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Throughout history, some people have chosen to take huge risks. What can we learn from their experiences?
Extreme activities, such as polar exploration, deep-sea diving, mountaineering, space faring, and long-distance sailing, create extraordinary physical and psychological demands. The physical risks, such as freezing, drowning, suffocating or starving, are usually obvious. But the psychological pressures are what make extreme environments truly daunting.
The ability to deal with fear and anxiety is, of course, essential. But people in extremes may endure days or weeks of monotony between the moments of terror. Solo adventurers face loneliness and the risk of psychological breakdown, while those whose mission involves long-term confinement with a small group may experience stressful interpersonal conflict. All of that is on top of the physical hardships like sleep deprivation, pain, hunger, and squalor.
What can the rest of us learn from those hardy individuals who survive and thrive in extreme places? We believe there are many psychological lessons from hard places that can help us all in everyday life. They include the following.
Cultivate focus.
Focus – the ability to pay attention to the right things and ignore all distractions, for as long as it takes – is a fundamental skill. Laser-like concentration is obviously essential during hazardous moves on a rock face or a spacewalk. Focus also helps when enduring prolonged hardship, such as on punishing polar treks. A good strategy for dealing with hardship is to focus tightly on the next bite-sized action rather than dwelling on the entire daunting mission.
The ability to focus attention is a much-underestimated skill in everyday life. It helps you get things done and tolerate discomfort. And it is rewarding: when someone is utterly absorbed in a demanding and stretching activity, they experience a satisfying psychological state called ‘flow’ (or being ‘in the zone’). A person in flow feels in control, forgets everyday anxieties, and tends to perform well at the task in hand. The good news is that we can all become better at focusing our attention. One scientifically-proven method is through the regular practice of meditation.
Value ‘knowhow’
Focus helps when tackling difficult tasks, but you also need expertise – high levels of skills and knowledge – to perform those tasks well. Expertise underpins effective planning and preparation and enables informed and measured judgements about risks. In high-risk situations experts make more accurate decisions than novices, who may become paralysed with indecision or take rapid, panicky actions that make things worse.
Expertise also helps people in extreme environments to manage stress. Stress occurs when the demands on you exceed your actual or perceived capacity to cope. An effective way of reducing stress, in everyday life as well as extremes, is by increasing your ability to cope by developing high levels of skills and experience.
Developing expertise requires hard work and persistence. But it’s worth the investment – the dividends include better assessment of risk, better decision-making, and less vulnerability to stress.
Getting enough sleep is often difficult in extreme environments, where the physical demands can deprive people of sleep, disrupt their circadian rhythms, or both.
Bad sleep has a range of adverse effects on mental and physical wellbeing, including impairing alertness, judgment, memory, decision-making, and mood. Unsurprisingly, it makes people much more likely to have accidents.
Many of us are chronically sleep deprived in everyday life: we go to bed late, get up early, and experience low-quality sleep in between. Most of us would feel better if we slept more and slept better. So don’t feel guilty about spending more time in bed.
Experts in extreme environments often make use of tactical napping. Research has shown that napping is an effective way of alleviating the adverse consequences of bad sleep. It’s also enjoyable.
Be tolerant and tolerable.
Adventures in extreme environments often require small groups of people to be trapped together for months at a time. Even the best of friends can get on each other’s nerves under such circumstances. Social conflict can build rapidly over petty issues. Groups split apart, individuals are ostracised, and simmering tensions may even explode into violence.
When forming a team for an extreme mission, as much emphasis should be placed on team members’ interpersonal skills as on their specialist skills or physical capability. Research shows that team-building exercises – though often mocked – can be an effective way of enhancing teamwork.
Effective teams are alert to mounting tensions. Individuals keep the little annoyances in perspective and respect others’ need for privacy. To survive and thrive in demanding situations, people must learn to be tolerant and tolerable. The same is true in everyday life.
Cultivate resilience
Extreme environments are dangerous places where people endure great hardship. They may suffer terrifying accidents or watch others die. Such experiences can be traumatic and, in some cases, cause long-term damage to mental health.
But this is by no means inevitable. Research has shown that many individuals emerge from extreme experiences with greater resilience and a better understanding of their own strengths. By coping with life-threatening situations, they become more self-confident and more appreciative of life.
Resilience is a common quality in everyday life. We tend to underestimate our own ability to cope with stress, and overestimate its adverse consequences. Some stress is good for us and we should not try to avoid it completely.
Featured image credit: Mount Everest, by tpsdave. Public Domain via Pixabay.
Even before I had finished reading Bubble Trouble by Tom Percival to the kids I knew this was a book we were going to have LOTS of fun with.
Have you ever had great fun playing with a friend but discovered things have got out of control when you try to out-do each other? That what was a shared and enjoyable activity became something competitive and a little threatening?
Bubble Trouble explores exactly this scenario, with two best friends who like nothing more than blowing bubbles together. In their desire to blow the biggest bubble, they become very inventive but some skulduggery also sneaks in. Will their friendship survive their determination to outplay each other?
Percival’s lovely book thoughtfully and playfully explores the up- and downsides of competition and the value of teamwork. It also acknowledges that we don’t always learn from our mistakes straight away, something I haven’t seen often acknowledged in picture books. The “big issues” are hidden carefully in lots of delightfulness; the illustrations are soft and sweet, and there are lots and lots of flaps to play with. Percival has worked wonders with capturing that magic sheen of bubbles without resorting to foil or silver but rather just clever use of pastels and white.
A good-natured and honest exploration of some of the trials and tribulations of friendship, Bubble Trouble offers lots of room for discussion and a great excuse to play.
So yes, having shared Bubble Trouble lots of playing with bubbles was called for. We thought we’d try something different and so I taught the girls how to breath out bubbles, big and beautiful bubbles. Who wants to breath fire when you can breathe out bubbles?
We used this recipe to make our bubble mixture:
1.5 litres of tap water
250ml of Fairy washing up detergent
250ml of cornflour (yes, corn flour isn’t a liquid, but we used our measuring jug and filled it to the 250ml mark with the corn flour)
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp glycerine (easily found in Boots/a chemist’s, probably in the sore throat section)
Once the bubble mixture was all stirred together, we left it for 24 hours. Everything I’ve read says that this stage is really important (though we haven’t checked what difference it makes ourselves).
To breathe out bubbles here’s what you need to do:
1. Dip your hands into a bowl of tap water.
2. Dip your hands into your bowl of bubble mixture. (The corn flour will probably have settled at the bottom of your mixture. This didn’t seem to be a problem)
3. Rub your palms together smoothly and slowly a couple of times.
4. Open out your hands to form a rough circle: Your fingertips and wrists/bottom of thumbs will remain touching each other, and you should see a film of bubble mixture form between your two hands.
5. Gently blow through the opening between your two hands…..
6. Gasp at your bubble blowing abilities!
You can also use this mixture to blow bubbles through a circle made using just your first finger and thumb (first make a fist, then slowly open out your finger/thumb before blowing), and also to make ENORMOUS bubbles using a home made bubble wand.
For the homemade bubble wand you’ll need two lengths of dowelling. Screw an eye screw into each end and then put a large loop of string between the two eyes. It’s helpful to add a small weight such as a threaded button or a washer onto on side of your string loop.
Dip your string into your bubble mixture (all the way, up to the start of the wooden rods), lift gently out and move the rods apart. You’ll see a film appear between the strings and then if you wave them from one side to the other you’ll create amazing bubble tunnels.
Other activities which you could pair with Bubble Trouble include:
Exploring the free activity pack to go with Bubble Trouble, downloadable from here. The pack includes colouring in, spot the difference and a different bubble recipe to try.
Reading the marvellous Bubble Trouble by Margaret Mahy, illustrated by Polly Dunbar. We reviewed it here (with a different bubble juice recipe, but we think our new recipe is better).
What are your favourite books which feature bubbles?
Disclosure: We received a free review copy of Bubble Trouble from the publisher.
4 Comments on Bubble Trouble by Tom Percival (and how to breathe bubbles instead of fire), last added: 9/22/2014
I grew up playing Bubble Bobble on Nintendo and can’t help but this of that game when reading about this book. It looks like an interesting take on competition. Thanks for the recommendation…I will definitely have to pick up this book!
Melissa @ Honey Bee Books said, on 9/21/2014 9:12:00 PM
Those are some pretty amazing bubbles!
Pauline Chandler said, on 9/21/2014 11:07:00 PM
I love all these ideas for bubble play! The book looks great!
Tom Percival said, on 9/21/2014 11:51:00 PM
Thanks for the in depth review and fantastic activities! I’ll try the bubble breathing with my boys. And Catherine, I was a big fan of Bubble Bobble too, I must have been subconsciously influenced!
There are very important factors when it comes to being any kind of writer. It covers a whole range of books. As everyone know putting together a children's book has many people involved. It is a team effort that takes many years to master and complete. For the next three days I will take you all on a journey into this event. It is a huge gathering of people in the children book industry and covers a very important idea that every author has to do. This is called networking and creating a platform. The post will be updated daily from 1-27-2012 to 1-29-2012. Each day I will give you guys an inside into this business. So get ready for a wild ride. I blog my experience on this journey enjoy.
Day 1 Writer's Intensive
Today started just like an ordinary gray day, the rain tapped the roads and my journey had began. Strong winds and heavy rains very strange weather for New York State especially in the middle of winter. Only two snow storms so far and that it. I took the train in from my home town. New York was wonderful like usual. The rains were strong at first but as the day went on it all changed. I started the day psyched to finally have the SCBWI conference, I could not believe it came so fast. Where does this path called time really go? Does it just vanish in a puff of smoke or where does it end up? So back to business the day started with registration and breakfast not much of a filling one but it was good enough Coffee and Bagels the real New York local food. My nerves shaking and my hands gasping the 500 hundred words we were supposed to bring here. Hundreds of questions inside my hands? Who will I meet? What will the professional say? Is my manuscript good enough? At registration our tables were given to us? I got Table 17 and 18. When I was getting my food a strange thing happened the hot water was gone. I am usually a tea drinker, but I needed that jolt, I needed that caffeine. I wanted something hot but it was the bitter black stuff we call coffee. I guess many tea drinkers came here? Oh well I guess I had no choice. I found my table, my mind moving and my body shaking, it was it, the moment I have been waiting for, another year had passed. The session started by a panel on voice. Three editors spoke. What is voice? Each of them had there own view. What I can tell you guys is it needs to be fresh. It needs to be authentic. It has to stand out from the crowd. The editor panel spoke about the kind of books they buy. Here is just a very quick summary: Characters have to have personality, you have to get into your character's mind, and the story has to stand out for the individual editor and always make sure to do you research. You have to be in the moment and write the best story you can. Then the time began my table had eight writers at it and one professional. We each were given 12 minutes for our 500 words. The critique process is very important and it is great to have a group of your own. The setting here was much more family like. Every manuscript was discussed by everyone. I have to say I got a lot out of it and had many wonderful suggestions and commends from both critiques. There is no need for
1 Comments on SCBWI Winter Conference 2012 ( The Heart Children Books), last added: 1/28/2012
Thank you for sharing your inner thoughts. I think writers and illustrators walk through the emotional insecurity path at some point at an overwhelming, large conference.
Last summer, I felt the layer of intense fog the minute I entered the hotel. I brushed off the nerves because my excuse was that it was my first conference.
The fun part was meeting all the new strangers and learning more about your career.
Shari: I have never met an illustrating team. Have you been working together very long?
Cherish/Benjamin: We have been working together on illustration and design projects for about 11 years now, seven of those years as a married couple. However, our favorite joint projects are definitely children’s books. We met at Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design when Cherish was coming in as a Freshman and Benjamin was graduating as a Senior. We immediately became friends since we had so much in common from our Christian faith to our love for children’s book illustration.
Shari: Marriage is tough enough, so I would think working together would be difficult.
Cherish/Benjamin: It was a little challenging at first, but as we worked together as a team we learned ways to better communicate. We try to continually respect each other's professional opinions and not take things to heart. There is art and then there is business, when we work together we have a rule that “the best idea is boss,” no matter who came up with it. Marriage is not tough when both people make a decision to put their partner’s needs ahead of their own. When couples make an effort to serve one another, things flow more smoothly. We also have been through many life and death situations together, so when you look at the big picture, some things matter more than others. We always aim for excellence, but we don’t sweat the details, especially when doing so can create hurt and dissension.
Shari: How do you work together? Do you have the same vision for each work? Does one do the background and the other the characters, or what?
Cherish/Benjamin: When we approach a new assignment, we look at the entire challenge conceptually, ranging from a technical perspective and considering the target market as well. After we spend time brainstorming together, we each will start sketching out our ideas for particular scenes. When we come together to share our concepts, we will often look for ways to enhance each other’s idea. It is a fun way to start a project and is always full of energy and enthusiasm.
After our client approves the sketches, Benjamin will work on character development by creating model sheets based on the clues in the story. His ability to turn forms around in his head and draw them as well as his ability to create dynamic expressions, makes him the perfect artist for the job. In the meantime, Cherish will take the approved sketches to her drafting table and work up color arrangements using pastels. It is fast and to the point, although it can be dusty. After color compositions are complete, Benjamin will work with photo reference to create tight drawings to scale. Then we begin the process of transferring the drawings to watercolor paper. Cherish will be the first to start on the paintings, she has a very relaxed and colorful approach to watercolor that creates depth and beauty within each piece. She will do a first pass at the images blocking in a complete under-painting. After that, she paints all the characters, props, and everything else to the extent that watercolor medium allows. Once we are both satisfied with the watercolor paintings, Benjamin will go in on top with oils, acrylics and/or colored pencils to pull out the details and enhance the dark values that watercolor couldn’t express. We will continue the pass the paintings back and forth, working on them until we both feel that they are finished.
Shari: Is working together easier or more difficult than working alone? Have you ever illustrated children’s books alone?
A children’s book project is a monumental task, and it is nice to have someone with which we can share the responsibilities. When we met, Benjamin had already published his first children’s book, but since then we started illustrating children’s books together in this semi-realistic style. We also complete illustration assignments individually in our own unique styles. For example Cherish has a watercolor embroidery technique called Something to Cherish ® (http://www.somethingtocherish.com/) and Benjamin has a illustrative/cartoon style that can be seen at http://www.hummelillustration.com/.
Shari: What children’s books have you done together?
Cherish/Benjamin: Together we have illustrated two books, but we are excited to do more.
What Would You Like To Do Today? by Larry Grizzell and Prayer Posies by Barbee Lux, both can be ordered at http://www.paintingforlife.com/.
Shari: Tell us a little about your training?
Cherish/Benjamin: Other than our BFAs from Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design, we continue to educate ourselves by interviewing other established artists, taking additional classes and seminars, visiting art shows and museums across the country, staying aware of current trends. We also both teach various illustration classes, as nothing refines one’s knowledge of a subject quite like teaching.
Shari: I am always curious about the workspace of creative people. Tell us about your workspace, please. Do you play music or do anything to get inspired?
Cherish/Benjamin: Our studio exists in an attic above our 1920’s Art Deco style cottage. We sacrifice space in order to live in the beautiful city of Golden, Colorado, leaving our combined living and working quarters very small. It is always a juggling act to decide who gets to use the drafting table or scanner, while the other the light box, easel or computer. But, we always manage to figure it out and everything always seems to come together.
We aspire to start every morning a good breakfast and a nice quiet time together as this is a key factor in getting us through our long days. Once we are both in the studio, we decide on a playlist or radio station (or not, which is when we break out the headphones) and crank up the volume to get us going. Taking breaks is really important as well with it comes to cultivating creativity. We will often walk to the creek, park, post office, bank and library to take in some culture, nature, exercise and inspiration while completing our errands at the same time.
Shari: Children’s books are not your only work. How did you get into illustrating children’s books?
Cherish/Benjamin: We actually started with the aim of illustrating children’s books since that was our focus in college. Also, we have always offered graphic design services as a part of our package and work with our clients to fine tune their marketing messages. When we started having increased demand for our artwork, we branched out into fine art, cards and gifts with a retail division called Painting for Life (http://www.paintingforlife.com/). In the last two years we began to more seriously pursue art licensing when Cherish developed the style for Something to Cherish ® (http://www.somethingtocherish.com/). Since then, she has started a group of over 1,000 professionals in the art licensing field, encouraging them to connect and network on LinkedIn (http://www.artoflicensing.com/).
Shari: What are you working on now?
Cherish/Benjamin: We actually just released and started promoting our children’s book with read-along audio CD, Prayer Posies. We are gearing up for a gallery show and book signing where we are going to showcase the children’s book illustrations along with a collection of Hawaiian themed fine art. We are also looking to take http://www.paintingforlife.com/ to the next level with a brand new shopping cart system, so it will be easier for our fans to order from us online. Hopefully this will be completed in time for the Christmas card rush!
3 Comments on Interview with Illustrators Cherish Flieder & Benjamin Hummel, last added: 8/21/2009
Wow, that is so refreshing! Cherish & Benjamin, I admire your dedication to one another, to your Christian beliefs, and to your craft. My huband is an illustratot and I'm an author, so we have to work together as a team as well sometimes. Be blessed and keep chasing your dream!
L. Diane Wolfe “Spunk On A Stick” www.circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com www.spunkonastick.net www.thecircleoffriends.net
A commenter at IMDB's Dark is Rising entry has called for a new title to this movie. I liked the suggestion: The Fans are Bawling.
Care2 has a petition up to ask Walden to change the name of the film since it has nothing to do with the book by the same title.
Maybe in that spirit, Walden has apparently changed the title of the Dark movie. They appear to now be calling it The Seeker: The Dark is Rising.
I have been feeling so badly for Susan Cooper. It must be terrible to watch something like this happen to one of your books, even though you know that the movies are separate entities on their own. It also occurred to me though, that it might be wonderfully heartening to know there are so many people who feel so passionately and have such a loving connection with the books.
I spent some time looking at blog posts and comments about TDiR (or is is now TSTDiR?) movie and came up with a list of keywords that have been employed to describe readers' reactions. I've left of the ones that would earn this blog an "R" rating or worse.
I think the most often employed word was "cry."
One commenter used the expression "a quick toss off" which is probably accurate. I don't think Walden knew what they were stepping in when they messed with series.
Fools, fools, fools.
mangled cry sad travesty craptastic something one of my cats puked up shredded completely without imagination horrified almost to the point of muteness brutally slaughtered semi-literate imagination-deprived monkeys the vomit is rising unbelievably painful painful, pathetic mess Oh, twist the knife a little more, why don't you? RIDICULOUS dreck a quick "toss off" depressing departure from a well-loved story desecration disappointed erase our minds disservice they are doing to a beloved classic heartbroken fix it before it's too late butchering them mindless vandalism I just threw up in my mouth. wanton dismantling I shouldn't care about this so much. Stupid Stupid Stupid!!!! total hash appalling ugh severe disappointment shocked and confused disfigured and trivialized mockery My Gorge is Rising The Dreck is Rising! "Will's twin" insanity I feel ill. The Dark is Winning?
The only comfort I get out of any of this is from knowing that there are so many wonderful, intelligent, eloquent people out there who are as passionate about these books as I am. Granted, nothing that any of us do or say is likely to stop Walden Media from releasing this colossal piece of crap, but I have to hold on to the hope that someday, a true fan will make a movie that does justice to the story.
That's such a shame because Walden Media's made some pretty good adaptations in the past. I had begun to have faith in them.
Liz B said, on 8/2/2007 3:20:00 PM
I heard some rumbles at BEA that there was another production company involved; this isn't solely Walden Media's baby.
I should probably look it up....
Anonymous said, on 8/6/2007 12:20:00 PM
Along with misleading audiences about the details of Cooper's work, the studio is also perpetuating this travesty: http://www.walden.com/fanlib/entryform.php
Anonymous said, on 8/6/2007 12:26:00 PM
Fox is the other corporation involved in butchering this "adaptation."
Along with misleading audiences about the details of Cooper's work, the studio is also perpetuating this travesty: http://www.walden.com/fanlib/entryform.php
Camille said, on 8/6/2007 3:13:00 PM
Wow, a writing contest! So they qualifying this movie as just a form of fanfiction now?
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Even before I had finished reading 
For the homemade bubble wand you’ll need two lengths of dowelling. Screw an eye screw into each end and then put a large loop of string between the two eyes. It’s helpful to add a small weight such as a threaded button or a washer onto on side of your string loop.
com/
I grew up playing Bubble Bobble on Nintendo and can’t help but this of that game when reading about this book. It looks like an interesting take on competition. Thanks for the recommendation…I will definitely have to pick up this book!
Those are some pretty amazing bubbles!
I love all these ideas for bubble play! The book looks great!
Thanks for the in depth review and fantastic activities! I’ll try the bubble breathing with my boys. And Catherine, I was a big fan of Bubble Bobble too, I must have been subconsciously influenced!