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just as the carefully calibrated cinema lens facilitates seamless shifting from one object of focus to another, cognitive shifting allows the brain to redirect awareness from one fixation towards another. so if your mind spends more time in the muddled middle than in focus, near or far, it indicates a need for improved cognitive flexibility. like the body can be stretched, coaxed into pliability, so can the mind.
    according to cognitive neuroscientist dr. wilma koutstaal, “mental flexibility is really about adaptability and our ability to shift our thoughts between the abstract and specific in order to respond effectively to any given situation[…] it can enable us to be more effective problem solvers and problem finders, helping to foster creativity and innovation and allowing us to identify and realize promising opportunity.”
    change demands an agile mind.
    how does one stretch their brain, strengthen their executive function to lead change, or at least not drown amidst it?
    step away. make soup. learn something new. pay close attention to what you think and say and challenge what doesn’t serve you. disrupt routines with novel twists: a new route home, something different for breakfast, an evening walk instead of a morning run. pulse focused thought and diffuse attention, the being and doing. balance control and spontaneity.
    dare to let things go.