3 days to Mental Health Day 3 steps to a better Mental Health
Ever admired people who were able to come up with new and creative ideas under pressure? Or people who are able switch conversations from person to person or working on multiple projects simultaneously and effectively within minutes or people who are able to multi-task with a wide variety of tasks easily? From tackling college course loads to workplace multi-tasking, all of which are examples of what is known as Mental Flexibility.
More simply, mental flexibility is our brain’s personal malleability to switch from one perspective or task to another, our adaptability to change, and our readiness to cope with new and novel circumstances in more innovative ways. This flexibility is so important for our health as it improves mental functioning, improves problem solving abilities and even aids with anxiety, stress and depression. Since mental flexibility is connected to our thoughts, perceptions, life outlook, emotions, behaviors and drives. An alteration in behavior, outlook, setting or situation influences and is also influenced by our thoughts. Being more optimistic, joyful and growth oriented is linked to open-minded, critical and comprehensive thinking patterns while being negative or fearful hinders and constricts concentration and happiness. Therefore, making a cognitive shift in mindset helps in not remaining stuck and promotes more possibilities with openness, confidence and empowerment. Your brain, just like any muscle in the body, needs practice in order to be flexible. Here a few tips to practice mental flexibility:
- Try switching to a new environment or changing your routine: if you are at home often or at work, go out for a walk around your neighborhood and try to notice something new in your neighborhood you haven’t noticed before. This physical exercise also boosts your minds functioning while allowing you to practice mental shifting. Or try doing something you do often like driving to work and try doing it differently instead, such as taking a different route.
- Leaning something new: learning / practicing a new skill, language, receipt, instrument, art allows for enhancing creativity, problem-solving, intelligence and even, brain growth!
- Build your empathy skills: empathy allows you to try to understand another person’s perspective, thoughts, experiences, emotions, without judgement, this helps build your mental flexibility as their perspectives can completely differ from your own. Try to actively listen to someone as they speak and put yourself in their shoes, how would you feel in the situation they are describing, what would you do, and then ask them how they approached the problem instead. This helps practicing shifting perspectives and being open to different outlooks and problem-solving strategies.
Mental Flexibility helps keep your brain active, strong, healthy and cultivates a growth mindset! Do you have any other ways in which you practice mental flexibility?
-Nathasha Sharma