Doomsday Housing Plan / Image courtesy of Duron123 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
I attended a Preparedness & Survival Expo in August. One excellent speaker, Jay Blevins, who has been featured on National Geographic Channel’s “Doomsday Preppers,” talked about the 6 foundational aspects of prepping. At the top of the survival list?
Having the proper mindset.
This means having the will to survive, even when things get downright ugly, insecure and uncomfortable–and in the event of a ‘doomsday’ scenario, they inevitably will. Having a strong mindset allows you to handle being outside of your comfort zone and losing your creature comforts. That’s not a bad life skill to have for just everyday scenarios that can be their own scaled-down, personal version of doomsday, such as job loss.
I know I’ve gone soft in terms of handling anything outside of my comfort zone. I’ve been running my writing consulting business by day, and working on my own writing on the side, including a collaborative effort at the Waterfront Writers website. I’ve noticed that the outdoors features prominently in my stories. Maybe that’s because lately, my outdoors pursuits have fallen by the wayside, and I feel the lack of connection with nature in my life and that sense you get of being able to find your way if needed. In my comfortable world, this present shifting of priorities has been a good thing on the one hand, but also a mini-trauma–one I can luckily undo by shifting priorities around a bit so I can re-connect to the outdoors.
One thing I used to do to get out of my comfort zone is to go camping. I didn’t go camping this year–and I realize that isn’t sufficient preparation for having a survivalist mindset when it’s only car camping. But there was no way I was going to get my son to backpack, so I was always happy to just get the little gamer that far out of reach of a game console. I have, however, had survivalist scenarios occur while car camping, such as camping next to neighbors where I wasn’t sure about their survival prospects after I’d listened to hours of their noisy shenanigans well into the night. But I digress…
In a doomsday scenario, you may have only the bug-out pack on your back, and the only fire pit and picnic bench at your disposal will be what you create out of what you find. And with that, you’ll need a mindset that accepts the situation and flows with it.
Car camping does serve to take me out of my self-created bubble world and remind me that I still have a lot to learn about self-reliance–and that means above and beyond earning a living. My mindset is just fine for the daily dramas of life. But you can always be mentally stronger, and it’s an area I want to explore more in-depth.
But not tonight. I need a hot bath, a steaming cup of tea and then a little television.
How about you: do you feel you’d be mentally prepared should complete chaos and anarchy occur? Leave a comment! And if you don’t mind, go take a look at the website I’m collaborating on – we have four chapters posted for our new web series. Help me justify my ‘gone soft’ condition on the Waterfront Writers…
Desiree Smith-Daughety 
last winter we had an amazing snow storm that left us without power for 4/5 days. that’s the closest I’ve come to doomsday! but we had a wood burning stove and had saved jugs of water, enough food, and was able to make coffee. food was stored in coolers (outdoors) and candles were used as light. not having phones or internet was difficult. so often, I’d think I wanted to go look something up only to remember we didn’t have internet. I survived and learned a few things as well. will definitely always have a wood burner or such. When the weather outside was frightful, it was so good to be inside where it truly was so delightful!
best,
maureen
Hi Maureen! Thanks for sharing your story. I hope you don’t often experience power outages, especially the inconvenient timing of during a snowstorm! A wood burning stove is great to have… makes me think about how I’d stay warm for 4/5 days without one. (I guess I wouldn’t.) It is inconvenient to lose power, especially when you are surprised by it and it’s not because you’re off camping somewhere and already know where the flashlight is. It’s a bit of an adventure, though it does wear thin to not have access to our “luxuries” of phones and internet. At least you had coffee!
Stay warm,
Des