I’ve been reflecting on my recent podcast with Dr. Jordan LaBouff and Dr. Eric Wesselmann. One of the interesting life lessons that Jordan mentioned was that people should hold their convictions close, but loosely (paraphrasing here), which got us into a great conversation about psychological flexibility. Below are some of my thoughts on psychological flexibility, with a few tips at the end on how we might promote it!
What is mental health anyway?
For decades and decades, definitions of mental health have come and gone. Most tend to emphasize a lack of symptoms, or a state of happiness and well-being, or how adaptively a person functions in their environment. In the last 30 years though, another definition has begun to gather some traction — mental health is psychological flexibility. Kashdan and Rottenberg (2010) note that psychological flexibility entails the ability to adapt to situational demands, to shift mindsets or behaviors when needed, to maintain balance among the different aspects of life, and to be aware of and committed to acting inline with personal values. Cool stuff.
Before, we get into psychological flexibility again, here’s a quick related detour to talk about serotonin (skip to the next section if neuroscience isn’t your thing). Often older psychology textbooks would highlight the role of serotonin as “the happy neurotransmitter,” and because of this many people thought of (and still think of) depression as a chemical imbalance. I’ve even heard people say, “I’ve got to go for a run today to boost my serotonin levels. The simplicity of the explanation is probably why it continues to stick around–low levels of “happy chemicals” make me sad.
But, research scientists have known for years that there really isn’t much of a link between serotonin levels and depression (Moncrieff et al., 2022). Medications that positively impact certain types of serotonin activity in the brain (SSRIs–Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) are effective – especially for those with more severe depression (Kirsch et al., 2008). But, how do these “serotonin” medications really work? The truth is that scientists do not really know. Of course, scientists have very educated guesses, and evidence to support different theories–but the role of serotonin is still somewhat mysterious. So, as of right now, we’re in the interesting time period where we have an effective treatment, but we are unsure of how it affects the brain.
One interesting theory, as you’ve probably guessed, is that serotonin has an important role in encouraging psychological flexibility (Shine et al., 2022). One type of serotonin may be involved in brain processes that help accepting and living with stress (passive coping), whereas another type appears to be involved in actively changing one’s thinking of behaviors to address stress more directly (active coping; Carhart-Harris & Nutt, 2017).
All of this is to say, it appears that being able to flexibly react and respond to stress is at the core of living our best and healthiest life.
Tips for Being More Psychologically Flexible
As you can imagine, there is no “magic bullet” for increasing our psychological flexibility, but here are a few tips to consider:
1. Find a good therapist. Self-help can be a useful tool, but nothing beats walking alongside a psychological expert while you pursue mental health. Therapists who focus on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (also called ACT) specifically work on helping clients develop psychological flexibility. To find one, you can try this link. Interestingly, a recent meta-analysis (study of studies) found that ACT is effective, and at least as effective as many established types of therapy (including Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, considered by many to be the “gold standard” in talk-therapy for depression; Gloster et al., 2020).
2. Mindfully attend to the present moment. There is something beautiful that happens to our minds and our behavior when we focus on the present–letting go of worries about the future or ruminating on the past. Jon Kabat-Zinn, the preeminent guru of mindfulness defines mindfulness as “awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally.” There are several ways to encourage mindfulness, and here are a couple online links to get started Mayo Clinic, Mindful.org, and some books by Jon Kabat-Zinn.
3. Be courageous when it comes to experiencing feelings. One of the observations that researchers and clinicians have made is that people who struggle with their mental health tend to avoid negative feelings and experiences (Akbari et al., 2022). This has been coined, experiential avoidance; it is essentially the opposite of psychological flexibility. People who engage in experiential avoidance tend to be afraid of their feelings, worry about not being able to control their worrisome thoughts and feelings, and believe that their emotions cause problems in their life (Bond et al., 2011). Avoiding our thoughts and feelings, like avoiding anything scary, keeps us stuck where we are–and unable to move forward.
A bit of unsolicited advice on being courageous with feelings. First, for those who have experienced trauma or are currently experiencing PTSD symptoms, please consult with a mental health professional. Second, for many it can be helpful to gradually disclose some of your thoughts and feelings to trusted friends and family. Third, a writing activity called emotionally-expressive writing has been found to be very helpful for approaching some of those feelings people often try to avoid–and it is linked to all sorts of positive outcomes (Pennebaker & Smyth, 2016). Here is a link on how to get started.
Disclaimer: the content on this site is for informational or educational purposes only, and does not substitute professional medical advice or consultations with healthcare professionals.
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