Mindfulness involves being fully present at the moment and cultivating awareness of your thoughts and surroundings. By practising mindfulness regularly, you can develop better control over your attention, allowing you to stay focused on the task at hand and think more flexibly.

Remember, improving cognitive flexibility requires discipline and conscious effort. Reducing distractions and creating a focused environment can enhance your ability to think flexibly and adapt to new challenges.

So, turn off those distractions, tune in to the present moment, and watch your cognitive flexibility soar. Practising mindfulness meditation can be a valuable tool for boosting your cognitive flexibility. Researchers believe that mindfulness meditation promotes metacogntion awareness. Mindfulness meditation is a technique that involves focusing your attention on the present moment without judgement.

It may sound simple, but the benefits it can have on your cognitive flexibility are profound. When you engage in mindfulness meditation, you train your brain to be more aware of your thoughts and emotions. This increased awareness allows you to observe your thinking patterns and become less reactive to them.

As a result, you gain greater control over your thoughts and are better equipped to let go of rigid thinking and embrace new perspectives. Moreover, mindfulness meditation cultivates a sense of openness and curiosity towards your experiences.

Instead of getting caught up in rigid beliefs or preconceived notions, you learn to approach situations with a flexible and non-judgemental mindset. This openness allows you to consider different viewpoints, think creatively, and adapt to new information more effectively.

Regular practise of mindfulness meditation also helps calm the mind and reduce stress. By managing stress through meditation, you create an environment in which cognitive flexibility can thrive. So, if you want to improve your cognitive flexibility, set aside some time each day to practise mindfulness meditation.

Start with just a few minutes and gradually increase the duration as you become more comfortable. When you exercise, you increase blood flow to your brain, delivering oxygen and essential nutrients.

This enhanced blood flow promotes the growth of new brain cells and strengthens the connections between existing ones. As a result, your brain becomes more efficient at processing information and navigating cognitive tasks. Exercise also triggers the release of neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin, which play a key role in mood regulation and cognitive function.

These chemicals promote a sense of well-being and boost cognitive flexibility, making it easier for your brain to shift between different tasks and think creatively. Furthermore, regular exercise has been linked to improved memory and attention span.

This increased mental sharpness and focus translate into enhanced cognitive flexibility. Even moderate exercise, such as brisk walking, cycling, or dancing, can have a positive impact on your cognitive abilities. Aim for at least 30 minutes of exercise most days of the week to enjoy the cognitive benefits it offers.

So, tie up your sneakers and get moving! Reading is a great way to enhance your cognitive flexibility. When you read, you expose yourself to new ideas, perspectives, and information. This exposure stimulates your brain and challenges your existing thought patterns.

As you delve into different genres, explore diverse topics, and encounter various characters, your mind becomes more flexible and adaptable. Reading also enhances your vocabulary and language skills, allowing you to express your thoughts more precisely and articulate ideas in a nuanced manner.

Ask them how they would approach a problem. Make sure you listen actively when they give their explanation. Doing this helps you see from their point of view. This tactic is for people who tend to go down rabbit holes with negative thoughts about themselves. Catastrophizing is a common display of cognitive rigidity.

When this happens, you can practice redirecting your thoughts. Be mindful of what you are thinking and interrupt the thought spiraling through your mind. Change the topic to something else entirely. This can be easier said than done.

To help you get there, get up and change your scenery. You can take a walk around the block, go on your lunch break earlier than usual, or go see one of your peers to ask about their day.

This is an act of cognitive flexibility. You can try this tip for yourself. But this is also a great tactic for managers to use when interacting with employees.

This will help them take a broader look at a situation. It will encourage them to consider other perspectives and look at other possible options. I knew we should have priced it differently. Your job as a manager is to urge them to think about what else might be true.

Maybe the client got sick. Maybe the support staff forgot to book a conference room. There are so many alternative explanations. Urging your employees to think this way enhances not only their cognitive flexibility skills, but also their strategic thinking skills.

Want to know where you stand regarding cognitive flexibility? Here is how you can perform the test on yourself. This questionnaire was developed in the context of research completed in Here are statements the researchers developed.

Your job is to decide if these statements are true or false for you:. Just like the previous cognitive flexibility test, this is another research-backed tool to help you with cognitive flexibility.

You can run a demo of the test to see what results you get for yourself. You can test yourself here and practice reading the colors to improve your cognitive flexibility. Or, you can run a more complete version of the flanker test by using the demo available here.

It may take some practice to get used to how this test works. Build your cognitive flexibility. When you get upset or feel stuck, remember to give yourself some grace. It takes practice to develop cognitive flexibility. Pause and breathe for a few seconds and consider what else might be possible in your situation.

With the right coaching, you can build your cognitive flexibility even faster. Try BetterUp today to see how you and your team can build cognitive flexibility together. Just announced! Explore the agenda for Uplift April 10—11 in SF. EN - US English US Deutsch English GB Français.

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EN - US EN - US English US Deutsch English GB Français. It is also known as mental flexibility or mental plasticity. It is closely related to other cognitive functions since it requires an exchange of information.

Cognitive flexibility is important for problem solving and effective decision making. It allows you to consider different perspectives and solutions for a given problem, and to find the one that best suits the situation. Cognitive flexibility is a skill that develops throughout childhood.

Children who have good cognitive flexibility are better equipped to solve problems and adapt to new or unexpected situations. Children can develop cognitive flexibility by playing games that encourage creative thinking and problem solving.

Activities that involve planning and decision-making, such as role-playing, can also help develop cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility continues to develop throughout adulthood, but it can decrease with age. Adults and seniors who have good cognitive flexibility are better equipped to adapt to changes in their professional and personal lives, and to maintain good mental health.

Cognitive flexibility can be stimulated in adults and seniors by encouraging the practice of meditation, yoga, artistic and creative activities, and by promoting lifelong learning. Activities that involve learning new skills or problem solving can help maintain and improve cognitive flexibility.

Like any cognitive function, also for cognitive flexibility, brain training is very useful. People with these disorders may have difficulty adapting to new or changing situations. People with ASD and schizophrenia can benefit from behavioral therapies that help them develop cognitive flexibility.

It is possible to improve cognitive flexibility at any age. Here are some methods to stimulate this cognitive function:.

In conclusion, cognitive flexibility is an important cognitive function that allows us to adapt to new and changing situations. It is closely linked to other cognitive functions such as working memory, attention and inhibition.

Cognitive flexibility can be improved at any age through activities such as meditation, art activities, lifelong learning, board games and mindfulness.

By keeping our brains active and stimulated, we can maintain and improve our cognitive flexibility throughout our lives. There are many ways to exercise your memory and cognitive functions. Daily practice of brain exercises reduces the risk of neurological disorders, as some programs act on all cognitive functions.

And not only does that adventure help break the spell of cognitive rigidity, but it helps us to live a life more memorable. Sponsored links below if any. Clicking is one way of saying thanks for the article! Concise insights, delivered once per week. Join the growing army of 3-Thinkers.

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Skip to content. Modern routines can be a force for mental rigidity. Here's what the research tells us about how to improve our cognitive flexibility and creativity. Of course, powered by a superior cognitive engine, the humans caught on quickest — right?

What was going on? The Pitfalls of Predictability Well, that superior cognitive engine was in fact our downfall in this study. In short, we need tools to defuse this risk. How to Increase Cognitive Flexibility How, then, can we increase cognitive flexibility in a world of routine?

The research points to 5 different effective strategies to increase cognitive flexibility. Final Remarks If you take one message from this article, let it be this: Ceaseless familiarity is the enemy of cognitive flexibility, and novelty is its friend. So, go on, embrace your inner monkey.

Think flexibly. Get More Insights Straight to Your Inbox Sign up to the weekly newsletter and never miss a post again. Sign Up. Related Reading.

Creeping Normality: The Dangers of State Gradualism. And finally, being a passenger is just as stressful for rats as it is for people! To watch rats driving their special rat cars, you can see a small clip here.

What this and other studies do is clue us in to some key ideas for how to improve cognitive flexibility, ultimately making us more resilient , creative, and confident. Do something you know how to do, but do it differently and often.

If we think about the rats driving their cars, we can easily see how we can apply this to our own driving habits. Have you ever driven home from work and arrived there not quite remembering how you got there? Have you needed to run an errand that would have taken you out of your way and instead ended up at home?

We all have routines and they bring us a sense of predictability and even comfort. However, as I wrote about in a previous post , routines can become ruts, diminishing our cognitive abilities. To avoid this, you must shake things up.

For driving, that may mean drive home a different way. However, it could easily be other things, like trying new foods, changing the time of day you exercise, even sitting in a new chair. Pursue new challenges and experiences.

If rats can learn how to drive, surely we humans can learn how to do something new. For example, dancing, martial arts, boxing, and painting all challenge your body and mind to work together to learn a new skill.

Alternatively, learn a new language, change jobs, or travel to a new place. Be creative. Meet new people. One other place we converge with other species is that we tend to like people that are more like ourselves, birds of a feather and all. However, the research is clear.

The more you expose yourself to different people and their views, cultures, and ideas, not only does your cognitive flexibility improve, but also your moral compass on right and wrong. Indeed, those species that exhibit less cognitive bias, also have a much stronger capacity for moral reasoning and fairness.

One example, again from rats, is that rats tend to see all other rats as more similar to themselves, while we humans hold tightly to our in-out group tendencies. The answer? Talk to new people, exchange ideas and information, or simply help other people through volunteering.

At the end of the day, sprinkling your life with a few activities designed to challenge you and take you out of your comfort zone will improve your ability to adapt, decrease your anxiety and stress, and broaden your perspective.

So go ahead and be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Who knows what you will discover. Crawford, L. and Lambert, K. Enriched environment exposure accelerates rodent driving skills. Behavioural Brain Research, p.

Julia Watzek, Sarah M. Pope, Sarah F. Like any cognitive function, also for cognitive flexibility, brain training is very useful. People with these disorders may have difficulty adapting to new or changing situations. People with ASD and schizophrenia can benefit from behavioral therapies that help them develop cognitive flexibility.

It is possible to improve cognitive flexibility at any age. Here are some methods to stimulate this cognitive function:. In conclusion, cognitive flexibility is an important cognitive function that allows us to adapt to new and changing situations.

It is closely linked to other cognitive functions such as working memory, attention and inhibition. Cognitive flexibility can be improved at any age through activities such as meditation, art activities, lifelong learning, board games and mindfulness. By keeping our brains active and stimulated, we can maintain and improve our cognitive flexibility throughout our lives.

There are many ways to exercise your memory and cognitive functions. Daily practice of brain exercises reduces the risk of neurological disorders, as some programs act on all cognitive functions. The CLINT brain training program was designed specifically for adults to keep the brain healthy through fun and challenging brain exercises.

It has over 30 cognitive games and targets concentration, focus, reflexes, language and many other cognitive functions. In order to find the right sequence of movements, cognitive flexibility is stimulated, since it is necessary to imagine the different possibilities and the movements of the cars.

In some levels there are several possible solutions, but you have to find the fastest one. Each game has a different grid, so you have to adapt to the numbers present and their positions. To find the right solution we use logic and we have to store the information and manipulate it.

This game allows us to learn new things and to check our general knowledge. To find the right answer we have to use our memory, but sometimes we can also use logic, depending on the proposals.

In the iOS version, it is possible to play FaceTime with your friends. This makes the game more fun and keeps the social interaction good. by Suzie Coaches' advices , Les conseils des coachs. Memory loss and neurodegenerative diseases represent significant challenges for global health, shaping the daily lives

Cognitive flexibility is considered a core aspect of executive functioning. Executive functioning includes the mental processes that enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions and juggle multiple tasks simultaneously. Imagine the teacher has asked students to see how many ways their class can be sorted into different groups.

Whether the problem is in real-life or an academic task, your child needs to look at situations from multiple perspectives. This is an aspect of cognitive flexibility!

Here is another example. If your child is attempting a challenging math question, do they try to solve the problem using different strategies? Students will frequently attempt to solve a problem using the method they know best.

Life is full of examples of times when we must examine situations using differing perspectives. To be successful social beings, we need to be flexible. We will have to face social problems, problems in our relationships, work-place conflict, or many other scenarios! But, as you are heading out the door, you get a text saying that the friend is sick and they will have to reschedule.

But for those that struggle with cognitive flexibility, this may not be as easy. They may freeze and do nothing. They may ruminate on the fact that their playdate was cancelled.

Or, they may become emotional and distressed as they struggle to understand that they can reschedule and do something different that day instead. By practicing being flexible in our thinking with our students and children, we can help them reach their full potential.

These strategies are particularly important now during the global pandemic. Children have been forced to adapt their daily living, learn school lessons in a new way, and socialize differently.

Practicing the ability to solve problems in new ways, consider multiple concepts at once, and look at the bigger picture will support their cognitive flexibility skills.

In summary, cognitive flexibility skills allow us to switch gears and find new approaches to solve problems in our daily lives. Many children with ADHD and Learning Disabilities struggle with cognitive flexibility and may require more assistance in developing these skills.

There are many ways to help your child develop these skills, including modelling, explicit instruction, and experiential learning. Trouble With Flexible Thinking: Why Some Kids Only See Things One Way. A Day in the Life of a Child Who Struggles With Flexible Thinking. Here are some methods to stimulate this cognitive function:.

In conclusion, cognitive flexibility is an important cognitive function that allows us to adapt to new and changing situations. It is closely linked to other cognitive functions such as working memory, attention and inhibition.

Cognitive flexibility can be improved at any age through activities such as meditation, art activities, lifelong learning, board games and mindfulness. By keeping our brains active and stimulated, we can maintain and improve our cognitive flexibility throughout our lives. There are many ways to exercise your memory and cognitive functions.

Daily practice of brain exercises reduces the risk of neurological disorders, as some programs act on all cognitive functions. The CLINT brain training program was designed specifically for adults to keep the brain healthy through fun and challenging brain exercises.

It has over 30 cognitive games and targets concentration, focus, reflexes, language and many other cognitive functions. In order to find the right sequence of movements, cognitive flexibility is stimulated, since it is necessary to imagine the different possibilities and the movements of the cars.

In some levels there are several possible solutions, but you have to find the fastest one. Each game has a different grid, so you have to adapt to the numbers present and their positions. To find the right solution we use logic and we have to store the information and manipulate it.

This game allows us to learn new things and to check our general knowledge. To find the right answer we have to use our memory, but sometimes we can also use logic, depending on the proposals.

In the iOS version, it is possible to play FaceTime with your friends. This makes the game more fun and keeps the social interaction good. by Suzie Coaches' advices , Les conseils des coachs.

Memory loss and neurodegenerative diseases represent significant challenges for global health, shaping the daily lives by Suzie Coaches' advices.

Age-related macular degeneration AMD is a common eye condition, especially in the elderly, and is one of the main Sport, regulated and organized physical activity, plays a crucial role in modern society, and is particularly Cognitive flexibility: what is it and how to improve it?

Participants that made sandwiches in a different order performed better on a subsequent cognitive flexibility test. Yes, you read that correctly. Sometimes moving around the furniture is enough to help us think differently.

Not to mention, increased social contact is associated with better long-term health outcomes. One study published in the International Journal of Intercultural Relations appears to back this up. Participants with higher exposure to different cultural backgrounds demonstrated greater moral reasoning and cognitive flexibility.

There is little excuse not to. But of course, if we really want to crank up the unpredictable, and in our turn our cognitive flexibility, we might expose ourselves to entirely different experiences. First and foremost, that means embracing discovery. New work projects that develop a completely new set of skills.

Travel to new places. New sights, new smells, and new sounds. Novelty is food for the creative mind , and the science backs that up. We know that now more than ever. We can also build cognitive flexibility through deliberate practice.

It relies on careful consideration of weaknesses and then targeted practice to improve upon those areas. Building on this idea within our work environment, we can embrace deliberate practice in the form of Goldilocks tasks.

In short, Goldilocks tasks hit the sweet spot — the Goldilocks Zone — between comfort and discomfort. They are neither so easy as to facilitate comfort or boredom, nor so difficult as to demoralise. They stretch us without dissuading us. The Goldilocks zone is not only a foundation of continuous improvement, but a spur to greater cognitive flexibility.

The upshot: we should seek this sweet spot wherever we can in our day-to-day work. Finally, we can support our actions with theory. By building a personal framework of mental models to guide our decisions, we can become more flexible problem solvers.

Put simply, mental models are theoretical tools that help us think better and simplify complexity. These include general thinking concepts like second-order thinking and inversion , as well as knowledge of cognitive biases that affect our decisions.