Cognitive Flexibility

Cognitive flexibility is the ability to adapt our behaviour and thinking in response to the environment.


Hexaflex


Acceptance and Defusion
Acceptance is based on the theory of recognition. The most known philosopher of recognition is Descartes, who first presented evidence for our existence. He doubted that the world was really the way man perceived it with his senses, and worked his way from doubt to what he called clear and certain knowledge through thought studies. "Je pense, donc je suis" - ("I think, so I am", Latin: "Cogito ergo sum"). This expression can be extended to everything we have clear thoughts about as proof of our existence. The purpose of cognitive defusion is to enable you to be aware of the actual process of your thinking so you are better able to reflect objectively and problem solve effectively before taking any action. You can practice cognitive defusion in a number of different ways. Defusion is a mindfulness technique that is useful for dealing with unhelpful thoughts such as painful or traumatic memories, disturbing images, fears, or negative beliefs. The aim is to simply observe the thought rather than becoming a victim to it.
Counterpart: Experience avoidance and Fusion
Experience avoidance is based on the theory of denial. Denial is a defense mechanism postulated by Sigmund Freud, in which a person is faced with a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept and rejects it instead, insisting that it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence. ... The theory of denial was first researched seriously by Anna Freud. Defense mechanism is a tactic developed by the ego to protect against anxiety. Defense mechanisms are thought to safeguard the mind against feelings and thoughts that are too difficult for the conscious mind to cope with and include repression, suppression and dissociation. Emotional fusion is emotional togetherness without the freedom of individuality. It is an unseen, unhealthy, emotional attachment where people lose their sense of self and their unique identity. Emotionally fused people are needy.


Values and Committed Action
Beliefs (values, individually) are generally defined as convictions that things held in the mind are true. If individuals think particular tenets are likely to be true, they are said to believe them. Beliefs can also form the basis of behavior. An example of this is found in health psychology via the health belief model. The health belief model (HBM)) is a social psychological health behavior change model developed to explain and predict health-related behaviors, particularly in regard to the uptake of health services. A stimulus (“nudge”), or cue to action, must also be present in order to trigger the health-promoting behavior. The phases of the model are encompassed in five stages: Precontemplation (not intending to make changes), Contemplation (considering changes), Preparation (making small changes), Action (actively engaging in the new behavior), and Maintenance (sustaining the change over time). Committed action is exhibited when an individual consistently demonstrates the specific behaviors needed to result in optimal performance (Gardner & Moore, 2007). Committed action is a result of acting in service of personal values.
Counterpart: Lack of Values and Inaction
When someone lack values, hen is amoral, which describes someone who has no morals and doesn't know what right or wrong means or actions that show a lack of care about what is morally right. Without such rules people would not be able to live amongst other humans. People could not make plans, could not leave their belongings behind them wherever they went. We would not know who to trust and what to expect from others Previous research showed that decisions to act (i.e., actions) produce more regret, than decisions not to act (i.e., inactions). As hypothesized, when prior outcomes were positive or absent, people attributed more regret to action than to inaction. How do you stop inaction? Set a goal, consider how you spend your time – now (don´t waste time), avoid distractions (social media or real life things) and seize the day.


Present Moment and Self as Context Living in the present moment means letting go of the past and not waiting for the future. It means living your life consciously, aware that each moment you breathe is a gift. The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness. Past and future are in the mind only—I am now Self as context is the concept that we are not the content of our experience — we are not our thoughts, our feelings, our experienced sensations, the things we see, or the images that pass through our heads. Self as context is important in part because from this standpoint, one can be aware of one's own flow of experiences without attachment to them or an investment in which particular experiences occur: thus defusion and acceptance is fostered. From an ACT perspective, the self is not a thing, but rather a process of behaving or framing our experience in terms of a perspective from which it is experienced.
Counterpart: Lack of Contact with Present Moment and Self as Content Lack of contact with present moment means not being in the here and now, not fully conscious of our experience and lost in your thoughts. It involves inflexibly paying attention to both the inner psychological world and the outer material world. The reason why it's so hard for us to live in the present is that our intelligent cognition simply denies its existence. Our mind views time as a continuous and linear process. Because it is continuous, any millisecond before the present moment is already past and any millisecond later is already a future Self as content is the concept that we are the content of our experience — we are our thoughts, our feelings, our experienced sensations, the things we see, or the images that pass through our heads. People who self-identify almost entirely through the people in their lives that are important, or their career, or their fame or fortune. If any of these things is jeopardized a crisis is triggered. A loss or death of the content is equivalent to loss or death of the Self.




These 3 processes affect our flexibility, well-being, energy and job satisfaction. Negative processes have a demotivating effect, reduce work capacity, increase the risk of wrong decisions, produce negative energy and reduce productivity.
Cognitive flexibility involves adapting to changing environmental cues (job profile and contexts). People who are resilient tend to be flexible. Flexible in the way they think about challenges and flexible in the way they react emotionally to stress. Use Talection as a metaverse for awareness, training of executive functioning, visualization, adaption and “stretching” the flexibility. Cognitive flexibility is the most important job skill for the future (a very important executive skill) along with resilience (correlated with cognitive flexibility is very high).
Psychological flexibility encompasses more than cognitive flexibility. Psychological flexibility is defined as being in contact with the present moment, fully aware of emotions, sensations, and thoughts, welcoming them, including the undesired ones, and moving in a pattern of behavior in the service of chosen values. Use this if confident!!!! Or stop with cog flex.