Flexibility

If there is one attribute that we can all work on, which allows us to weather the buffeting storms of life, it is flexibility. Not just physical flexibility, though that is incredibly important for longevity and ease of movement through life, but cognitive and emotional flexibility, as well.

Can we bend over to pick up that grocery store receipt without throwing out our back? Sure, that’s important. But, can we weather the ice storm and live without power, heat, or internet for 3 days without throwing out our peace and joy? Can we pivot and recover when our world view or deeply held beliefs come up for review and we find that we’ve been wrong all along? Are we flexible enough in body, spirit, and mind to be the best humans that we can be or are we rigid and brittle and ultimately fragile? How do we test for that? And, if we find that we aren’t so flexy in one area or another, how do we train to become more resilient?

This needs our daily attention if we plan on protecting our spine, soul, and mind. The physical stretching is easy enough to comprehend. Download a great app and get to work doing some deep stretching each day. In order to have a flexible spirit we need to have a philosophy to check each event in our lives against. We’ve all interacted with folks who swing from ‘everything is amazing’ to ‘all is shite’ and back again a dozen times a day. It’s exhausting to be around. Knowing that we are in control of very little other than our own perceptions and reactions allows us to moderate those swings. Victor Frankl says it best:

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” -Victor Frankl

Flexibility of mind, cognitive flexibility, is the ability to shift gears and see another solution to a problem. Without it, the rigidness of thought can be harmful to the point of getting us killed. Think Again, Adam Grant’s newest book is all about this skill and why it might be one of the most important attributes in our lives. Here’s a powerful nugget:

“Thinking like a scientist involves more than just reacting with an open mind. It means being actively open-minded. It requires searching for reasons why we might be wrong—not for reasons why we must be right—and revising our views based on what we learn.” -Adam Grant

Here’s another:

“A hallmark of wisdom is knowing when it’s time to abandon some of your most treasured tools—and some of the most cherished parts of your identity.” -Adam Grant

This ability to know when it’s time to drop the load and just run is the root of cognitive flexibility.

This week tested all of these attributes for me. Ice storm. Power outage. Lifting downed limbs and heavy generators and straining my back. Figuring out how to get the house warm enough to sleep and how to boil water for our morning coffee. How to get in a run when the streets are icy and the treadmill doesn’t have power. All of it was a test. This time I passed. Because I’ve been actively preparing.

photo credit: @CDW21