HOW TO SURVIVE series

SURVIVAL IN THE CITY

What’s gonna happen if things get a bit crazy? How crazy could things get?

These are things we all worry about, they circulate around in the back of our minds like a background white noise.

In this series we introduce small steps we can all take to survive wherever we are… Honestly no one knows the answers, there are so many ideas floating around on the web from really positive to really negative. It is so hard to negotiate these things and to stop dwelling on the dark side asking “What if?”.

HOW CAN YOU FEEL BETTER ABOUT YOURSELF AND GET READY FOR SURVIVAL?

For any sort of Survival scenario you will need to be physically fit, mentally fit and strong enough to deal with the knowledge and techniques of survival. It is no use having skills and knowledge but not being in a fit state to use it. So what do you need to do? I can’t do it for you or give you all the answers but I can share what I do and any thoughts people have shared with me.

MENTALLY FIT

What is your view of the world, and how does it worm its way into your head? All these things affect us, the media is key to us feeding the fear in ourselves so how do you stop it?

First, I stopped watching the news and reading the papers. Politicians have behaved so badly in the past to our cost and yet nothing really happens, they just carry on. Have the government ever done anything that benefits the people that does not benefit them and their tribe even more? Haven’t they been caught lying to us again and again and we still listen to them, allow them to rule our lives? Think hard about all the crap they do and get away with, why the hell are we even listening to them?

We all love to be on social media, watch movies, watch TV, watch sports and these things make us happy but guess what, when that feeling goes away, we are still left with the shit storm. In Roman days it was the circus in the Coliseum that kept the people blind to the shit storm, but like all escapes they get normalised so those in power just step up the ante and bring more violence and sexualisation in to the spectacle being fed to the masses. See where I am going with this?

TAKE A BREAK from it all, spend half a day, then slowly build it up to two or three days (not a lot really changes in three days, if there is an emergency you will know via your mates).

Keep away from the BS (even try turning your phone off!!! OMG what the fuck am I saying?) getting back to yourself. I know this is not easy but find a way. Maybe you need to revisit stuff you liked to do back in the day, running, skateboarding, drawing whatever it was. If you’re not feeling anything look for something new, something physical to get back in touch, martial arts is a good one and also has practical use.

A LOT of people start feeling anxiety when they turn away from their tried and tested escapes. Even as a regular part of every day, you wake up and realise it is not a dream, anxiety ties a knot in your stomach so you reach out for your usual escape... Millions of us wake up like this every day: anxiety, feelings of helplessness and powerlessness. How can you manage that feeling? There is loads of advice on the internet but it is easy then to slide back in to escapism, back into the world of the internet...

This is the exercise for anxiety I use to get past those feelings. It resets your brain activity to some degree and requires a minimal amount of focus.

Close your eyes

1. Breathe in deeply through your nose.
2. Breathe out through your mouth like blowing through a straw.
3. Repeat 5 times, or more.
4. Open your eyes and look around, concentrate and say 5 things you can see out loud.
5. Then touch four things and say their name out loud.
6. Then say out loud three things you can hear.
7. Then say out loud two things you can smell.
8. Then say out loud one thing you can taste.

Yeah I know, sounds stupid and someone might see you and think you are nuts. Seriously though, who gives a fuck if it works? There are some good reasons why this works, it is all about disengaging from the fight or flight part of your brain and re-engaging the rest of your brain. All the exercises are great BUT only if they work for you. If you have something that works for you why not share it? You aren’t alone in feeling this way, in fact at the moment just about everyone does.

WAKING UP

All that time we have spent running away from reality, being faced with big questions and ignoring them, not looking into things more on the internet, believing the hype and - worst of all - ignoring our gut feelings, which are our early warning systems. BUT if you keep walking away from your gut feeling, guess what? Yeah that’s right it stops working so well. How many times have you had a bad feeling about something and gone ahead and done it and UH OH!! We all have, but you really need to get that shit reinstated or you aren’t gonna get through any crazy times... This helped humans survive for millions of years so WTF are you thinking about not taking notice? And, yes you guessed it, all your escapism is pulling you away from your early warning system. You can have all the survival knowledge in the world but without your gut feeling it ain’t worth shit. Luckily it is not too late, like a muscle and exercise, your brain and learning it just needs to be exercised.... When you hear something scary stop and listen: not to your brain, not to your heart. Listen to your gut... it won’t let you down.

WORK-OUTS

Exercising is another way to stop anxiety and a great way to manage your break from social media. Do it right and you get high as the endorphins are released. However you choose to exercise, it could be push ups, sit ups or pull ups in your house. It doesn’t matter if you can only do one or two to begin with, that’s where we all started and don’t overdo it from the start. You need to push yourself but not do any damage. When you start out there are lots of ways to break down the exercise so it is easier. With push ups you can be on your knees rather than your toes or you can be on your knees and pushing up with your hands on the sofa. The most important thing is to do it regularly, make a plan and stick to it. To get the really good endorphin high you need to do the cardio thing like running or jogging or skipping. Lockdown is shit but just buy (or borrow) a dog lead so if you get pulled you can say you were walking the dog and it slipped off the lead.

I hope that maybe some of you are finding some of this helpful.

Reflect….is it worth 10min of your day to perhaps implement one or more of the items mentioned above?