“To the organism, the decision was clear. The emotional bookmark, that beacon of incentive, burned brightly, and the decision was made in an instant, outside the realm of conscious thought.”
Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzales – Paperback Version & Hardcover Version
Writing: ✭✭✭✭✭✭✭ (7/7)
Utility: ✭✭✭✭✭✭✭ (7/7)
🚀 The Book in 3 Sentences
- When you face a life-threatening situation — or a perceived one — your emotions (a jerk reaction fueled by the release of norepinephrine) kick into overdrive and you might make irrational decisions. Oftentimes, we tap into our emotional benchmarks — developed habits or traits — to drive our decisions. These can make life easier at times, such as when you inst-inctively go to the refrigerator to grab food, but can also serve you wrongly, such as assuming water is safe because of previous experience with pools.
- We create mental models in which we perceive the world. Once these develop, our brains subconsciously discard information that don’t fit our closed mindset. To be adaptive to our environment, we must keep our mental models open.
- The key to survival is to shift mindset from a victim to a survivor — to make small and manageable goals, one at a time.
🎨 Impressions
- Absolutely life-changing book. 2nd favorite book of all time, right behind Attached.
Who Should Read It?
- Honestly, everyone. I think especially people who are older and have experienced — even if subconsciously — an amygdala hijack. This book will be extremely relatable, even though its told from the perspective of literal survivors.
☘️ How the Book Changed Me
- Its helped become more aware of the two parts of my decision calculus: the emotional portion, and the rational portion. Being conscious of the two makes it easier for me to rein my intense and unexpected emotional reactions. A good example is when I got rejected from VIC. I immediately felt a surge of norepinephrine and began experience negative thoughts. My brain had tapped into previous memories of rejection — colleges, clubs, people — and resurrected the same feeling once again. Knowing that it was simply an emotional response, I was able to talk myself down and, awkwardly enough, laugh about it. Once I settled into a less emotional state, I was able to reflect on my rejection. I didn’t conclude I was an incompetent analyst, but rather concluded that I needed to work harder and might’ve submitted an idea too similar to other posts.
- Its helped me maintain my cool. I try to laugh even when dealing with serious and traumatic memories. The humor helps me relax and loosen up. It calms me down.
- Its helped me become a survivor instead of a victim. While I have not literally faced a life threatening situation, I have felt like a victim constantly, multiple times throughout a day. “Why me? I just want it to stop. I can’t take this anymore.” Phrases like these cluttered my day. I was too busy pitying myself to focus on making things better to take things back into my control. I’m a survivor, not a victim. I will live, no matter what comes my way.
- Its helped me expand my mental model. Trusting my gut had served me well, but there are times when I need to adapt. I strive to keep an open mental model — to hold onto a plan, but not to grip too tightly as to be unable to let go. Things are going to happen that are outside of your expectations, but you need to learn to roll with the punches.
- Its given me perspective. Just hearing about these crazy stories of survivors makes me appreciate my lifestyle. I don’t have to venture out to high-risk scenarios unless I choose to do so. I’m more grateful.
✍️ My Top 3 Quotes
- “People don’t come preassembled, but are glued together by life.”
- “The reins of reason on the horse of emotion.”
- “To the organism, the decision was clear. The emotional bookmark, that beacon of incentive, burned brightly, and the decision was made in an instant, outside the realm of conscious thought.”
❓ Askeladden Questions
- Identify situations in your life where you’ve succumbed to an “amygdala hijack.” How could you avoid that going forward? Come up with a list of strategies – funny jokes to tell yourself; fond memories to think of, etc.
- Relationships. Rejection. Disappointment.
- List of Strategies to utilize:
- LAUGH. Make a god dam joke u brickass mf
- Talk yourself down — be conscious that its an amygdala hijack.
- Go work out. Let all your energy loose.
- Hop on a discord call. Talk with friends to help you relax.
- Focus on something else that is completely unrelated. Will help you calm down.
- Write! Putting your emotions onto paper helps you grasp what’s going on. It can function as a release valve.
- Ask yourself what “emotional bookmarks” – or “habits” – you utilize frequently. Are they serving you well? What emotional bookmarks or habits would serve you well in your life? How could you go about creating those?
- bad emotional bookmarks:
- eating more food after dinner
- watching youtube/netflix when given the chance
- constantly checking messenger
- drinking too much water
- doing meta-psychoanalysis about myself and others
- constantly thinking about my emotions
- touching my hair
- sleeping terribly late
- thinking about previous relationship! bad bad bad
- good emotional benchmarks:
- saying thank you!
- being vulnerable and grateful to those around you.
- listening to music
- working out
- brushing teeth / primping
- reading books!
- being self critical about my productivity
- emotional bookmarks I want to create / entrench:
- working out and becoming more fit.
- eating healthier — go take a look in the mirror. remind yourself what you want for yourself in the long run. remember that food is short term and you forget about it immediately after.
- making jokes out of bad/disappointing/serious situations. Its the only way to prevent horrible emotional bookmarks from being established.
- evaluating a persons intent > their actions. Being thankful that they are trying to please you — even if it doesn’t actually work.
- reading whenever I get bored instead of just brainlessly consuming youtube. this social cleanse will help with that.
- getting to work. motivation produces action, not the other way around. So the best way to improve my productivity is to get to it and start pursuing the things I want.
- not doing meta-thinking. just live ayoooo. good to reflect sometimes but overreflection is a huge problem. being too conscious of everything fucks you over. mentally and emotionally. So — picture a trash can and you throwing all of those terrible meta-thoughts into it.
- bad emotional bookmarks:
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