Flex Your Ability to be Happier

What IS psychological flexibility?

You probably read those words and wondered “what does that actually mean?” I did, too. And after hours of investigating to try to figure that out, I candidly think the “official” answer (and one “official” method of applying it) is complicated, esoteric and unhelpful. But I’m convinced the concept is crucial. I’ll be digging further into this in the coming months, but here’s my best attempt at a simple non-psychobabble answer and a few major things we can know and do right now to apply it.

Simply put, those that are psychologically flexible can roll with the punches of life more easily. This is all about how we handle things when difficult, challenging thoughts, emotions or experiences arise –whether that is something major (a looming health crisis), something minor (our spouse annoyingly putting the dishes in the dishwasher the “wrong way”), or something personally offensive.

The next question is . . . what does that look like in practice? And how do we gain this type of flexibility that seems to be so important?