How to use this Page

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.

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. Value sleep.

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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

The post Five lessons from extreme places appeared first on OUPblog.

        

Related Stories

• Six classic tales of horror for Halloween
• How well do you know the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984?
• A composer’s thoughts on re-presentation and transformation

 

AdoraPet’s Pima Puppy and Pico Puppy Series  4 stars Author: YiShaun Yang Illustrators: Jeeyun Lee & Claire Cho Publisher: AdoraPet Publishing Publication Date: 2011 Number of Pages: 24 each book The AdoraPet’s Series, star Pima Puppy and Pico Puppy, two lovable characters ready to take your children on many journeys.  At a time when children’s [...]

Sometimes it’s a good thign to remember that libraries have big imacts on people who do big things. The ripple effect is hard to quantify, but it’s a good thing to remember. From my inbox

• Ronald McNair was one of the astronuauts killed in the Challenger explosion 25 years ago. There was a piece on NPR about his brother reminiscing about how McNair was adamant about using his public library in South Carolina despite the fact that it was supposedly for “whites only”
• Wil Wheaton, actor and blogger shared a short bit he wrote for a literacy project explaining why he thinks librarians are awesome.
• In the comments of that post is a link to this poem published in Library Journal: Why I Am In Love With Librarians.
• Another booster site that I forgot to mention earlier is the Library History Buff site. Larry Nix is a retired librarian and library history enthusiast. I’ve linked to his library history page many times over the years, but I’m not sure if I’ve linked to his blog. He recently did a post wrapping up the work he did in 2010 and pointing to the page he created for it. Good stuff, worth reading.

The winner for the "Astronaut" challenge is:

Jessica Ramirez!

Congratulations to Jessica Ramirez (Las Noches). I chose Jessica's "Star Ship" as the winner for the Astronaut challenge. Jessica's illustration has a dreamy, serene feel. A beautiful sky-scape of midnight blue, clouds and stars. Her patchwork star-ship drifts through the dreams of a little girl, carrying her. Wonderful work! Be sure to go to her site and check out her art dolls.

Everyone who participated posted incredible stuff - thank you all so much! There's a lot I consider when picking the "winner" (in quotes because I really think you all are winners). I'll make a list later of the qualities I look for. One thing I consider is if the artist has won before - it's a small consideration, anyone can win multiple times (and has), but I really try to recognise the talents of everyone I can. This is Jessica Ramirez' first win. I was torn towards two others that haven't won yet as well - Tilen and TS Rogers. Tilen's design and style is very hip and fun and I loved his star-collector astronaut. And Todd (TS) Rogers is a deservedly successful illustrator and poster designer and his skater astronaut is a fine example. Of course, they weren't the only ones that offered amazing work for this challenge - I just wanted to point them out. So thanks, artists.

I've written this before but I want to repeat it: The quality of art and the wonderful artists here at Monday Artday constantly amaze me. You are all terrific and inspiring and the reason why this blog is so popular. It's always the hardest thing I do all week to pick a winner. Keep 'em coming, artists!

 Subscribe in a reader

Read the transcript of a recently discovered recording of a conversation from the command module of Apollo 11 on July 19, 1969 on my blog HERE.

WARNING! Contains adult language!

 Subscribe in a reader

The new challenge is:

Astronaut!

Illustrate something that makes us think of "Shakespeare". A portrait, a scene from a play, an anecdote, etc.

The "Native People" challenge is over. The new challenge is "Astronaut" and ends on August 3, 2009. The "Shakespeare" challenge continues for another week and ends on July 27, 2009.

 Subscribe in a reader

Three of the many that I did for a gig a while back.

This week's theme: Ornaments

Can you tell what is on my mind lately? Love to see your take on this theme. As always, have fun with it!

The SFG Challenge runs Thursday to Thursday, and was created to offer every member an opportunity to stretch their creative muscles, venture outside of their artistic boundaries and post their interpretations each week on a specific theme. This is a completely voluntary challenge!

Be sure to label your illustrations with the appropriate labels as well. Label your entries with your name and the challenge label, in this case SFG: Ornaments


The next challenge begins Thursday, December 20th, 2007.

Have a great week SFG'ers!

-Jeff