychological flexibility is attracting a lot more interest, particularly in the contemporary landscape of high ambiguity, life uncertainty and tumultuous world events and the political climate
etc.
Psychological flexibility is at the heart (and in the head) of good mental health and resilience for all of us. In terms of required leadership skills, it is apparently one of the top three skills most needed in effective leadership.
A study by Bond and Bunce (2003) showed that employees with higher levels of psychological flexibility gain the most benefits from having higher control over their work.
The question is, what does it mean to be psychologically flexible? Additionally, what
benefits are attached?
Finally and most importantly, how can we increase our ability in this area?
What is psychological flexibility?
Kashdan &
Rotterburg (2010) define psychological flexibility as the measure of how (1) a person adapts to situational demands (2) re-configures mental resources (3) shifts perspective and (4) balances competing desires, needs and life domains.
Essentially, a person can be said to be psychologically flexible if they are able to be consciously and truly connected to the present moment, and are able to
respond to, and make decisions based on deeply held values, regardless of difficult thoughts and conflicting emotions which present themselves.
It means that pursuing longer term visions and goals based on clearly held personal values is more important to the individual than any short term immediate difficulty and
challenge; they are able to remain focused on the former and recognise and fully accept the immediate difficulty or initial setbacks.
They are also able to listen and reflect meaningfully, on other views and perspectives and recognise when their approach, view or behaviour needs to be modified, and effect whatever is required without any great difficulty. They are also able to shift perspective and focus
between the “here and now “to the future, effectively and fluidly.
Much of this relates to the skill of critical thinking, which you can read about in more detail here:
Increasing Psychological Flexibility:
To
be effective in the modern world, as individuals or as part of a team, as an employee, leader or self-employed entrepreneur, we need to have Psychological Flexibility and Mental Toughness.
Performance of psychological flexibility will take many different forms including –
- effective communication,
- clarity of decision making,
- creative problem solving,
- managing challenges
- and managing emotions.
However there are many ways in which psychological flexibility can be increased.
In this article, I’ve charted a number of them, go and have a read:
