[excerpted from, 9 Keys to Mystical Experience: Transpersonal Psychology ©2023]

Nature is transcendent.

Many reports of mystical experience have been in the natural world, as we are overcome by its beauty and find it easier to shift consciousness than in the cultivated environment. Deep serenity is one factor, beauty another – and often, we may find ourselves unexpectedly interacting with other species. True immersion in nature, whether swimming in the sea, trekking silently in the forest, or reaching that mountaintop, allows for a transcendence of ego as we forget who we (think we) are and become one with the natural environment.

Some experiences are more likely to shift consciousness than others – for example, spending time deep in a cave, or indeed in the ocean. A full moon, star-filled sky, thunderstorm, birdsong, meadow of wildflowers, and so much more can engender the mystical experience. This is deep ecology, or eco-spirituality.

The transpersonal psychology field has increasingly recognized the spirituality and mysticism to be found in nature, and a transpersonal ecopsychology is emerging. In such, the boundary between self and nature is gradually – or sometimes suddenly – erased, and we allow ourselves to integrate with this natural world of which we are indeed a part.

I spend a day each week on a nearby island – on which, if I avoid the busy weekend (and I do), I can trek for a couple of hours without encountering another human. There are plenty of other sentient beings along the way, however: a variety of creatures, and the island itself, the surrounding sea, the small mountain in its center, its forests. For me, this is moving meditation, therapy, rejuvenation, and a renewal of my bond with the natural world. As such, I also seek mystical experience on the island, through ritual, trance, and similar practices toward self-transcendence, while at times it occurs spontaneously. I imagine, dear reader, that you may have a similar story.

Nature is a source of awe, a transcendent emotion as noted in our previous key (Bethelmy & Corraliza, 2019); nature-based self-transcendence also promotes prosocial behavior (Castelo et al., 2021), toward other humans as well as the natural world.  In decreasing ego boundaries as we sense ourselves a part of nature, and increasing self-transcendence as we stand in awe of it and sense our relative insignificance, the natural world is a trigger for mystical experience, according to Harrild & Luke (2020), who further advocate for psychedelic research to be conducted within a transpersonal ecopsychology framework. There is clear overlap, as we saw previously in the 1,606-strong survey study of Nayak and Griffiths (2022), in which a single-dose psychedelic resulted in significant increases in respondents’ perceptions that consciousness can be attributed to species beyond our own, including other primates, insects, plants, and more.

Early forms of religion throughout the world tended toward animism, this very belief in consciousness and even deity infused in the natural world. This is the basis of deep ecology, Gaia theory, or ecospirituality, and as such, represents an exceedingly longstanding tradition of mystical experience. Such belief systems can still be found throughout the world today, in both traditional and modernized forms; a shamanistic practice still exists in South Korea, for example, unbroken for at least 5 millennia and alongside not only Buddhism but also Christianity, in one of the world’s top economies and most highly developed societies – and in which I resided and conducted such research for a decade. It must be said that Buddhism, and its parent religion Hinduism, along with Sufism and others, are also deeply focused on the intersection of spiritual and natural worlds.

A model of nature-based therapy has been proposed by Naor and Mayseless (2020), acknowledging nature as an embodiment of spirituality. They cite the experience of nature’s immensity as a contributor to an expansive worldview [awe; oceanic boundlessness], to a sense of one’s place in the ‘vast web of life’ [universal interconnectedness], and to both self-reflection and a contemplation of truth which contribute to authenticity [revelatory; presence of meaning].

So, it’s clear by now that we need to immerse ourselves in the natural world as part of our quest for mystical experience – but how can we facilitate the latter?

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Exercises:

As in peak experience, solitary immersion in the natural environment is key – but in a different way, as we seek not beauty but relationship and the sacred. When you find yourself in nature, ideally far from the trappings of civilization, engage in meditation with a focus on your connection to and place in the natural world. Alternately, you can meditate by singularly focusing on almost any natural object – a flower, the sea, a tree, that rock. Anything will do. It’s the deep state of meditation, coupled with the stimulus of the natural world, that can shift us into mystical experience.

In a natural setting you can also dance; moving meditation, particularly whirling motion (as the Sufis have always known), induces mystical experience, even more likely when coupled with the natural environment (while it would also be effective indoors).

You can also stand firm on the earth, raise your arms and face to the sky, and expand your sense of self ever outward, feeling your oneness with the cosmos rush over and through you. Alternately, in the same position (and even more if your feet are bare), you can imagine roots from the soles of your feet that extend down, down, deep into the earth, to its core, and the energy of that core traveling up those same roots and into your body, infusing you, as you glow.

You can place your palms on the earth’s surface (even better, within the soil if possible, such as when gardening) and sense its pulse, its heartbeat; with slow, deep, cleansing breathing, now become aware of your own heartbeat and let it synchronize with that of the earth.

Find ways to interact with the creatures of nature. Feeding birds is one such, especially crows as they’re inclined to form a relationship with humans. When in outdoor meditation, you may consider the deeper state of trance, and envision yourself shapeshifting into an animal, bird, reptile, or insect.

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References:

Bethelmy LC and Corraliza JA (2019). Transcendence and Sublime Experience in Nature: Awe and Inspiring Energy. Frontiers in. Psychology 10:509. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00509

Castelo N, White K, and Goode MR (2021). Nature promotes self-transcendence and prosocial behavior. Journal of Environmental Psychology 76:101639. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101639

Harrild F and Luke D (2020). An evaluation of the role of mystical experiences in transpersonal ecopsychology. Transpersonal Psychology Review 22:1:2396-9636. http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/28219

Naor L and Mayseless O (2020). The therapeutic value of experiencing spirituality in nature. Spirituality in Clinical Practice 7:2, 114-133. https://doi.org/10.1037/scp0000204

Nayak SM and Griffiths RR (2022). A Single Belief-Changing Psychedelic Experience Is Associated with Increased Attribution of Consciousness to Living and Non-living Entities. Frontiers in Psychology 13:852248. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.852248

[excerpted from, 9 Keys to Meaning-Making: Transpersonal Psychology ©2023]

Noesis, a philosophical term from ancient Greece denoting inner knowledge or wisdom, an innate knowing, is a key source of meaning. Plato considered this the most exalted knowledge, the realm of ideas. As a state it’s commonly associated with religious, spiritual, and mystical experiences (Barber, 2020; Barros & Schultz, 2023), and exceedingly transpersonal. Noetic consciousness refers to the knowledge one possesses which can’t be attributed to one’s experience – as in, I know, but I don’t know how I know.

In the recently introduced Noetic Signature Inventory (Wahbeh, Fry, & Speirn, 2022), 12 domains have been established for this phenomenon: (1) inner knowing, (2) embodied sensations, (3) visualizing to access or affect, (4) inner knowing through touch, (5) healing, (6) knowing the future, (7) physical sensations from other people, (8) knowing yourself, (9) knowing others’ minds, (10) apparent communication with non-physical beings, (11) knowing through dreams, and (12) inner voice. This cognitive phenomenon is closely associated with personal meaning construction (Bellin, 2019), and many first-hand accounts have been studied (Wahbeh, Fry, et al., 2022).

Transpersonal psychology, in its emphasis on states of consciousness to access innate wisdom, is strongly focused on the noetic experience, employing various introspective techniques to access this core knowledge. Some of the most common include meditation, journal-writing, and dream analysis, though there are many other options.

Meditation can take numerous forms, and its use for this purpose is readily apparent. Intensive courses of meditation are especially well established for engendering mystical experience and developing presence of meaning (Zanesco et al., 2023). In its original Buddhist context, meditation provides a means to acknowledge and transform human suffering (Hall & Hill, 2019), which we saw in the previous key as connected to meaning-making (Kaftanski & Hanson, 2022). In particular, meditation has been used to mitigate the suffering resulting from mass trauma or disaster, a circumstance which profoundly disrupts one’s core presence of meaning (Captari et al., 2019).

Meditation is additionally associated with sustained compassion toward self and others, providing yet another source of meaning (Condon & Makransky, 2020), and with coping skills in old age (Xu, 2021), as we attempt to sustain our presence of meaning despite challenges. Finally, the association between meditation and ‘enlightenment’ or insight is well known, the latter another term for noesis – and a connection between meditation and psychedelics has also been made on this premise (Simonsson & Goldberg, 2023).

Another introspective technique commonly used for accessing noetic consciousness is journal-writing. Far from a mere account of one’s day, this has long been used as a form of self-therapy and personal discovery as well as empowerment (Forster et al., 2022). It can be engaged for nearly any topic, and is best to write quickly in order to bypass one’s own filters and inner critic; we are seeking wisdom and meaning, not perfect grammar or socially acceptable views. Journal-writing for introspection may also include automatic writing, whereby we first enter a meditative or similar state of consciousness and then engage in a stream-of-consciousness style of writing – allowing our unconscious to guide, as if someone else were writing. It affords us the opportunity to look into our psyche from a variety of perspectives (Feather, 2022).

Dream interpretation is a longstanding method for gaining access to one’s unconscious and innate wisdom; in transpersonal psychology, this is most likely to take the form of lucid dreaming, a modality for entering a semi-conscious, dreamlike state akin to that liminal space between sleep and waking state, or when we dream and simultaneously know that we’re dreaming. Irwin (2020) has identified 4 dream types: normative-rational, mythic-imaginal, psychic-intuitive, and supernal-transpersonal; in all we can encounter noetic consciousness and gain wisdom. Supernal-transpersonal dreams are also commonly found in religious contexts (Mota-Rolim et al., 2020) and are non-dualistic and often interpreted as profoundly meaningful (Bogzaran, 2020), while lucid dreaming is used as a directed means of self-development (Konkoly & Burke, 2019), as we will soon further explore.

How can we use these or similar methods for constructing and strengthening our personal life meaning? By engaging them in focused way, in order to increase awareness and insight.

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Exercises:

For those new to meditation, guided imagery is often easier to achieve as it provides a detailed focus. Rather than listening to one of the many recordings available, however, consider making your own; the sound of one’s own voice reaches the unconscious much more profoundly than the voice of another. Find a script related to presence of and/or search for meaning – or consider writing your own – and record it in a slow, soothing voice with plenty of pauses. Speak as if you are talking to yourself as a child – for you are. Be sure to include 30-60 seconds of silence at the beginning of the recording, to later allow for a settling in before your recorded voice begins.

When this is prepared, sit in a comfortable position with distractions minimized; quiet your mind, focusing on slow and steady breathing, and follow your recording. After you end the session, be sure to reflect – by journal-writing, contemplation, or talking with someone you trust – for insight regarding meaning.

Meditation can be either ‘empty-mind’ or introspective, or contemplative with a specific focus. You can engage either for accessing personal meaning, depending on your comfort level and preference; regardless, begin by sitting in a comfortable position, eyes closed and distractions minimized, and focus on slow, steady breathing. If taking an introspective approach, keep this focus, allowing your breathing to anchor you as you free your mind, and just notice what arises; whenever you become aware that your mind has wandered, as it will, just gently refocus on your breathing and continue. If a contemplative focus is preferred, then after you’ve focused on breathing to still your mind, shift your focus to that of meaning – presence of, search for, sources of – and keep your focus on this topic, returning to it whenever you notice that your mind has wandered. Finally, regardless of which path you’ve taken, follow the meditation with a process of reflection as above, to codify whatever insights you may have gained.

Journal-writing is most effective when writing steadily, without any editing or self-censoring, and allowing for knowledge or insight to surface. It’s also best done by hand, if able, as the tactile experience of hand to pen and paper gives more direct access to one’s unconscious, it seems, than keyboard and digital screen, which can act as a psychological filter. It can be helpful to engage in journaling much the same way as we do meditation: sitting comfortably in a quiet atmosphere with minimal distraction, and a still and receptive mind, focus on your slow and steady breathing … and then, write. Further, keeping a journal over time – perhaps even a dedicated ‘meaning-making’ one – allows us to explore this topic broadly and deeply, and to better apply our insights to our daily life.

For this purpose, you may wish to consider journal prompts – of your own devising. Engage in a brainstorming session, particularly the mind-mapping variety, in which you write ‘meaning’ in the center of a sheet of paper and then quickly surround it with words that come to mind (quickly, so as to bypass your inner filter and keep the thoughts flowing), drawing lines between them to denote relationships. When you feel you’ve written everything you can, turn the paper over, and on the back make a list of those aspects that came to mind which you’d like to explore further. This is your personalized list of journal prompts. Write on one prompt each day, in whatever order of priority feels best to you.

Lucid dreaming can be achieved in many ways, and at times, spontaneously; you may dream at night and also be aware that you’re dreaming. For our purpose, we want to direct this film. One of the simplest yet effective ways to do so is to first explore a topic, whether by journal-writing or just deeply contemplating for some time. While our focus is on presence of and search for meaning, you may wish to make this more specific; as in the brainstorming activity above, develop a list of related topics, aspects of meaning, and select one of those for each lucid dreaming session.

Focus first on your topic, having written it in the form of a very specific sentence or question (open-ended, not yes/no), brief and as direct to the point as possible. When you have focused on this for 20-30 minutes, then set a timer for that same amount of time…and take a nap. Have a journal, notepad, audio recorder, or similar beside you for reflection when you awake, as we all know how quickly most dreams fade; on waking, write all the details you can recall about any dream material from your nap period. This can be a list; we aren’t yet interpreting but are simply capturing details before they dissipate; don’t go down one trail while you forget the rest. As a final step, via journaling and/or deep contemplation, look for insight in the dream material. The more you repeat this process, like any skill, the better able you’ll be to direct your dreams.

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References:

Barber M (2020). Noetic and Noematic Dimensions of Religious Experience. Open Theology 6:1, 256-273. https://doi.org/10.1515/opth-2020-0118

Barros M and Schultz L (2023). The Transformative Potential of Religious, Spiritual, and Mystical Experiences. Social Science and Humanities Journal 7:2, 3035-3043. http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22225213.v2

Bellin Z (2019). The Practice of Personal Meaning Cultivation. International Journal of Existential Psychology and Psychotherapy 145.

Bogzaran F (2020). Methods of Exploring Transpersonal Lucid Dreams: Ineffability and Creative Consciousness. Integral Transpersonal Journal 15, 53-70.

Captari LE, Hook JN, Aten JD et al. (2019). Embodied Spirituality Following Disaster: Exploring Intersections of Religious and Place Attachment in Resilience and Meaning-Making. In: Counted V and Watts F (eds), The Psychology of Religion and Place. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28848-8_4

Condon P and Makransky J (2020). Sustainable Compassion Training: Integrating Meditation Theory with Psychological Science. Frontiers in Psychology 11:2249. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02249

Feather J (2022). Through the Masks: Mythic Autobiography and the Journal—Reflections from Endless Angles. Psychological Perspectives 65:2, 173-179. https://doi.org/10.1080/00332925.2022.2119754

Forster M, Bertolucci J, and James S (2022). The journey towards active self-care and empowerment: Insights from a thematic analysis of a women’s therapeutic expressive writing group (UK). Counselling and Psychotherapy Research 00, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1002/capr.12605

Hall MEL & Hill P (2019). Meaning-making, suffering, and religion: a worldview conception. Mental Health, Religion & Culture 22:5, 467-479. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2019.1625037

Irwin L (2020). Supernal Dreaming: On Myth and Metaphysics. Religions 11:11:552. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11110552

Kaftanski W and Hanson J (2022). Suffering, authenticity, and meaning in life: Toward an integrated conceptualization of well-being. Frontiers in Psychology 13:1079032. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1079032

Konkoly K and Burke CT (2019). Can learning to lucid dream promote personal growth? Dreaming 29:2, 113-126. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000101

Mota-Rolim SA, Bulkeley K, Campanelli S et al. (2020). The Dream of God: How Do Religion and Science See Lucid Dreaming and Other Conscious States During Sleep? Frontiers in Psychology 11:555731. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.555731

Simonsson O and Goldberg SB (2023). Linkages between Psychedelics and Meditation in a Population-Based Sample in the United States. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 55:1, 11-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2021.2022816

Wahbeh H, Fry N, and Speirn P (2022). The Noetic Signature Inventory: Development, Exploration, and Initial Validation. Frontiers in Psychology 13:838582. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.838582

Wahbeh H, Fry N, Speirn P et al. (2022). Qualitative analysis of first-person accounts of noetic experiences. F1000Research 11:10:497. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.52957.3

Xu J (2021). The lived experience of Buddhist-oriented religious coping in late life: Buddhism as a cognitive schema. Journal of Health Psychology 26:10, 1549-1560. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105319882741

Zanesco AP, King BG, Conklin QA et al. (2023). The Occurrence of Psychologically Profound, Meaningful, and Mystical Experiences During a Month-Long Meditation Retreat. Mindfulness 14, 606-621. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-023-02076-w

[excerpted from, 9 Keys to Transcendent Aging: Transpersonal Psychology ©2023]

Our second key to transcendent aging is wisdom. One of those normative expectations of aging, we conceive of elders as wise. And surely, we want to consider ourselves as wise ones, when we too reach our elder years.

Wisdom is commonly thought of as accumulated knowledge and experience. As measured by a variety of psychological scales, it’s viewed as a personality trait including empathy and compassion, emotional regulation, self-reflection, broad perspective, comfort with uncertainty and change, judgment, and often some form of spirituality (Reynolds et al., 2022). It’s seen as a combination of virtue and wit, is both domain-general and specific (i.e., we can be wise in a specific area or across areas), and omniscient or all-encompassing (i.e., to be a ‘wise person’) (Zhang et al., 2022).

All too often, however, as we age we begin to feel invisible – increasingly irrelevant and dismissed. This is an incredibly painful experience; we rightly feel that we’ve gained a lifetime of knowledge and experience, only to discover that it isn’t valued by others – and possibly, in the face of great change around us, we too may no longer see the value or relevance of our lived experience.

To wit: in this technological age, we’ve also seen radical shifts in business and economic models – so can we truly feel that our 40 years of working life are of value to be shared with younger generations for whom the working world is markedly different? On a personal level, the way that people relate to one another is also undergoing profound change, and while we may decry the prioritizing of online interaction over ‘face-to-face’ and the metaverse to ‘real life’, emerging research tells a different story. Rather than diminished or detrimental, we humans are evolving into new ways of being. (Can the singularity be far behind?)

And yet.

On the human level, the psychological and emotional, our lifetime of experience holds great value. We know what it is to be loved, and to hate. We know about loss, and recovery. We know about pain and sorrow, joy and marvel; we know what it takes to get up in the morning, to show compassion to others, to feel gratitude, to cherish the natural world and those we love. And so much more.

On the transpersonal level, even more. Meditation, mindfulness, awe, appreciation of beauty, interconnectedness, creativity, flow, mystical experience, self-transcendence – these advanced areas of human development are timeless, even as new ways of achieving them – meditation apps, VR-induced mystical experience – may arise.

In the workforce, home life, and many other areas, universals remain, however much the world around us may change. We must look for these – as we also let go of knowledge and skills we’ve acquired which have in fact lost their relevance, and not try to hold onto them.

The research is divided on whether intellect and wisdom are interrelated; fluid intelligence and wisdom have been shown to correlate (Glück & Scherpf, 2022), and also to be independent of one another (Lindbergh et al., 2022). We can be genius overall, which may also mean we’ve acquired a great deal of knowledge; but we may also be ignorant of human psychology, behavior, and relationship, or have knowledge relevant to our specialty but not as much in the realm of daily life. We may live a life filled with experience and have learned a great deal to pass on to others, or our life may have been small to date, predictable and restricted without novelty – or, we may have experienced that large life yet remained within our prejudices and limited worldview, and not learned a thing. To be wise is not the same as being intelligent, though their relationship is not yet fully understood.

To be wise does mean that we have knowledge and experience which can help others, if we choose to share it – though not everyone elects to do so. But how does our wisdom help us, in our elder stage of life?

Accumulated wisdom, and our awareness of same, contributes to wellbeing (Glück et al., 2022) and quality of life (Chen et al., 2022). Across a number of studies reviewed by Reynolds et al. (2022), perceived wisdom has been associated with life satisfaction, resilience, lower incidence of loneliness and depression, and greater overall physical and mental health. Our wisdom contributes greatly to our coping skills for managing uncertainty, emotional regulation, reflection, and openness (Glück, 2022). It’s associated with humor and wit, which come with their own benefits to health (Brudek et al., 2021), and helps us mediate our attitudes and emotions toward death (Brudek & Sekowski, 2021).

Intergenerational wisdom-sharing brings its own boost to wellbeing (Kahlbaugh & Budnick, 2023; Pillemer et al., 2022), and wisdom is directly associated with self-transcendence (Kim et al., 2023), to be later discussed. Interestingly to this ‘global citizen’, international relocation, as we must learn in a multitude of arenas simultaneously and engage in a high degree of adaptation, problem-solving, and coping, brings a particular boost to wisdom (Kutor et al., 2022) – and thus, we can presume that independent travel would have a related if lesser effect.

Psychology places a great deal of focus in this area, and transpersonal psychology especially, as wisdom can also come from sources less easily explained – that is, not only from our lived experiences and acquired knowledge but also from instinct, intuition, our interpersonal and universal interconnectedness, and from spirituality and mystical experience.

And so, as in the previous key, we begin with personal assessment of wisdom. Do you feel wise? When you review your life, can you identify broad areas of expertise? What about experiences both painful and joyful, that you associate with lessons learned? Do you feel that you have knowledge and experience, including interpersonal relationships and emotions, that has grown over the years and benefits you in your daily life? Are you sharing this with others, and if so, how? In what other ways could you be sharing your perception and judgment, problem-solving, broad perspective and attention to detail, maybe even metaphysical or transpersonal skills?

To identify as ‘wise one’ is its own reward.

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Exercises:

Contemplate times in your life when you felt wise – as you were able to solve complex problems, gave someone good advice, developed confidence in your skills, recognized your accumulated experiences. In what areas do you feel wise now? Wisdom is both generalized and specific, so we can also consider those areas in which we feel especially wise.

As in the previous topic of meaning, we can also meditate on our own wisdom, and engage in brainstorming / mind-mapping to discover our sources of wisdom and how they’re interconnected.

Learn and practice any introspective skill for accessing your inner wisdom – that which isn’t readily available to our conscious mind, but resides in the unconscious. Such practices include meditation, lucid dreaming, journal writing, self-hypnosis, and others.

Regularly spend time in natural settings by taking walks, gardening, sitting in a meadow, swimming in the sea, or whatever means is best for you – and listen deeply, to your own inner voice and that of nature in communication. This is best conducted in solitude; if not feasible for safety or other reasons, go with a friend and make a pact beforehand to remain in silence.

Similarly, if you aren’t already meditating regularly, make it a daily practice. In this solitude and inner stillness, we discover all manner of wisdom.

Share your wisdom. Even more than in the previous section on meaning-making, we’re meant to externalize our wisdom rather than keeping it to ourselves, to contribute to the greater good. Consider self-publishing small books – manageable to write, on a wide range of topics, and easy publishing – or again, in a blog, video channel, or social media posts. Never let yourself think, “I don’t have anything to say.” You have a lifetime of experience to share.

Become a mentor. Consider online mentoring if time or physical constraints preclude in-person engagement. Also consider group mentoring or ‘eldering’ online, in which you can share your knowledge, skills, and experience with those who are seeking advice.

Teach a class. This can be as a volunteer, and can also be online. Even if we haven’t taught before, we can learn some basic skills of teaching, and design courses around knowledge and experience we’ve gained throughout our lives. Rather than reminiscing, and not always about sharing your professional expertise, this can be along the lines of, “I have something to share with you that I think will be helpful.”

Create a ‘wisdom circle’ with several friends and explore other ways in which to share your collective wisdom.

9 Keys to Transcendent Aging, by Anne Hilty, ©2023

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References:

Brudek P and Sekowski M (2021). Wisdom as the Mediator in the Relationships Between Meaning in Life and Attitude Toward Death. OMEGA – Journal of Death and Dying 83:1, 3-32. https://doi.org/10.1177/0030222819837778

Brudek PJ, Płudowska M, Steuden S et al. (2021). Gerotranscendence and humor styles: the mediating role of generativity and wisdom. HUMOR 34:3, 437-461. https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2020-0117

Chen Z, Zhu M, Zheng L et al. (2022). Personal wisdom and quality of life among Chinese older adults. Journal of Health Psychology 27:7, 1646-1658. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105321999093

Glück J (2022). How MORE Life Experience Fosters Wise Coping. In: Munroe M and Ferrari . (eds), Post-Traumatic Growth to Psychological Well-Being. Lifelong Learning Book Series 30. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15290-0_14

Glück J and Scherpf A (2022). Intelligence and wisdom: Age-related differences and nonlinear relationships. Psychology and Aging 37:5, 649-666. https://doi.org/10.1037/pag0000692  

Glück J, Weststrate NM, and Scherpf A (2022). Looking Beyond Linear: A Closer Examination of the Relationship Between Wisdom and Wellbeing. Journal of Happiness Studies 23, 3285-3313. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-022-00540-3

Kahlbaugh P and Budnick CJ (2023). Benefits of Intergenerational Contact: Ageism, Subjective Well-Being, and Psychosocial Developmental Strengths of Wisdom and Identity. International Journal of Aging and Human Development 96:2, 135-159. https://doi.org/10.1177/00914150211050881

Kim Y, Nusbaum HC, and Yang F (2023). Going beyond ourselves: the role of self-transcendent experiences in wisdom. Cognition and Emotion 37:1, 98-116. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2022.2149473

Kutor SK, Raileanu A, and Simandan D (2022). Thinking geographically about how people become wiser: An analysis of the spatial dislocations and intercultural encounters of international migrants. Social Sciences & Humanities Open 6:1:100288. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2022.100288

Lindbergh C, Romero-Kornblum H, Weiner-Light S, et al. (2022). Wisdom and fluid intelligence are dissociable in healthy older adults. International Psychogeriatrics 34:3, 229-239. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1041610221000521

Pillemer K, Nolte J, Schultz L et al. (2022). The Benefits of Intergenerational Wisdom-Sharing: A Randomized Controlled Study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19:7:4010. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19074010

Reynolds CF, Jeste DV, Sachdev PS et al. (2022). Mental health care for older adults: recent advances and new directions in clinical practice and research. World Psychiatry 21, 336-363. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20996

Zhang K, Shi J, Wang F, et al. (2022). Wisdom: Meaning, structure, types, arguments, and future concerns. Current Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-02816-6

[excerpted from, 9 Keys to Building Resilience: Health Psychology ©2023]

Flexibility and its cousin, adaptability, are also inherent in the concept of resilience.

As resilience is often described as one’s ability to ‘bounce back’ from adversity, the more mentally flexible we are in a crisis, or in sustained adversity, the better we’ll be able to respond in a range of ways that allow us to move forward. We must find ways to adapt to a new reality, or to the ongoing hardships, in order to thrive.

Some may say that flexibility is the definition of resilience, and to a degree, that’s true, while there are other components. Yet, as we focus on our mental flexibility and adaptability, and as we engage in activities to develop this capacity, we exponentially strengthen and increase our resilience. Thus, it’s our second key.

Earlier, I mentioned solo traveling in multiple countries, and the challenges this can bring – occasionally severe, once or twice life-threatening. (I’m still here.) As I often don’t speak the local language nor fully understand the customs, dealing with such circumstances requires a great deal of cognitive flexibility. I’m compelled to think as broadly as possible, often quite differently than my norm, in order to solve problems along the way.

In the recent pandemic, people of the world collectively experienced trauma, shock, and a profound change in living with multiple challenges. We’re only now beginning to recover from this, and perhaps haven’t fully acknowledged its psychological impact as we rush toward normal patterns of living. This extraordinary and prolonged event, on a global scale, has prompted an enormous amount of research – and required great mental flexibility from each of us.

Resilience as a protective factor against distress has neurobiological factors – our genetic makeup, for example, and specific neurochemicals and neural pathways – as well as psychosocial, in which cognitive flexibility lies alongside other well-known elements such as social support, optimism, and active coping skills (Iacoviello & Charney, 2020). Cognitive flexibility is part of the brain’s executive function, along with several other components, allowing us to think in diverse and even contradictory ways about the same problem or circumstance.

We also speak of psychological flexibility, most often defined as emotional adaptation and regulation; psychological flexibility contributes to resilience in maintaining our core sense of wellbeing in times of adversity, so that we can continue to function and pursue valued goals (Kashdan et al., 2020). Both definitions, cognitive and psychological, apply closely to resilience, and so I’m often using the all-encompassing term, mental flexibility.

In a study of 252 adults with chronic pain and associated anxiety, psychological flexibility was a significant factor in their resilience for symptom management and daily functioning (Gentili et al., 2019); the association of psychological flexibility with mental health in parents caring for disabled children was identified in a review of 26 relevant studies (Gur & Reich, 2023). Unsurprisingly, a plethora of recent resilience studies are focused on the Covid-19 pandemic; in one such, psychological flexibility was associated with resilience in lower depression, anxiety, and insomnia (McCracken et al., 2021).

Physical exercise, which we’ll explore more in our final key focused on body care, is directly related to cognitive flexibility – “move a muscle, change a thought,” as the adage goes – in its increased blood flow to the brain and engagement of neural impulse and chemistry. This can also be found in forms of moving meditation, such as yoga, taijiquan, or qigong, which has been connected to creativity including creative thinking (Shetkar et al., 2019). Interestingly, Shukla and Heath (2022) demonstrated that even a single bout of exercise not only improves cognitive flexibility in the short-term but has persistent effects.

Intriguingly, benefits of virtual and/or augmented reality to mental health are being discovered; there is little question that the speed and detailed action of gaming – playing computer-based or other electronic games – requires a high degree of cognitive flexibility. In a recent study of VR-simulated visual hallucinations (Rastelli et al., 2022), cognitive flexibility was measurably enhanced – and we can only wonder at the ways in which technology might develop to boost human resilience.

So, how can we increase our mental flexibility?

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Exercises:

For mental flexibility, diversity is the essential ingredient. Begin by doing things, in any area of your life, differently than you did before: change your style, your path to work, other habits. Watch movies from other countries, with subtitles; read books written elsewhere, in translation. Have a considerate conversation with someone who, in some way, thinks or lives very differently than you do.

Travel, especially solo, making all your own plans and dealing with any problems that arise – including communication without the benefit of language. Or, travel to a nearby area in nature, and explore, again solo if possible (and if it’s safe)  – as you’ll have many more opportunities for flexibility and adaptability without the support, and distraction, of others.

Begin a class in a topic unfamiliar to you, ideally with other learners (rather than independently online). Beginner’s mind is of necessity a flexible one, and while we may be highly competent in our work and other areas, becoming a beginner again means laying down new neural pathways in the brain – the biological definition of mental flexibility.

Take up a new form of exercise or other movement, including moving meditation such as yoga or taijiquan. As we’ve seen, movement equals creativity equals mental flexibility – and if it’s a form new to you, all the better.

Study multiple languages, if language learning appeals to you; with an app, you can vary among them, a different one (or two) each day, for a high degree of flexibility (though you aren’t likely to become fluent this way!). Even if only two, choose languages that are not only unfamiliar to you but linguistically far from your native tongue – and also from each other. Get your mind jumping through some hoops in this way.

Think strategically. Learn chess – or Chinese chess, mahjong, backgammon, or any other board game of strategy in which you must think 6 moves ahead. Similarly, if a gamer, don’t just stick with the same game in order to master it, but also play electronic games unfamiliar to you and of a different style than your usual, in a broad range.

Debate with yourself. Select a controversial topic, and develop 4-5 points to support the view opposite to that of your own, in detail. Consider them deeply, and refute them intelligently rather than emotionally.

Write poetry; learn to read music, play an instrument.

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References:

Gentili C, Rickardsson J, Zetterqvist V et al. (2019). Psychological Flexibility as a Resilience Factor in Individuals with Chronic Pain. Frontiers in Psychology 10:2016. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02016

Gur A and Reich A (2023). Psychological flexibility of parents of children with disabilities: A systematic literature review. Research in Developmental Disabilities 136:104490. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2023.104490

Iacoviello BM and Charney DS (2020). Cognitive and behavioral components of resilience to stress. In: Chen A (ed), Stress Resilience (pp. 23-31). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-813983-7.00002-1

Kashdan TB, Disabato DJ, Goodman FR et al. (2020). Understanding psychological flexibility: A multimethod exploration of pursuing valued goals despite the presence of distress. Psychological Assessment,32:9, 829-850. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0000834

McCracken LM, Badinlou F, Buhrman M et al. (2021). The role of psychological flexibility in the context of COVID-19: Associations with depression, anxiety, and insomnia. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science 19, 28-35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2020.11.003

Rastelli C, Greco A, Kenett YN et al. (2022). Simulated visual hallucinations in virtual reality enhance cognitive flexibility. Scientific Reports 12, 4027. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-08047-w

Shetkar RM, Hankey A, Nagendra HR, et al. (2019). Association between cyclic meditation and creative cognition: Optimizing connectivity between the frontal and parietal lobes. International Journal of Yoga 12:1, 29. https://doi.org/10.4103/ijoy.ijoy_26_17   

Shukla D and Heath M (2022). A Single Bout of Exercise Provides a Persistent Benefit to Cognitive Flexibility. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport 93:3, 516-527. https://doi.org/10.1080/02701367.2021.1873902