NAVIGATING CHALLENGES THROUGH THE POWER OF FLEXIBILITY B Y: R O X A N A S A M A N I E G O , P H . D . Director of Clinical Services
“Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it.” — Lao Tzu
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e have just lived through a year and a half of extraordinary levels of uncertainty, and the stress and fear that surrounds dealing with a public health crisis. As students return to campuses across the country, college mental health and wellness professionals are charged with helping them navigate yet another transition where the only certain thing is that uncertainties lie ahead. Of course, it’s normal to want certainty and predictability in our lives. We like knowing if we’re trying a new restaurant that it will have dishes we like. We rewatch our favorite movies or reread books because it can be comforting to know exactly what to expect. Some predictability mitigates the personal experience of stress, and we know that children thrive when their caregivers can provide a sense of consistency and predictability. But, despite our best efforts to plan and prepare, some things are still beyond what we can predict. Our brains, hardwired to help us recognize threats in our environment, are trying to help us prepare for these unknowns by thinking through an exhaustive list of “what ifs.” Many of our students who are returning to in-person learning are imagining the same what ifs, such as: What if I get sick at school? What if we have to shut down again? What if I’m awkward trying to meet people, and I don’t remember how to be around other people? What if I never have a “normal” college experience? What if I can’t handle college? When we can’t know what will happen, our brains can get stuck here, becoming more controlling, rigid, or inflexible. We often get mired in worrying about all the possible worst-case scenarios, frequently seek reassurance, or try to eliminate uncertainty. Other examples of trying to eliminate uncertainty might be: Worrying or ruminating about the future or the past to the extent that it takes away from other experiences Seeking excessive reassurance from others Extensive list-making or including more than is realistically accomplished in a reasonable time frame Frequent checking: that you didn’t make a mistake, that loved ones are okay, etc. Becoming more controlling, such as refusing to delegate tasks to others for fear it won’t be correct Procrastinating or avoiding tasks Over-using distractions or keeping excessively busy to avoid worrying
16 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
Harnessing Psychological Flexibility One of the most powerful tools we have in facing future challenges, both known and unknown, is increasing our psychological flexibility. This encompasses elements of cognitive, behavioral, and emotional flexibility, and refers to how a person: (1) adapts to fluctuating situational demands, (2) reconfigures mental resources, (3) shifts perspective, and (4) balances competing desires, needs, and life domains.1 Cognitive and Behavioral Flexibility: Cognitive flexibility is broadly defined as the ability to shift perspective or approach in order to adapt to changes in the environment. High cognitive flexibility has been associated with psychological well-being and effective coping, whereas low flexibility, or rigidity, has been linked to poorer mental health outcomes.2 It is essentially an executive function and is interdependent on other executive functions such as inhibition (particularly of useless or old methods of responding), shifting attention, and working memory (needed for the mental manipulation used in problem solving). Our ability to think about then adapt our behaviors to changing situations is essential both to survival and to ongoing success in long-term, goaloriented tasks (e.g., obtaining a college degree).3 Emotional Flexibility: Emotional flexibility focuses on how we connect with and experience our emotions and engage in different emotion regulation strategies that are useful in a changing situation. We try not to control, ignore, or get lost in our emotions so that we are still able to experience them while being able to actively choose how we respond. In practicing emotional flexibility, we can shift our focus from agonizing over what we cannot control to focusing on what is within our ability to reasonably control. Practicing flexibility can also help us let go of ruminating about all the possible worst-case scenarios to knowing that whatever happens, we will be able to handle it.
