Cognitive fitness – flexibility

Resilience is the capacity to adapt successfully in the presence of risk & adversity. One aspect of resiliency is cognitive fitness.

Cognitive fitness is the capacity to adapt successfully in the presence of risk & adversity.

To be healthy is to be flexible & adapt to the demands of each situation.

In being cognitively flexible, it’s important to be aware of changing demands & adjust accordingly.

Things that might impact your capacity:

• Illness
• Age
• Life stressors
• Financial stressors
• Relational stressors
• Fatigue
• Hunger

Cognitive fitness involves the ability to successfully problem solve.

To build that capacity, practice problem solving, generate multiple options & alternatives to a problem.

Identify & think through the pros & cons to decisions and situations.

Visualize what you want to do in a given situation.

This may help identify other potential stumbling blocks & gives you more ready access to the behaviors you want to use when the actual time comes.

This is why elite athletes use visualization.

Learn to set doable goals – break your goals down into smaller steps.

Set measurable goals such as get up at 7 am rather than get up early.

This will make it much easier to determine if you are making progress & what next steps are.

Learn to establish realistic goals & identify when to let a goal go because it’s unattainable.

Look at your track record, where have you had success & where you have struggled.

If you have self-esteem issues, you may benefit from asking a trusted other to check your thinking

Look at others who have similar talents & goals.

• What has been possible for them to accomplish?
• Where have they struggled?
• What resources did they draw on?

When you are looking at what others have accomplished it is important to be realistic in considering what resources & privileges they have & if you have access to the same.

A white, heterosexual, cisgender man will have more resources & privileges than a Black, queer trans woman.

#YouAreResilient #BuildingResilience #CogntivelFitness