For the month of August, I take a small break and run August Repeats, a repeat of some of the most popular Wonderbringers through the years. Here’s one from November 2024.
Hello Wonderseekers!
Recently, I found myself re-reading a bit of my book, The Power of Wonder, and recalled some of the conversations I’d had when writing the chapter on resilience.
One bit that really struck me was my interview with Dr. John Leach. Dr. Leach is a British academic and expert in disaster situations—things like plane crashes, shipwrecks and hostage-taking. He analyses the decisions we make just following the crisis stage of a disaster and then offers guidance on appropriate emergency response and training.
One thing he observed is that immediately following a crisis, our brains shift automatically from thinking machines to feeling machines. Our prefrontal cortex, which is charged with our executive functioning and critical thinking, goes offline while our more ancient wiring fires up, triggering our freeze, fight, or flight responses. This is why emergency routines are so important (and why we have to hear the safety briefing every time we fly on a plane); because they help us execute processes on autopilot despite our executive functioning cowering in a corner.
After a while, those reactive triggers quiet down, and we can get our executive functioning running again, but it takes time. He found the key to survival is twofold. The first is immediate: following good emergency response routines, which get you to safety while escaping the immediate threat. The second is more longer term: finding some sort of meaning and purpose which helps you regain your cognitive flexibility.
After examining hundreds of disaster situations, Leach found that the key differentiator between those who lived and died wasn’t intellect or injuries but those who simply chose to persist. This was a known phenomenon of PoWs during World War II; the Japanese called this bura-bura or “do-nothing-sickness”, and Americans called it “give-up-itis.” The key to survival is to do something—anything—with purpose, rather than succumbing to the overwhelming prospect of survival in this new, terrible existence.
He explained to me that this is why healthcare workers survive crisis situations at a higher percentage than other occupations. I always assumed it was that they were treated better because their skills were needed, but Leach found it was that their sense of purpose was so ingrained, they could immediately put that purpose into action.
Philosopher and author Viktor Frankl spent his life trying to make sense of his horrifying experience as a Nazi prisoner of war and holocaust survivor. He believed “striving to find meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man.” For Frankl, meaning was of the existential, “capital M” sort.
But Dr. Leach says it doesn’t have to be so grand as Frankl’s existential Meaning or a healthcare worker’s vocation. It can be a more pedestrian sort of meaning.
When I left my abusive marriage and moved away, the first thing I did was adopt a dog. There was some nervousness from family and friends that I wasn’t quite ready to take on such a long-term commitment—I was a pretty broken human—but somewhere in my mind, I knew I needed a reason to get up every morning.
At that point, my intrinsic motivation had been entirely depleted, but my pup Josephine (named after St. Joseph, the healer) gave me the extrinsic driver to put one foot in front of the other. She was meaning enough for me to stay afloat while I slowly rebuilt my life.
There are a lot of people who feel crushed right now. Crushed by a diagnosis or a death. By fear of the future or memories of the past. People who are depleted and devastated and disheartened. The route to survival is first to choose it, and then to pursue it with purpose, even if the purpose is no greater than making sure your furry friend doesn’t have an accident on your carpet.
When the world feels like it’s ending, what small thing gives you purpose?
Some wonderbringers for me this week:
Listen: Life Solved podcast: How to survive a zombie apocalypse.
Yes to life, in spite of everything: Viktor Frankl’s lost lectures.
Watch: TED Talks to help you find your purpose: Not sure what to do with your one precious life?.
With wonder,
