5 Keys To Train Mental Flexibility

Mental flexibility has to do with the brain’s ability to adapt to unexpected or changing situations. This skill is very useful when our habitual thinking or behavior does not respond adequately to a new context. Hence the importance of knowing some keys to train mental flexibility.

Mental flexibility is also known as cognitive flexibility because it has to do directly with learning  and experience. Similarly, it is associated with the way we relate to others in a healthy way. Let’s take a closer look at the issue.

Benefits of mental flexibility

Mental flexibility brings with it many benefits, the most important of which is the ability to adapt  quickly to changes. This helps to find more alternatives in the execution of tasks or resolution of problems.

It also allows you to develop a higher level of tolerance  for aspects of life with which you do not fully agree. It opens the mind to perceive in another way different dimensions of the same reality.

In the same way, it encourages you to understand mistakes  more acutely. They are no longer judged as a frustrating situation, but as something with the potential for improvement in the realm of learning. Additionally, it expands empathy with others in order to reach mutually beneficial agreements.

These processes are crucial for good performance both at school and work, and in life in general. This is because they provide the ability to optimize our plans, formulate goals and monitor actions to correct them when necessary.

Keys to training mental flexibility

How to train and develop mental flexibility? It is a process of changing your perspective. There are some actions that are relevant to stimulate this modification. The following are some of them.

1. Learn to observe

One of the most important keys to training mental flexibility is learning to observe. This skill, like so many others, is only acquired by exercising it and is based on the ability to recognize details.

It is a great tool for sensitivity to everything that surrounds us, enhancing the ability to analyze and identify contexts. It also fulfills a liberating function when the act of observing translates into contemplation, which also provides a relaxing and pacifying state.

2. Be rebellious

Rebellion is a behavior characterized by defying the established and not passively following the authority models. It can embody both positive and negative goals and be born of healthy or reactive motivations. In its positive side, it is another key to training mental flexibility.

Rebellion is not about going against everything, but about opening the door to what is new or different with the aim of breaking monotony and trying new realities. This necessarily implies starting by doing an analysis of reality and detecting the possibilities of change that it entails.

3. Mental exercises

Mental exercises are also one of the keys to training mental flexibility, especially those that involve a certain challenge. These raise problems or questions that have no obvious solutions and flexibility is encouraged in the process of finding the solution or answer.

Therefore, mental exercises provide the possibility of developing skills and increase the probability of finding several answers to the same situation. Also, in the search for possible solutions, self-confidence and a sense of achievement are promoted.

4. Empathy

Empathy is the human being’s ability to perceive another human being as equal. To recognize and validate the thoughts and emotions of that other, even if they are different from your own. In other words, put yourself in the place of the other; hence it is another key to training mental flexibility.

Empathy is part of the most important traits when establishing social ties. This grants the willingness to listen, attend and understand points of view different from ours. It also promotes openness to dialogue, the space par excellence where it is possible to find aspects in common with that other.

5. Creativity

Creative activities are a great way to broaden your perspective, innovate, and overcome rigidity. The creative arises when it is possible to see things from a new perspective. Therefore, it is one of the keys to training mental flexibility.

Creativity prints a personal stamp on what we do that allows us to display originality. It involves coming up with different ways to do the same thing or designing new solutions to old problems, which is invigorating and highly stimulating.

Mental flexibility is not so much an ability as an attitude. As we have seen, it is possible to train and develop it. What does it bring us in the end? It is a very valuable tool to adapt to different types of situations and take advantage of it.