Cognitive Fitness

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, cisgender man will have more resources & privileges than a Black transgender woman.

Source: Dr. Meichenbaum’s Roadmap to Resilience.