Bravery (and How to Master It)

Fascinating look at the Navy Seals.

Full article (here).

I point to my face and explain: This is an example of what's called vasoconstriction, and I have no control over it. The blood pumps from my heart through my arteries, but as my fear-induced heart rate rises, nonessential blood vessels automatically constrict. The capillaries drain. My brain is signaling my body, "Alert!" and stopping the superfluous blood vessels in my face from dilating. My brain needs to ration the oxygen in my blood to send elsewhere -- to protect vital organs or into the muscles of my legs so I can run away."Then how come I'm not white?" Cullen shines the penlight on the face of a fellow marine.

"Or him?"

Training, I say. Habituation, the military calls it. It's the difference between my heart rate rising after a workout -- something I'm used to, when my vessels dilate and my face reddens -- and being terrified during a rocket attack. The more you train, the more tricks you employ, the more you can program your body to adjust.

Essentially, you're bending the body's software to control its hardware. It works standing over a putt on the 18th green. It works shooting a final-second free throw. It works banging down a door with a bad guy on the other side.

There are a few seconds of silence. Someone says, "And you're headed down to embed with the SEALs?"

I nod.

Cullen laughs. "You're going to have plenty of opportunities to compare your white face with their red ones."