How does your brain impact your survival chances in the wilderness?

Getting lost can be an incredibly frightening and unnerving experience. Studies have shown that people universally become agitated and upset on some level when they lose their way. This type of psychological stress goes hand in hand with wilderness survival.

You can think of your stress response in the wilderness like a stove. When turned on, it gets things cooking, but too much too fast will burn. When you realize you've entered into a survival situation, resist panic and take a few minutes to plan. If your stress level doesn't overheat, so to speak, it can actually help you.

Although stress usually gets a bad rap, it can produce positive results for the short term. Once our brains recognize that we face a threatening circumstance, the hypothalamus goes to work, producing our fight-or-flight response. The hypothalamus sits in the mid-region of the brain base and, among its other job titles, is regulator of hormone secretion. It triggers the adrenal glands to release hormones including adrenaline and cortisol.

Adrenaline boosts your heart rate and blood pressure, causes the liver to release stored energy in the form of glucose and sends blood to your large muscle groups. Cortisol tempers the bodily functions that aren't necessary when you're in a serious bind, such as digestion and growth. During fight-or-flight situations, your pupils dilate, and your visual scope focuses in, decreasing the number of things you notice. It impairs fine and complex motor skills as well, giving more energy to larger movement, such as lifting or running.

For brief periods of time, these hormones can send us into "Incredible Hulk" mode. In survival situations, our unconscious stress response can prod us to eliminate the immediate threats to our safety by building shelter, making fire and evading wild animals. In fact, people actually function at peak performance under the right amount of stress because of these physiological effects.

But the stress-performance gradient looks like an arch. That means that while humans work well under stress, too much sends us sliding down a slippery slope that can end in a mental and physical freeze-up. Because of this balance, the long-term effects of stress could be more threatening to your survival than any grizzly.

Continual release of stress hormones leaves you physically and mentally exhausted when you should be conserving energy. After the initial stress eases, your parasympathetic nervous system kicks back in to regulate those functions that the cortisol constricted. This entire process saps your strength, especially when it happens over and over again. Prolonged cortisol exposure can also promote depression. Once your mental state deteriorates, so goes your will to live. In some life or death survival conditions, that determination can save you.

Next up, we'll look at what happens in our brains when we turn that frown upside down, and why survival experts preach the word of positive mental attitude.

The benefits of maintaining a good attitude in the wilderness seem implicit. Daily experiences have taught us that mood influences outcomes. But just how does this "Pollyanna principle" affect your brain in survival situations?

A little positivity goes a long way when you're calling a handmade hovel miles from civilization "home." While it may sound like a page ripped from a self-help book, positive mental attitude (PMA) is an integral part of survival.

In general terms, PMA combats your unconscious stress, allowing you to think more clearly and make better decisions. For example, remember how the fight-or-flight response limits the amount of things you observe around you? By improving your attitude and, consequently, lowering your stress, you reinvigorate your awareness of your surroundings. Imagine how vital that would be when sharing habitats with unfriendly neighbors.

But how can you think positively when you're in such a jam? Among the many tips offered, here are some from survival handbooks:

Now we know that looking at the glass half full can increase our chances of survival, but how exactly does that happen? Why can positive thoughts breed positive results?

The study of positive psychology that analyses the effect of positive thinking and emotions on people sprang up a relatively short time ago. Research revealed a link between positive thinking and emotions and successful survival. That's because it opens up global thinking capacities in the brain, allowing for more innovation and creativity. In the wilderness, once your initial needs are met, you will require new ideas and prioritization of tasks to keep yourself alive for the longer term.

Physiologically, PMA reverses the toll of stress on our bodies. Think about your body language when you watch a funny movie. You're often more relaxed than when you see a nail-biting thriller. This loosening up will help you conserve precious energy. Proper wilderness preparation and training also contributes to positive thinking because you will better know how to fend for yourself. That, coupled with PMA, can help you cross the bridge to survival.

Want to learn more tips on surviving in the wilderness? Cruise to the links on the next page.