Introduction video on psychological flexibility

 

 
Content of the Introduction to psychological flexibility video as text

Psychological flexibility 

The concept of psychological flexibility has its origins in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, which has three key principles:   

 

  • Acceptance of  experience and being present.   

  • Clarifying values and dedicating oneself to living according to them..  

  • Acting onvalues. 

Our well-being is enhanced by doing what is important and meaningful to us and living according to what is important to us. If it is important for you to spend time with your loved ones, but you never have time for them, your well-being will be negatively affected. Negative and unpleasant things and emotions often get in the way of doing things that are important to you.
 
During the course, you will get to practice these areas, which have been shown to have a wide range of effects on well-being and help you to cope with stressful and difficult situations, thus strengthening your ability to function.

Facing and accepting your emotions

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy suggests that emotions are not problematic in themselves, but that it is the holding of negative thoughts as truths that leads to acting on them or fighting them that creates problems. From a psychological flexibility perspective, what is more relevant than thoughts is how they affect our actions.  

Different emotions should be accepted, i.e. dealt with and confronted, rather than denied, suppressed or ignored. Suppressing feelings may work for a moment, but suppression does not make the feeling go away.

You can think of your feelings as a beach ball that you try to push under the surface of the water to hide. Fighting with or pushing away emotions takes energy away from something else. The ball will also bounce back to the surface sooner or later.  Negative emotions are nothing to be afraid of, they come and go, just like thoughts and you don't have to let them influence your thinking or actions.  

Defusion

Instead of worrying about the past or the future, you can connect your thoughts to the present and strengthen your focus on the present moment. Through defusion of thoughts, your relationship with thoughts changes, reducing their distracting influence. For example, you can use defusion for self-critical thoughts, separating them from yourself by identifying them as thoughts and feelings. In this way, you learn to understand that a negative thought is not necessarily the truth and does not have to be part of the self.    

The "observer self" is the permanent part of the self, and its strengthening is key in strengthening other parts of the self. The observer self is the ability to observe one's own thoughts and feelings from a distance and to understand that thoughts are only thoughts, not truths about oneself or one's circumstances.   If you think "I am bad and a failure", by differentiating the thought, you can also think "I notice that I have a thought and a feeling that I am bad and a failure". Then you can stop and think about whether the thought and the feeling are useful to you.

Acting on values

 

The purpose of working with values is to outline what is important in life. The starting point for a meaningful life is to clarify your values, i.e. the things that are important and meaningful to you. They are personal and reflect the kind of person you want to be and how you want to spend your life. Values motivate you to make important changes and show you the direction you want to take in life. 

Dedication to a life lived according to values reinforces a life lived according to values through action. A vibrant life is made up of actions, and the content of those actions matters immensely. Actions that support one's values must be undertaken continuously despite adversity. 

 

 

PRACTICING PSYCHOLOGICAL FLEXIBILITY 

Read the "beach ball" mental exercise on acceptance:

Imagine that what you are doing with the thoughts/despairing memories/feelings is like fighting with a beach ball. You don't like them, you don't want them and you want them out of your life. So you try to push this beach ball under water and out of your awareness. But the beach ball keeps floating back to the surface, so you have to keep pushing it down or keeping it underwater. This struggle with the ball keeps it close to you and is tiring and futile. If you let go of the ball, it would bounce up, float on the surface near you, and you probably wouldn't like it. But if you let it float there for a while without grabbing it, it would eventually drift away and be out of your life. And even if it doesn't leave, at least you'll be better able to enjoy swimming instead of spending your time fighting!

 

Excercise

By becoming aware of one's own life's "beach ball" (refer to the text above) and recognizing and confronting one's feelings and thoughts, the process in which individuals deal with challenging emotions or thoughts can be eased. Facing negative feelings and thoughts can be difficult and uncomfortable. Adopting an observer attitude and being present with these experiences can facilitate confronting these challenging experiences, thereby also changing a person's relationship with difficult emotions and thoughts. Instead of treating negative emotions and thoughts as adversaries or fighting against, denying, suppressing, or avoiding them, negative feelings and thoughts can be met neutrally, acknowledging that discomfort is a natural part of life. This, in turn, allows individuals to also embrace pleasant experiences. Meeting the spectrum of emotions and thoughts neutrally promotes a more flexible and adaptive attitude and enhances overall well-being.

What would happen if you just allowed that feeling to be? What would happen to it? What positive aspect could that feeling/emotions represent or seek to communicate?

Last modified: Friday, 20 September 2024, 2:53 PM