Let’s face it, life doesn’t always unfold the way we plan. Some days, everything flows, and on other days, a single change can throw us off track. The difference between staying stuck and finding your footing again often comes down to one thing: cognitive flexibility, your brain’s ability to adapt, shift, and see new possibilities when things don’t go as expected.
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From a neuroscience perspective, cognitive flexibility is part of the brain’s executive functions, which help us plan, focus, and respond to change.1 When this ability is strong, it supports emotional balance, creativity, and resilience, helping us navigate uncertainty with clarity and calm. You can strengthen your brain’s flexibility and emotional resilience.
Most of us have moments when our thoughts get stuck on repeat, especially when life throws something unexpected our way. That’s where cognitive flexibility comes in. It’s the mental skill that helps you shift gears, see things from another angle, and find new ways forward when the old approach stops working.
At re-origin, we focus on helping people rebuild that adaptability through hands-on, science-based neuroplasticity techniques. It’s less about forcing change and more about teaching your brain to relax its grip so you can meet challenges with a clearer mind, steadier emotions, and a renewed sense of possibility.
Explore the re-origin program to learn how you can strengthen your brain’s flexibility and emotional resilience.
How to Improve Cognitive Flexibility (+ Video)
Building a more flexible mind isn’t about forcing yourself to “think positive” or simply trying harder. It’s about training your brain to pause, notice, and respond differently when life doesn’t go as planned. The good news is that, just like any other skill, cognitive or mental flexibility can be strengthened through consistent practice.1
At re-origin, we use neuroplasticity-based tools to help people do exactly that. Through short, structured exercises, you can begin rewiring old response patterns and teaching your nervous system a new sense of safety and adaptability.
Below, discover how small daily changes can help rewire your brain for greater adaptability, calm, and flexibility.
1. Practice Perspective Shifts
The next time you catch yourself tightening up in a stressful moment, pause and get curious. Try asking, “What else could be true here?” or “Is there another way to understand this?”
Questions like these gently guide your brain out of its threat loop and back toward calm thinking and flexible perspective-taking.2 That simple pause helps your brain step out of the automatic threat response and move toward curiosity and problem-solving instead.2
2. Introduce Small Changes Daily (The Power of Novelty)
Even small acts of novelty reshape your brain. Take a new walking route, try a different breakfast, or switch the hand you brush your teeth with. These micro-adjustments signal safety in changing the foundation of cognitive flexibility.3 (This is the same principle explored in the video above; a great resource to see this idea in action.)
3. Use Mind-Body Practices
Grounding, breathwork, and gentle movement all help calm the limbic system, which is the part of the brain responsible for emotional reactivity. When the body feels safe, the mind naturally becomes more adaptable.
This short video from re-origin, founder Ben Ahrens demonstrates a simple, science-backed way to bring your nervous system back into balance, the essential first step toward greater flexibility and focus.
By practicing nervous system resets like this, you teach your brain that calm and safety are accessible at any moment. Over time, that sense of internal stability makes mental flexibility much easier to achieve.4
4. Engage in Play and Creativity
Play unlocks flexibility. Activities like painting, dancing, or journaling invite your brain to explore, imagine, and innovate. They activate curiosity, a powerful antidote to rigidity.5
5. Try Brain Retraining Techniques
Programs like re-origin use guided neuroplasticity exercises to retrain how your brain responds to stress and uncertainty. Over time, this helps restore emotional balance and cognitive flexibility allowing you to navigate life with ease and confidence.
Definition of Cognitive Flexibility
Life changes fast, plans fall through, conversations shift, problems appear unexpectedly. Cognitive flexibility helps you adjust. It’s your brain’s way of taking in what’s happening and finding a new approach when the old one stops working.
From a neuroscience perspective, cognitive flexibility sits within the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s mental control center.1 A flexible brain can move between ideas or emotions with ease, while an inflexible one tends to replay the same loops even when they no longer help. Over time, that rigidity can lead to stress, fatigue, or burnout.
At re-origin, we view cognitive flexibility as a trainable skill. Through neuroplasticity, you can teach your system to move from rigidity to resilience, one small shift at a time.
Why is Cognitive Flexibility So Important? (Benefits of Cognitive Flexibility)
Cognitive flexibility touches almost everything we do. How we handle change, relate to others, solve problems, and recover from stress. It’s what allows your mind to adapt instead of resisting when life shifts unexpectedly.
When your brain can move easily between ideas or emotional states, it supports nearly every part of your wellbeing.
- Emotional balance: You can pause, notice what’s happening, and respond rather than react.
- Problem-solving and creativity: You see more than one path forward, which opens space for innovation and insight.
- Resilience: You bounce back more quickly after challenges because your brain can find alternate routes.
- Connection: You understand different perspectives, which strengthens empathy and relationships.
When cognitive flexibility is low, the mind can become rigid, repeating the same thoughts or stuck responses, even when they are no longer helpful. That rigidity often shows up as anxiety, frustration, or burnout.
The good news is that this flexibility isn’t fixed. Your brain can learn it again. Through consistent neuroplasticity-based practices, such as those taught at re-origin, you can train your nervous system to shift more smoothly between stress and calm, replacing old reactive loops with patterns of clarity, curiosity, and confidence.
Cognitive flexibility doesn’t just help you think differently; it enables you to live differently with more openness, steadiness, and choice.
Cognitive Flexibility Theory
The Cognitive Flexibility Theory, first introduced by Spiro and Jehng in 1990, suggests that our ability to apply knowledge in new ways depends on how flexibly we organize and access information.
Rather than relying on fixed rules or single explanations, flexible thinkers can reinterpret what they know to make sense of new or complex situations. This skill is central to how people learn, solve problems, and adapt in dynamic environments.3
From a neuroplasticity standpoint, this theory aligns perfectly with what we now know about the brain: that mental adaptability grows through repeated exposure to change, curiosity, and varied experience. Each time you challenge a rigid belief or try something new, you strengthen your brain’s capacity to think more fluidly.
Cognitive Flexibility Test
Psychologists often measure cognitive flexibility through structured tasks, such as the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) or the Trail Making Test, which assess how quickly someone can shift strategies or adjust to changing rules.
For example, in the WCST, participants must sort cards by color, number, or shape, but the sorting rule changes without warning. The test measures how easily a person can adapt once the pattern shifts.
In everyday life, you can think of it this way: when plans fall through and you’re able to regroup quickly, that’s your brain’s flexibility at work.
Psychologists often measure cognitive flexibility through structured tasks, such as the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) or the Trail Making Test, which assess how quickly someone can shift strategies or adjust to changing rules.
For example, in the WCST, participants must sort cards by color, number, or shape, but the sorting rule changes without warning. The test measures how easily a person can adapt once the pattern shifts.
In everyday life, you can think of it this way: when plans fall through and you’re able to regroup quickly, that’s your brain’s flexibility at work.
Online Cognitive Flexibility Test: How Flexible Is Your Thinking?
While this isn’t a medical diagnosis, this brief cognitive flexibility test can be used to reflect on how adaptable your thoughts and reactions tend to be.
Please note: This self-assessment is not intended to establish a physician-patient relationship, to replace the services of a trained physician or health care professional, or to otherwise be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The aim of this quiz is to provide education about the condition. By using this self-assessment, you acknowledge that you’ve read and agree with this statement and agree to re-origin’s Terms & Conditions.
Instructions
To better understand your level of cognitive flexibility, follow these steps:
- Read each question carefully and reflect on your experiences over the past few months.
- Select the answer that best describes how often each statement feels true for you:
- Never +0
- Very rarely +1
- Rarely +2
- Occasionally +3
- Frequently +4
- Always +5
- Assign the corresponding points (0–5) to each response and total your score at the end.
- Refer to the Scoring Guide below to see where you fall on the cognitive flexibility spectrum, and how brain retraining can support greater adaptability.
Cognitive Flexibility Test Questions
- How often do you find it difficult to see a situation from someone else’s point of view, even when you disagree?
- How often do you struggle to adjust your plans when something unexpected happens?
- How often do you get stuck thinking there’s only one way to look at things?
- How often does your first reaction to stress linger, even after you try to step back?
- How often do you resist changing your opinion, even when new information appears?
- How often do you default to old habits, even when they aren’t working?
- How often do you feel blocked or stuck when facing problems that require creativity?
- How often do you find it hard to recover emotionally after plans fall apart?
- How often does your body stay tense even after you try to shift your mindset?
- How often do you feel frustrated or anxious when faced with uncertainty or change?
Scoring Guide
High Cognitive Flexibility (0–16 points)
Your answers indicate you have high cognitive flexibility. You adapt easily to change and recover quickly from stress. You’re able to reframe challenges, see multiple perspectives, and stay balanced even when things don’t go as planned. Your nervous system has learned to shift out of protection mode with ease.
Brain retraining can help you maintain and strengthen this natural adaptability. Learn more about re-origin’s brain retraining program.
Moderate Cognitive Flexibility (17–33 points)
Your answers indicate you have moderate cognitive flexibility. You show moments of adaptability and openness, but may still get caught in rigid patterns when stress or uncertainty builds. Sometimes your brain moves fluidly between perspectives, and other times it feels locked in.
With consistent brain retraining, you can increase your capacity to reframe and respond calmly until greater cognitive flexibility becomes your default. Learn more about re-origin’s brain retraining program.
Low Cognitive Flexibility (34–50 points)
Your answers indicate you have low cognitive flexibility. You may find it difficult to adapt to change or shift your perspective when faced with challenges. This usually reflects a nervous system that’s stuck in protection mode, trying to keep you safe.
But there’s hope: Through brain retraining, you can help your brain recognize safety again, rewire reactive patterns, and restore your natural flexibility and calm. Learn more about re-origin’s brain retraining program.
Cognitive Inflexibility: Understanding the Opposite of a Flexible Brain
Suppose cognitive flexibility is the ability to shift gears and adapt. In that case, cognitive inflexibility is what happens when the brain gets stuck in one mode, replaying the same thoughts, reactions, or behaviors even when they’re no longer helpful.
It can manifest in subtle ways: overthinking decisions, feeling uneasy when routines change, or struggling to let go of a certain point of view. In more pronounced forms, cognitive inflexibility contributes to rigid thinking patterns, emotional reactivity, and difficulty coping with uncertainty.
What Causes Low Cognitive Flexibility?
When the brain’s emotional center (the limbic system) takes over from the prefrontal cortex, logic and perspective often fade into the background. In these moments, the brain is prioritizing safety over exploration, which is exactly what happens in cognitive inflexibility. It’s not a flaw in your thinking; it’s your nervous system trying to protect you.
What we often call “rigid” or “stuck” thinking started as a smart adaptation, a way your brain learned to stay safe during periods of stress, trauma, or chronic uncertainty. Over time, however, those neural pathways can become overactive, causing your system to react to small changes as if they were significant threats.
So, low cognitive flexibility doesn’t mean something is “wrong” with you. It simply means your brain has learned to stick to familiar pathways. Over time, these well-worn routes can become automatic, making it harder to adapt when life changes unexpectedly.
Causes of Cognitive Inflexibility
There are several common reasons this can happen:
1. Chronic Stress or Anxiety
Long-term stress trains your brain to look for what might go wrong. Over time, that habit crowds out the space needed for clear thinking or new ideas.
2. Past Trauma or Emotional Overload
Experiences that once felt unsafe or overwhelming can cause the brain to associate change with danger. Inflexibility becomes a kind of protection, your nervous system’s way of keeping you in known territory.
3. Fatigue or Burnout
When your mind and body are tired, it’s harder to shift perspective. The brain begins to narrow its focus just to get through the day. Real recovery (not just sleep, but true downtime) helps bring that openness back.
4. Habit Loops and Over-Reliance on Routine
Habits keep life moving smoothly, but too much routine can quietly dull your brain’s sense of curiosity. A slight change, a new walk, a new sound, a new texture awakens those neural pathways again.
5. Chemical or Neurological Factors
Sometimes low flexibility isn’t about mindset at all; it’s about biology. When neurotransmitters like dopamine or serotonin are out of balance, the brain can become stuck in certain patterns. Understanding that is the first step toward retraining it.
6. Overactive Limbic System
When the brain’s alarm center (the amygdala) is overactive, it can override the rational prefrontal regions, creating a cycle of reactivity and rigidity.
Cognitive Flexibility Is Within Reach With Brain Retraining
The hopeful truth is that patterns of cognitive inflexibility aren’t permanent. Thanks to neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to form new connections and flexibility can be retrained. Through gentle, consistent practices such as mindfulness, grounding, and brain retraining techniques like those taught in the re-origin program, your brain can begin to build new neural pathways that associate change with safety instead of danger.
You don’t have to force it. By calmly showing your nervous system, again and again, that it’s safe to soften, the brain naturally learns to loosen its grip. With time, adaptability returns not by pushing harder, but by letting your system remember what calm and curiosity feel like.
If you’d like to explore this further, our article on How to Rewire Your Brain: 8 Effective Strategies for Lasting Change walks through practical ways to apply neuroplasticity in daily life helping your system gradually relearn calm, curiosity, and resilience.
At re-origin, our program is designed to guide you through this process step by step, helping you calm an overactive stress response and build the pathways that support calm, clarity, and creative thinking. Learn more about the program.
