The tag line for Jaimal Yogis’ book The Fear Project is “What our Most Primal Emotion Taught Me About Survival, Success, Surfing… And Love”. As a husband, dad of two boys, surfer (albeit a not very good one!) and someone running their own small tech company I was immediately grabbed by this premise. The “primal emotion” at the centre of this book is fear. If you want to get a handle on how your brain deals with fear and as a result how fear can shape your life then this is the book for you. There is a section of the book relatively early on that gets quite technical about the brain but it is worth hanging in there as the rewards are great.

Yogis has a lovely knack for sprinkling the heavier content with interesting stories and characters he meets along the way and in this sense it is reminiscent of his previous book, The Saltwater Buddha (a book about Zen and surfing that was also excellent). For me personally I found the notion of the ancient brain trying to cope with a rapidly changing modern world replete with modern anxieties to be fascinating, educational and deeply thought-provoking. I then got to enjoy the excellent true stories (surfing Mavericks, Darryl “Flea” Virostko, ultra swimmer Jamie Patrick and the rest) which if you are into the great outdoors you should enjoy immensely. Finally you get to share Yogis’ own personal journey in life and love which rounds out a thoroughly enjoyable read.