Survival is about more than gear and food storage: Your team and mindset are crucial

Say you have the essentials to get you through a crisis: a fully-stocked food and medicine supply; the finest survival gear money can buy; a home furnished specifically for emergencies; and a solid vehicle to get you out of dodge in a jiffy. Will all of these guarantee your survival in a post-collapse society?

Of course they won’t.

Survival isn’t just about what you have around you: It’s also about what you have inside you and who you have around you — your mindset and your team.

Take it from a man who goes by the pseudonym, the Venezuelan Prepper. As you can gather from the name, he’s a prepper who just happens to live in Venezuela, currently the very definition of a post-collapse society. This is a country wherein the people have to contend with extreme food shortages, a severely weakened healthcare system, and violent riots against a corrupt and failing government. His own wife and son were recently caught up in a frenzy of desperate people pushing and clawing at each other over powdered milk rations.

In spite of all that, he’s getting by. Despite the grim reality just outside of his door, he still finds the time to write about his experiences and share them with the rest of the world. He has his mindset and his family to thank for his resilience.

In his own words: “This psychological aspect of survival is very important, it is much more important than the equipment you can have. It allows the person to use skills, strength, and rational reserves to face whatever comes ahead. If a survivor can avoid a negative mind state…it will stimulate the very needed creativity to find original solutions to problems that will appear.” (Related: Mental preparedness: How to think like a survivalist.)

He adds that camaraderie and companionship provided by a good team lend you strength as well. “The psychological team support is very, very much needed,” explained the Venezuelan Prepper. “It has been like this since humans started to settle down in caves…It will allow you to collect the needed strength to overcome the harsh situations, and will generate comfortable environments to ease the stress, providing life, not just survival.”

The temptation to give in to the psychological stress heaped on by a crisis is a strong one, and he acknowledges it. But allowing your frustrations, anger, and sadness to overcome you will just exhaust you. Don’t let that happen. Steel yourself to handle these emotions in a productive manner. Having other people with whom you can share these feelings with is a huge asset and will help lift a big load off your shoulders.

How to gain mental resilience

• Be positive — According to OutdoorLife.com, every survival book, wilderness class, and scout manual will repeat these two simple words, with good reason. Having a positive mental attitude helps you power through the worst that the world has to throw at you. Finding the good in the middle of the bad can and will help you keep your head on your shoulders, whether you’ve just lost your way or have been thrown into a post-collapse society.
• Motivate yourself — For some people, the idea of reuniting with their family and friends is what gives them the strength to hold on. For others, it’s the thought of a higher power looking out for them and placing them on the best course. A few people may simply want to survive so that they can go back to a normal life once a crisis has passed. Different people have different motivations, and it’s up to you to discover who or what gives you hope when things look bleak.
• Learn to adapt — Refusing to adapt to your current situation is a one-way ticket to disaster. You may have been able to afford certain luxuries in your normal life, but none of that will matter when currency means nothing and the comforts you’ve grown accustomed to are gone. Don’t bother clinging to certain routines, customs, or beliefs if they’re to your detriment. Make the change, go with the flow, and kill your stubborn streak.

If you’d like to learn other valuable survival skills, visit Survival.news today for in-depth guides.

Sources include:

ThePreppingGuide.com

OutdoorLife.com