When it comes to surviving the wild, as great as it is spending time in the great wide open it’s as much about mindset as it is about practical skills. Ensuring you can survive in the outdoors can seem like a significant task, especially if you’re not prepared.
But this is why it’s important to build a survival mindset, not just for the sake of being outdoors during your vacations, but in every other aspect of your life too. What can you do to make sure that you are ready for outdoor survival?
A Foundation of Security
Part of the reason we feel overwhelmed in the sticks is because we don’t necessarily have everything that we need to ask ourselves with some sense of fortitude. If you are venturing outdoors, you need to make sure that you’ve got the essentials in place, or at the very least have the mindset in which to cultivate these essentials.
Part of the solution is in preparing a base level of fitness so you have the confidence to deal with whatever is thrown at you, and it’s essential to prepare the four foundations:
- Strength.
- Endurance.
- Muscular endurance.
- Cardio fitness.
While it can be costly to go to a gym these days, there’s a lot more outdoor gym equipment people can find in local parks, and train their physical fitness through simple bodyweight exercises. Remember, you need to be agile more than anything, so having that foundation will be invaluable.
There are things that will invariably make life easier, but when we have these things in place, it means that we will be able to learn how to survive much longer. When we feel secure, we don’t feel as stressed, and therefore, we don’t panic.
Anybody that’s spent life outside and not knowing where the next meal is coming from has had to learn to create some sense of calmness in themselves. We live a modern life that is full of the comforts of home, and therefore, when we don’t have these comforts, we start to panic. A foundation of security by being able to not live without those comforts is critical.
Know How to Stay Calm During a Stressful Situation
It is a good way to ensure that you can function during any stressful situation. Our abilities to handle stress will vary depending on who we are. Some people need those home comforts and therefore they feel overwhelmed. But we could all practice things to stay calm in stressful environments. These include:
- Deep breathing, for example, using box breathing, which is something Navy Seals use to keep themselves calm and focused in high-intensity environments.
- Progressive muscle relaxation, which is a great way to heighten your tension and then instantly relax, for a relaxed body usually means a relaxed mind.
- Positive visualization, as visualizing yourself being calm is an amazing tool that will help you to stay in control.
- Fixing your vagus nerve, and there are a number of tactics that you can use to help calm yourself which involves stimulating the rest and digest (or parasympathetic nervous system) response. Calming the vagus nerve can be done with a few simple practices. You can find some of these here.
Understanding Your Surroundings
One of the best things we can all do to make sure that we are ready for outdoor survival is to develop situational awareness. Assessing your surroundings and recognizing potential threats, as well as having additional Plan Bs and Cs, can help you to feel ready when the moment strikes.
These are just a few approaches that can help you to get ready. Remember, survival is not just about the practical things, but about the mindset as well.
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