Know yourself

Survival circumstances and emergency situations are moments when your learn things about yourself and others. Trouble, stress, trauma and fear are your worst enemies. And then you still have the emergency to deal with.

Even the best trained commandos often suffer severely during survival exercises during their training. Of course, the purpose of those exercises is to select the best of the best, but still every year, elite soldiers die during exercises because they can't handle the psychological stress, loose the will to live and die because of cold or fatique. If even such professionals have a hard time coping then how are you and I, mere mortals, going to fare?

Survival is something that you can learn, up to a point. Knowledge of edible plants, protection from cold and weather, orienting and signaling can all be taught and learned. A good and experienced instructor is immensely valuable. The learned knowledge must also be practised in real life situations. By doing you often remember better what you've heard or read. The more and oftener you practise your knowledge in real life, the easier you complete the job at hand. You'll also find out where you still experience problems or lack skills and information, and you'll learn that you'll regularly have to adjust your plans to suit the situation.


Technorati Tags : survival techniques scouting Boy Scouts hiking orienting camping trail primitive sustainable alternative modern technology Shards of Survival