Survival training and application is almost always focused on gear selection. Certainly, gear pieces can help us out of a mess. Real world examples of survival in practice tell us however that developing your mindset, skills, tactics, and gear is the way to go. In this video, Craig Caudill from Nature Reliance School shows us how to develop each piece of survival and preparedness knowledge, as well as some of the most common pitfalls that people fall victim to in training and in real life.
Survival and Preparedness Through Experiential Wisdom
A lot of people ask survival experts what they should do to make sure that they don’t get injured, hurt, or have a fatal incident during a wilderness survival situation. Some people think that skill is enough to get them through a life or death condition. Others may say that all it takes is the mindset and the will to live.
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Before you all put your thoughts and experiences into any efforts, Craig Caudill gives us four practical approaches on survival:
1. Mindset Development
Prepare yourself now for the eventuality that you will be in a survival situation. Learn how to still yourself. Get a stronger gut reaction to being outside, so that you can be more prepared mentally. This will help you:
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- Control your ego
- Be more aware of your surroundings
- Learn how to deal with stress
- Calm yourself
- Aid in making more appropriate decisions
- Do what needs to be done in a wilderness situation, so that you can stay safe
2. Practice Your Skills Under Stress
The problem with focusing solely on skills once we have them is that we can’t replicate the conditions people find themselves in a wilderness survival scenario. Even with decent skill sets, small things may happen unexpectedly and cause stress, which can lead to poor decisions. This, in turn, leads to a snowball effect and ends in tragedy.
Overcome that effect by practicing your skills under stress. Put yourself under certain weather conditions or stressful situations. Practice using the ferro rod, or maybe set up survival shelters, with the use of only one arm or one leg – then do it with minimal or no light. Creating a simulated drill under stress are just some of the ways to sharpen your skills.
3. Employ Tactics
What happens when you have to involve your family in a real world disaster or survival situation? Make a strategy or plan and work that plan so you can survive; regularly get together with the people that surround you; make sure you engage your family or whoever it is you live with; work with people that live around you. With these previous experiences under your belt, you'll know that you have the ability to work with others.
4. Don't Depend On Your Gear Too Much
It sure makes your life a lot easier, but the downside is we can become dependent on the gear. In this case, we run the risk of not being able to function at 100% – or at all – without it. There’s always a risk of losing your gear. It could also break or get lost. Study and learn about how the indigenous cultures survived without gear. With this, your chance of survival is still high even without any gear.
Additional Pointers For Survival:
Death By GPS
This is when GPS takes you off in a wrong turn, and you can’t get back to where you’re trying to go because you relied too much on it, rather than your senses. Always remember to stay with the vehicle and be sure to rely on your own survival and preparedness skills over your technology.
Let Somebody Be In The Know
Make sure you inform someone where you’re going and when you expect to return. If something happens to you, and you don’t return to the prescribed time, somebody can get help to you sooner rather than later.
Overall, you have to practice your survival and preparedness skills through various realistic scenarios. This way, you get to stock up on your wisdom through experience, which will increase your chances of getting out alive.
Do you have any ideas on survival and preparedness you might want to add? Add them in the comments below!
Here are some six basic wilderness survival skills you might want to learn about!
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