FHExpo: Fire Psyche - Mental Toughness and the Valor Mindset

Baltimore, MD — "Baseball is 90 percent mental and the other half is physical." Hall of Fame baseball player Yogi Berra may not know a lot about math, be he does understand how important mental toughness can be. In his class, Fire Psyche: Mental Toughness and the Valor Mindset, Dr. Mike Asken, a psychologist with the Pennsylvania State Police and co-author with Eric Nurnberg of the book with the same name, underscored the importance of Berra's statement as it applies to the fire service.

Mental toughness can help pick you up when you are down and bring you back down when you get too high. Did you ever have a day when you just didn't feel like working? Sure you have. Everybody does. But while individuals in other professions can get away with the occasional "going through the motions" type of day, firefighters simply cannot. You need to be ready to be at the top of your game at any moment. Your chief is counting on you. You fellow crew members are counting on you. Most importantly, the person at the other end of the emergency situation is counting on you.

While research has shown the effects of stress on a performance, the fire service does not teach firefighters how to deal with stress. So how do you stay mentally tough? Asken and Nurnberg try to advance mental toughness concept and skills using the platform of the VALOR mindset. "While obviously speaking to the nobility and character of firefighters, the term is also meant to serve as a reminder to firefighters of essential psychological skills that characterize their profession and enhance their efforts," said Asken. He explained that VALOR is an acronym for Vigilance, Awareness, Leadership and Optimal Resilience. "The overriding goal is to provide firefighters with a foundation in the psychological skills of mental toughness that can promote optimal discipline, safety, survival and success on the fireground and for all emergency calls," he explained. 

Pump You Up

There are several ways to get your blood pumping and avoid becoming complacent. One of the ways to stay sharp is to stay in shape. Ever hear the phrase sound mind, sound body? It works in reverse as well. Functional conditioning (or training for the terrain) can keep you sharp mentally and physically. The repetitive motion of the drills not only prepare your body for what it may encounter, but your mind as well. The discipline involved in getting up to do these drills also helps the mental aspect.

Asken also said there are several things you can do to charge yourself up both mentally and physically. Instead of just sitting around the kitchen table or lounging in a chair watching TV waiting for a call, get up and do some warm-up drills. On the mental side, cue words and cue images can help stimulate the mind and body. When it is time to act, you can use keywords such as pump, power and surge to pump yourself up. On the way to the scene, cue images of the building type, the fire and sights you may encounter also gets the heart pumping and the adrenaline flowing. 

Controlling the Adrenaline

While adrenaline is a good thing, too much adrenaline can cause problems. Sometimes you can get so pumped up and so excited that you can lose focus of what you are doing. This can lead to a condition called Sudden Stress Syndrome. Symptoms of this syndrome include:

• Don't hear commands (you become so intent on what you are doing, you don't hear what others are saying)
• Tunnel vision (blocking out everything else around you)
• Intensified sounds (when every little sound around you seems so loud that you can't concentrate)
• Time distortion (everything seems to be going in slow motion, including your reaction time)
• Temporary paralysis (you know what you want to do, but your body just won't do it)

Asken says there are steps to take to avoid Sudden Stress Syndrome, and they are steps some people have been using for a very long time. They include:

• Meditation (to ease your mind and get it back under control)
• Yoga (for the mind and body)
• Breathing control (learning how to get your breathing pattern under control)
• Imagery (just as imagery can pump you up, it can help calm you down)

So, while being in great physical shape will help you handle your day-to-day duties, being in great shape mentally is just as (if not more) important to keeping you safe and sound on the fireground.

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