By practicing these skills, we become more self-aware and mindful of our approach, we learn to use values rather than emotions to guide our behaviour and we learn how to pursue meaningful goals.
The scientific evidence supporting psychological flexibility is impressive and the approach has been used in a wide range of organisational settings to boost employee health and satisfaction at work. Principles-led, it can be developed in a variety of ways, which is reflected in our approach.
Think about how you respond to challenges and setbacks. The types of situations you try to avoid. The actions you’ve taken which you later regret. Common examples of psychological inflexibility include:
Moving from inflexibility to flexibility is a learning journey. We’re not born responding to the world around us in an ideal and helpful way. It’s a function of our upbringing and life’s experiences. But change is always possible.
“Psychological flexibility is the ability to feel and think with openness, to attend voluntarily to your experience of the present moment, and to move your life in directions that are important to you, building habits that allow you to live life in accordance with your values and aspirations.”
Steven Hayes, ‘A Liberated Mind’.
These skills help us avoid pointless struggles with unwelcome inner experiences, ground us in the present here and now, while giving us clarity on what really matters so we can make progress towards our goals. While there are six key skills involved, we can also summarise them in the following easy to remember call to action:
Become more aware of the present moment and avoid getting caught up in the disappointments of the past or worrying about the future. Show up in each context, mindful of what it requires of you.
Let go of the struggle with your thoughts and emotions, while accepting the discomfort that comes with them while we’re doing something meaningful. Thoughts are just thoughts, and not always great signposts for action.
Clarify your values to identify what really matters to you in life, then use these values to help you guide your actions, as you pursue those most important goals.
To get you started on our journey, check out the various psychological flexibility articles on our blog and have a listen to our podcast to find out more.
If you’d like to know more about our training options, have a look at the summary below. When it comes to one-to-one coaching, you can find out all about our coaching solutions here.
We’ve discussed the various principles of Psychological Flexibility on our blog over the years. Here are a few short articles covering the essentials:
We have three Psychological Flexibility courses, ranging from a 90mins introductory session, through to a one-day workshop. All courses can be run in person or via webinar.
Additionally, all our training courses can be augmented with the addition of one-to-one coaching following course completion, providing an end-to-end solution in personalised development.
We have something for every audience and context. Full details of these courses can be found on our Wellbeing Courses page.
I was really impressed with their feedback and their comments in the brief online survey we used afterwards illustrated just how keen they were to learn more and start putting this all into practice.
Working in the public sector brings its own challenges and this is why it was really important to us to offer personal development opportunities centred on wellbeing, and practical tools for us to use on a daily basis when we may be feeling overwhelmed or experiencing anxiety.
Feedback from those taking part was extremely positive and we are already looking at working with Richard on other initiatives.
