#psychological flexibility

[drworkpsych]

After quite a break from YouTube, my latest video is live!

In this video, I explore the different kinds of future-focused thinking we can experience: planning, predicting and playwriting.

It's so easy for our minds to take us on time-traveling journeys. We can mentally drift to the past and the future, all while sitting right here in the present.

Each kind of future-focused thinking can have a different impact on our emotions and behaviour in the present moment, so it's important to notice what kind of thoughts are showing up inside.

[theopentable]

Psychological Flexibility: The Hero’s Journey

At the heart of the journey towards psychological flexibility is the embrace of our own agency. This isn’t just a journey to keep our lesser qualities in check nor the efforts we make to fix some kind of pathology. This is far more hopeful and vital than that. We are learning to turn towards ourselves – towards our true essence, the deepest hopes that lie within our own being. Steven Hayes asks,

‘Based on a distinction between you as a conscious being and the story the mind tells of who you are, in this time and situation are you willing to experience your experiences as they are, not as what they say they are, fully and without needless defense, and direct your attention and effort to creating larger and larger habits of behaviour that reflect your chosen values? YES or NO?’[1]

YES or NO? Hayes says that every flexibility process is in that question. He adds,

‘Life asks it of you over and over and over—without end, so far as I know. Each time you answer “yes,” your life expands. Each time you answer “no,” it contracts. A habit of answering “yes” will likely make your life more difficult at times in the days and years ahead; it will also make your life more vital and meaningful, even in times of doubt and pain.’[2]

How we answer these questions determines whether we live a life that expands or a life that contracts. Think about the gravity of that notion. We’re either expanding or we’re shrinking. Which is no way of saying that answering “yes” ever comes easy. It’s not. Which is why Hayes thinks of the whole process like you’re embarking on a hero’s journey or quest.[3] Hayes provides an overview of the hero’s journey:

‘The basic trajectory is that the hero’s normal routine is suddenly interrupted with some great challenge that he or she must face and somehow resolve... As she embarks on her quest, she discovers that doing so involves internal challenges as well: fears, pain, false beliefs, or limited perspective. The hero wrestles with self-doubt, mistakes, and setbacks. Then, in the darkest of dark hours, the hero comes to a pivotal moment in which she discovers inner resources she did not know she had. Often these are spiritual in quality, but they may be supported by external resources, or by the help of companions. The hero finds a way to face her fears, self-doubts, or delusion, and to persist. Often a more limited conceptualized self drops away and a broader and more open or interconnected sense of self emerges. Finally, the hero turns her attention wholeheartedly toward commitment to values such as honour, love, kindness, courage, and community, and through committed action the quest is accomplished. As the journey resolves, she returns to her daily routine as a transformed person.’[4]

The storyline of the hero’s journey is the storyline of any who take the possibility of human agency seriously. If you step into the arena you’re going to face critics – both out there and especially within. Those confronting feelings and “not good enough” stories will come thick and fast. You will need to find new resources within. You will need helpers along the way. Setbacks and heartbreak will come your way but they just might be the making of you: the place where you discover a bigger kind of purpose, a more transcendent claim upon your life that can only be embraced with courage and perseverance. This is the hero’s journey. This is the journey of psychological flexibility. And while it takes a thousand forms in each of our respective lives we are all nevertheless confronted with the same question, over and over.

So what will it be? Is it a YES or a NO?

The journey awaits.

[1] Steven Hayes, A Liberated Mind: The Essential Guide to ACT (2019), p.254

[2] Ibid.

[3] Joseph Campbell, an expert in comparative mythology, famously showed us how the hero’s journey is the grand plot at the heart of the greatest stories and myths within all cultures, in all times and places. The hero has a thousand faces.

[4] Hayes, pp.252-253

[whentherewerebicycles]

“I shall start with humility, which here by no means carries the connotation of a lack of self-respect, of resignation, or of cowardice. On the contrary, humility requires courage, self-confidence, self-respect, and respect for others.

Humility helps us understand this obvious truth: No one knows it all; no one is ignorant of everything. We all know something; we are all ignorant of something. Without humility, one can hardly listen with respect to those one judges to be too far below one’s own level of competence. But the humility that enables one to listen even to those considered less competent should not be an act of condescension or resembles the behavior of those fulfilling a vow: ‘I promise the Virgin Mary that, if the problem with my eyes turns out not to be serious, I will listen to the rude and ignorant parents of my students with attention.’ No. None of that. Listening to all that come to us, regardless of their intellectual level, is a human duty and reveals an identification with democracy and not with elitism. 

In fact, I cannot see how one could reconcile adherence to an ideal of democracy and of overcoming prejudice with a proud or arrogant posture in which one feels full of oneself. How can I listen to the other, how can I hold a dialogue, if I can only listen to myself, if I can only see myself, if nothing or no one other than myself can touch me or move me? [...] Humility helps me avoid being entrenched in the circuit of my own truth.”

-- Paulo Freire, Teachers as Cultural Workers

[whentherewerebicycles]

“Opening up to and embracing our experience as it is, what we call willingness, frees us from struggling with the pain that is an inevitable part of life. This struggle often distracts us from our values and can paradoxically increase suffering. Cognitive defusion refers to those aspects of mindfulness that involve learning to watch our thinking without so much attachment, to view words as simply words and images as simply images. We can get so caught up in our thoughts that the world as directly experienced ceases to exist. Defusion frees us from the virtual world structured by our thoughts, allowing us to return to our values and pragmatic action guided by them.

Attending to the present moment in a way that is flexible, fluid, and voluntary opens up possibilities for us to learn from our current experience and to see new options for action. The present moment is where learning occurs and where our values are lived. Finally, flexible perspective taking involves learning to take multiple and varied perspectives on ourselves, as well as being able to contact a transcendent sense of self as a conscious observer that is greater than the content of our stories about ourselves, others, and the world. This helps temper the effects of our self-limiting and self-defeating stories that can constrain our ability to put our values into action. All of these other flexibility repertoires are needed in order for us to be able to take action toward our values.”

-- Jenna LeJeune, Values in Therapy: A Clinician’s Guide to Helping Clients Explore Values, Increase Psychological Flexibility, and Live a More Meaningful Life

[dynamichealthinsights]

The Benefits of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) has emerged as one of the most innovative and impactful psychological interventions in the field of mental health. Rooted in behavioral science and enriched by principles of mindfulness and values-based living, ACT addresses not only symptom management but also the enhancement of life quality and fulfillment. The therapy encourages embracing life’s…

The Benefits of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

[rationalpassion]

The Key to Happiness

November 2, 2023

The key to happiness is psychological flexibility. Its true. I asked my Google assistant and that was its answer. There may be economic and mental health barriers to achieving happiness. Happiness often implies a certain degree of health, but maybe not all the time. A healthy body needs exercise, healthy mind needs challenge and accomplishment, and heathy relationships need a balanced social life and all seem to need minimum amount of economic security. But challenges to all these are also essential to happiness.

The Google assistant's "psychological flexibility" answer to "what is the key to happiness?" came from this article...

https://theconversation.com/true-happiness-isnt-about-being-happy-all-the-time-88600

"Recent research indicates that psychological flexibility is the key to greater happiness and well-being. For example, being open to emotional experiences and the ability to tolerate periods of discomfort can allow us to move towards a richer, more meaningful existence."

Two paths to happiness

"Philosophically speaking there are two paths to feeling happy, the hedonistic and the eudaimonic. Hedonists take the view that in order to live a happy life we must maximize pleasure and avoid pain. This view is about satisfying human appetites and desires. More experiences of joy equals a happier overall human.

In contrast, the eudaimonic approach takes the long view. It argues that we should live authentically and for the greater good. We should pursue meaning and potential through kindness, justice, integrity, honesty and courage."

The latter appeals more to me more these days.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudaimonia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonism

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[gayatri001]

The Most Important Skill Set in Mental Health

By Steven C. Hayes Ph.D.

55,000 studies reveal three pillars of psychological flexibility.

KEY POINTS

*We analyzed 54,633 studies to learn what really helps people make a change.

*The most common pathway of change was psychological flexibility and mindfulness skills.

*Psychological flexibility is about greater awareness, openness, and values-based engagement in life.

The Three Pillars of Psychological Flexibility

We can now say with certainty that psychological flexibility is the single most commonly founded skill of importance to your mental health and emotional well-being. Whether you suffer from anxiety, depression, addiction, or any other kind of mental distress; psychological flexibility helps you deal with these issues more effectively, and move your life in a meaningful direction.

So what does this skill entail? It’s best to think of it as three skills in one.

Pillar #1 Awareness

The first pillar of psychological flexibility is awareness. This means noticing what happens in the present moment: What thoughts show up? Which feelings? And what other sensations can you notice in your body? It also means noticing these things from a more spiritual part of you – your witness or noticing sense of self.

The “now” cannot be experienced with words alone – it needs to be attentively experienced. It’s the difference between talking about the flavor of an orange, and actually tasting the fruit. The latter is much richer than the former. Instead of being “caught up” in your own head, awareness is about being in the here and now. And even more, it entails the ability to deliberately direct, broaden, or focus on different aspects of your experience.

And all of that from the part of you that connects you in consciousness to others.

Pillar #2 Openness

The second pillar of psychological flexibility is openness. This means allowing difficult thoughts and painful feelings – exactly as they are, without them necessarily having to change in any way or form before you can move ahead toward the kind of life you want to live. This part is counterintuitive and often hard to grasp, because people tend to seek therapy precisely to get rid of their negative thoughts and feelings. Unfortunately, the mind does not work this way. Generally, the harder you try to eliminate pain, the more it will control your life. Instead, openness is about dropping the internal fight, allowing thoughts and feelings to be what they are – merely thoughts and feelings – without them needing to control you. Ironically, in that open posture, thoughts and feelings often do change in a more positive direction.

Pillar #3 Values Engagement

The third and final pillar of psychological flexibility is valued engagement. This means knowing what matters to you, and taking steps in this direction. It involves being in contact with your goals – objectives you want to reach or achieve – and your values – those personal qualities you choose to manifest and be guided by, regardless of a specific outcome. These matters need to be freely chosen, rather than being forced on by others, or mindlessly followed out of custom. But once you have clarity about what matters, you can take action to build sustainable habits that make your life more about what gives it meaning.

–––

Psychological flexibility is the single most important skill for your mental health and emotional well-being. The first two pillars create a working approach to mindfulness skills. In close connection with other processes of change, psychological flexibility and mindfulness are the smallest set of skills that do the most good in the most areas

[theopentable]

The Sixth Pivot: From Avoidant Persistence to Committed Action

The final pivot from psychological rigidity to psychological flexibility is the pivot from avoidant persistence to committed action.

The yearning within this pivot is the inborn human desire for competence or mastery:

‘We yearn to be able to act effectively in the world; to live, and love, and play, and create skillfully. This is the yearning for competence—to be able.

We do not have to learn to want it; the desire is inborn. If you watch young children explore and play you see that they are willing to spend many hours learning to do very simple things like open a box or bounce a ball. No one has to tell them this needs to be done or provide much in the way of external rewards to get them going. They want to know how to do things. The reward is built into the action itself, and as children grow they will spend endless hours learning a new jump-rope trick or how to build a taller tower with wood blocks. Evolution built this yearning into us, and good thing too, given how much we have to learn.’ [1]

The challenge present within this yearning for competence is that we do not become instant masters at any new pursuit. We stumble. We fail. Our motivation wavers. It’s often two-steps-forward, one-step-backwards all along the way. Throughout we contend with our preference for instant gratification on the one hand and the constant reminds that come our way that tell us that we haven’t made the standard we long for. This often leads us into the traps of procrastination or futility on one hand or workaholism of perfectionism on the other. What the sixth pivot invites us into instead is the process of habit-building alongside a flexible appreciation of the intrinsic satisfaction of developing competence grounded in values-based actions. Hayes writes,

‘We are always building larger patterns of action, known as habits. When we think about building habits, we tend to focus on perfect outcomes, such as quitting smoking entirely hard-stop. In fact, habit building is a moment-by-moment process… The Action pivot focuses us instead on the process of competently and continuously building habits in small steps linked to the construction of larger habits of loving, caring, participating, creating, or any other chosen value.’[2]

For Hayes, committing to a new plan of action is carried forward effectively through the development of SMART goals: specific, measurable, attainable, results-focused, and timebound. These are the kinds of realistic, tangible, small behavioural direction changes that can make significant changes over the long haul.

The other flexibility skills also play a vital role in helping us to achieve these goals:

‘Defusion allows us to distance ourselves from negative thoughts and judgments about our progress. Connecting to our transcendent self keeps our focus on taking action because we care, not to comply with social expectations or avoid guilt. Acceptance helps us maintain our grit when the going gets tough. Presence helps us stay focused on the process rather than the end goal—and how far from it we are. Connecting with our values reminds us that these difficult actions are in the service of living the life we will find meaningful, rather than in service of proving our self-worth or escaping from difficult experiences.’[3]

If we can make these pivots we may find that rather than life contracting at various points we experience the joy of life expanding in wonderful and enjoyable ways.

[1] Steven Hayes, A Liberated Mind: The Essential Guide to ACT (2019), p.247-248

[2] Ibid., p.22

[3] Ibid., p.252