Flexibility as an Approach to Eliminating NST

 Is openness to experience the same as flexible thinking? Probably not, but closedness to experience is certainly farther away than openness. Although the research reported below targets older adults, I would guess that the same process works for younger adults too.

"Abstract: The present study inves­ti­gated whether an inter­ven­tion aimed to increase cog­ni­tive abil­ity in older adults also changes the per­son­al­ity trait of open­ness to expe­ri­ence. Older adults com­pleted a 16-week pro­gram in induc­tive rea­son­ing train­ing sup­ple­mented by weekly cross­word and Sudoku puz­zles. Changes in open­ness to expe­ri­ence were mod­eled across four assess­ments over 30 weeks using latent growth curve mod­els. Results indi­cate that par­tic­i­pants in the inter­ven­tion con­di­tion increased in the trait of open­ness com­pared with a wait­list con­trol group. The study is one of the first to demon­strate that per­son­al­ity traits can change through nonpsy­chophar­mo­co­log­i­cal interventions."
From SharpBrains.com

For example: If you're locked into negative self-talk, learning inductive reasoning (aka problem-solving thinking),  doing cross word puzzles, learning Spanish or kick boxing, might bring about the similar flexibility of thinking and openness to experience. And, encourage you to be more hang loose, flexible enough in your thinking to say to yourself, "Let go of this silly waste of my time; negative self-talk. I'm smart, a realist, and though not perfect, I'm a sharp cookie. Give NST a break, give it up and move on." Change creates change. New experiences create new perceptions. Acquisition of new habits helps eliminate old habits.