How To Enhance Psychological Flexibility In Your Children?

Life is change and, therefore, it is important that children learn to adapt to it as soon as possible. Developing your psychological flexibility will go a long way toward doing this.

We all know some of those dynamic and decisive people who face the unexpected with creativity and confidence. But we also know of those who feel paralyzed by the changes and are unable to redirect their course. These differences are based on the psychological flexibility of each individual, a concept that should be promoted from the first years of life.

It is a cognitive ability that continues to develop until approximately 20 years of age. But, despite this, it is necessary to work on psychological flexibility from the beginning, as it will help children achieve greater emotional well-being, more stable and satisfying social relationships and greater success in life.

Stiffness and flexibility

Mental flexibility is the ability to modify thoughts and behavior based on the demands of the environment. It is the ability to perceive different points of view and generate options and alternatives when our initial idea no longer works. This is implemented in various situations of everyday life. For example, when class is over and the child has to switch from math to language. Or when you expected to eat macaroni and tomato but the sauce has run out.

A child with a tendency to stiffness will be greatly frustrated by this unforeseen event and will refuse to eat anything else. The unexpected change, despite being small and unimportant, will cause you great discomfort and you will not find the resources to move forward with the situation.

In contrast, an infant with whom psychological flexibility has been worked will be less disturbed by this incident. You will be able to accept reality more quickly and will look for alternatives and solutions. Thus, you can decide to eat the macaroni alone or with other different ingredients. Or you can ask to postpone the pasta until the next day and go shopping for the sauce that afternoon.

It is a simple, everyday situation in which the degree of psychological flexibility makes the difference between dissatisfaction and problem solving. But its benefits carry over to many other circumstances.

Benefits of psychological flexibility

• It helps the child to adapt to changes more quickly and with less suffering. To accept and assume that your expectations will not always be met and to put your creativity to work to generate other options. Rather than being kept in a negative frame of mind by your thwarted desire, you will be able to devise alternative ways to reach a satisfactory solution.
• Improves the child’s ability to perceive information from the environment and change their behavior based on it. This will make it easier for you to change from a formal setting, like class, to a relaxed one, like recess. You will be able to modulate your behavior to be successful in different situations. You will be able to keep quiet and attention in class, and chat and participate with your classmates during the break.

• Increase your empathic capacity by being able to open up to different points of view. Psychological flexibility allows the child to get out of his own opinion to understand that there are different ways of understanding situations. This will help you to be more tolerant and understanding of the people around you.
  

Promote psychological flexibility in the child

As you can see, psychological flexibility helps children to see how they themselves can generate changes in their emotions. It motivates them to seek alternatives instead of getting stuck in negativity and encourages tolerance and understanding of others. In short: it  promotes the development of more autonomous, creative, happy and healthy infants. 

If you want to enhance your child’s psychological flexibility,  take advantage of any everyday circumstance to analyze different perspectives together. When faced with frustration, encourage him to find a different solution. In the face of a friend’s anger, encourage him to try to imagine what the other child is thinking and feeling. If he is sad, show him how he can change his mood by changing his thoughts.

Help him to foster his creativity and imagination, and to think differently. But above all, listen to him. Ask him situations and listen to his opinion, value his ideas, applaud his ingenuity. And don’t forget to practice it for yourself. Your attention and your example will be their greatest motivation towards flexibility.