Are You Ready, Mentally?

Last time I talked about physical readiness, this time I would like to talk about mental readiness. I have talked about it before, "survival is a state of mind". I have talked about the people that were put in a survival situation with everything one would need to survive and died. I have also talked about the people that were thrown into a situation where there seems no way that they could have survived. Some of these people make it and people are awe struck. What is the difference between the two types of people? Mental attitude! It is very simple that if you have the will to survive you have a much better chance.

What is the right state of mind? It is the state of mind that says that no matter what happens there is a way out. It is a never say die attitude. It is knowing that you can and will go on no matter what. I have written before about people that tell me they would not want to live after a major disaster such as a nuclear strike. They would prefer to die in the strike than to live and see what is going to come out the other side. To me this is pure foolishness. 

Everyone is a survivalist, it is just a matter of how much of a survivalist you are. There are very few people that would just step out onto a busy street and cross it without looking both ways for cars. There are very few people that would continually run through stop signs or red lights, even if the police did not catch them. People wear seat belts and take life preservers or jackets in a boat. There are people who would not think of riding a bicycle without a helmet that tell me they are not survivalists. While some of the things we do such as the seat belts or the stop signs are law, most people would do them anyway. That is the survival instinct in all of us. Personally, I am a very poor swimmer, so it would be foolishness for me to be out in a lake a half mile from shore without a life jacket on. Most people that say that they are not survivalists do not realize all of the things that they do every day to survive. People who do not practice good safety are said to have a death wish. Is is not a death wish to hope that you would not make it through a nuclear attack?

There are things that separate us, the die-hard survivalists from the rest of the world. All that it is is the fact that we carry the survival mode a little farther than other people. We want to be the ones that are left alive when everything goes down. I have never heard anyone who survived a tornado, hurricane, earthquake, flood or other natural disaster wish that they would have died in the disaster. Yet, what is the difference between one of those disasters and a man made disaster?

If a war ever comes to America (and it probably will in time) would all of these so-called non-survivalists just walk out and step in front of a bullet or an enemy tank? I do not believe so. 

Now that we know that there would be many people that would all of a sudden become, maybe not survivalists, but people that wanted to continue to live. These people would not be survivalists, they could be a drag on other survivalists. This begs the question: "Do you have the mental capacity to be a true survivalist? 

Here are some of the things I think need to be done to mentally be ready for a survival situation. First, you have to think about scenarios in which you could be thrown into a survival situation and what you would do about it. You have to be ready to cope with the problem you see as the most likely to take place. For instance, if you live in Florida or one of the east coast states, you would get ready to survive after a hurricane. You know it is invertible that there will sooner or later be a hurricane and you would make ready for it. I do not understand people that live where they have hurricanes virtually every year and yet these people are not ready for them. When the hurricane hits, they want the government (you and me the taxpayers) to take care of them. I live in the north central U.S. so there are things I am prepared for. We have ice storms so I have a generator in case the electricity goes out. I also am prepared for the occasional tornado that comes through this area. I am prepared for the major snow storm and I burn wood a supplemental heat. The wood heat would keep me going through a long electric outage. I have battery operated radio, battery light, kerosene lights, both radio and flashlights that need neither batteries nor electricity. I have the ability to cook (two camp stoves one LP and one white gas). some people (non-survivalists) might call all of my preparations paranoid. I call them smart. I hope I never need to test my ability to survive, but know that if I must I can. 

I will talk a little more about this next time. Until then SURVIVE!!!

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