Mental Agility
Mental Agility is an important and necessary attribute in the pursuit of sustainable high performance. Its development is enhanced through a polyvagal informed paradigm.
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Across all professional crafts and domains a common element involved in the pursuit of sustainable high performance is the need to be able to adapt and respond. Particularly within high demand situations and high consequence environments, there is an inherent continuous change in circumstances. The greater the demands and the higher the consequences, the more this reality emerges. This is especially the case amongst those professionals for whom the health and wellbeing of others is a consequence of their ability to perform their respective tasks.
There are many professional domains which encounter these elements, including healthcare professionals. In order to pursue one’s fullest potential within these crafts, it is necessary to push the limits of comfort. It is essential to experience situations which are slightly outside one’s present level of ability. Without doing so, there is little chance for developing progressive proficiency in craft specific skills and the ability to perform at the limits of potential. These scenarios also provide the opportunity for these individuals to develop their internal attributes. Within the paradigm of The Practices of the Healthcare Athlete this corresponds to developing the polyvagal informed mind-based and body-based skills which allow for alignment of physiology and psychology.
Within these high demand professions, the need to adapt and respond to continuously changing high stakes scenarios requires several characteristics. These include the ability to maintain a measure of control over thoughts and emotions; calm; maintenance of an open mind; the ability to consider various options; awareness of self, others, and the surrounding situation; capacity to focus on the task at hand; and others. Taken together, these important and various traits are often referred to as mental agility. In essence, when one develops these characteristics, it becomes possible to encounter evolving situations which are inherently high demand and maintain a level of control and influence over one’s biology. This allows for the optimal alignment between physiology and psychology, which is a necessary step in the pursuit of sustainable high performance.
The attribute of mental agility is important across all levels of situational demands. Even within relatively low consequence scenarios, it is important to maintain a measure of mental agility so that it is possible to more optimally adapt to changing circumstances. This becomes particularly crucial as the nature of the situation becomes of greater demand and consequence, ultimately reaching its highest level when life is at stake.
Given the importance of mental agility within high demand professions, it is important to more fully consider the determining factors of mental agility and, based upon this understanding, develop a recognition of how best to develop this critical attribute. The remainder of this article will consider the determinants of mental agility and, subsequently, strategies for its development.
The characteristics of mental agility have been described above. When considered from a polyvagal informed perspective, many of these characteristics naturally emerge from ventral vagal stabilized states. The ability to maintain calm, an open mind, awareness, a measure of control over thoughts and feelings, and the ability to consider various options are all associated with ventral vagal states. Moreover, when we shift into sympathetic and dorsal vagal states we lose capacity across each of these traits. This recognition leads to the understanding that ventral vagal stabilized states are necessary in order to optimize mental agility. In addition, the degree to which we maintain our mental agility is dependent upon as well as being an indicator of our underlying biological state.
Understanding the intimate relationship between ventral vagal stabilized states and mental agility is crucial in order to better comprehend how this attribute may be dynamic under various circumstances and how we can best optimize our mental agility, particularly when it is most needed during high stakes situations. As described above, and in other articles, the pursuit of sustainable high performance requires that we intentionally place ourselves in challenging situations. Inherently this will provide cues of uncertainty, risk, and threat which will naturally lead to shifts in our biology towards sympathetic and dorsal vagal states. Emerging from this understanding is the recognition that mental agility is dependent not only on ventral vagal stabilized states, but the ability to increase nervous system flexibility. As discussed in past articles, the ability to experience cues of uncertainty, risk, and threat and the associated shifts in biology and readily identify such shifts and recover back to ventral vagal stabilized states is associated with greater nervous system flexibility.
It can now be appreciated that in order to pursue sustainable high performance, it is necessary to increase mental agility. This is then dependent upon ventral vagal stabilized states and nervous system flexibility. This understanding directly leads to the optimal means through which to train mental agility. Specifically, this relates to developing the skills and strategies of the polyvagal informed toolbox and progressively applying these skills within high demand and high stakes situations. Doing so trains the necessary skills and strategies and the ability to express nervous system flexibility in the face of cues of uncertainty, risk, and threat and the resulting shifts in biological states.
An additional important consideration which emerges from the polyvagal informed toolbox is the necessity to implement body-based skills, particularly during situations in which our biology has shifted into sympathetic and/or dorsal vagal states. As illustrated in previous articles (and will be the focus of an upcoming article), mind-based skills are not sufficient on their own to shift our biological state out of sympathetic and/or dorsal vagal states. It is first necessary to increase ventral vagal stabilization through body-based skills such that there is adequate available cognitive capacity to utilize cognitive mind-based skills.
The polyvagal informed consideration of mental agility provides important insights into the nature of this necessary attribute as well as actionable strategies to increase the degree of mental agility we are able to express. Given the interplay between mental agility and ventral vagal stabilized states, it can also be appreciated that the extent of this attribute which we may express is dynamic and variable over time.
The development of the necessary skills to enhance mental agility is a required factor in the pursuit of sustainable high performance. By implementing the mind-based and body-based skills and strategies of the polyvagal informed toolbox, we are best able to optimize our degree of mental agility. To learn more, including about polyvagal informed coaching for healthcare professionals and others in high demand domains, visit www.darindavidson.com.
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