This article first appeared in Preparing with Dave
Article by Dave at preparingwithdave.com
Our Personal Actions:
Here at the Preparing With Dave homestead, we keep tightening our belts around here figuratively in preparation, ahead of any possible disaster that closes the stores and strains emergency services. Nothing severe in starving, but merely changing the sources of food we eat and the need for many conveniences, both in supplies and stimulation of the mind.
This action is to lesson the amount of strain on our minds and bodies in the event of drastic change in our social and infrastructure environments. Yes, government services such as emergency services are an environment of sorts, as much as power and water systems. They are human-created environments of convenience. In there absence, many people will suffer and possibly die without supplied water, power, and emergency services of many types.
There are many areas of life that are human-created environments that are experienced by not only the needs of the body, but also of the mind. Humans do not live in closely social structures as much anymore. We are in our own houses, our own phones or computers, and many other types of technological environments we travel through and live within.
Let’s look at some areas where we here, are simplifying our lives and Tightening the Belt in Preparation Ahead of any Possible Disaster…
Simplifying Food and Supplies:
In the food and supplies area of our lives, we have simplified our diet in many ways to incorporate nutritionally and protein packed powders we use in smoothies to acclimate our bodies and minds to this way of eating prior to any disaster. Doing so, we have also become more healthy in the process of this action. Our cells of every part of our bodies are healthier, our probiotics are at high and diverse, and our immune systems are much stronger to fight off infections, bacteria, and viruses.
Powders are also lighter lighter than canned and jarred food, so if we had to relocate, more could be carried even if we were forced to travel on foot. We could actually carry one-hundred pounds of food in dry form and a small straw filter to survive for some time. Just find water, filter it, add the mix of powders, and drink. Simplified survival. Not total nutrition, but survival nutrition that is packed with vitamins and protein.
You can acquire or make your own dried powders. I would suggest Hemp Protein Powder, Tomato Powder, Maca Root Powder, Cacao powder, Chia Seed, Chlorella Powder, Citric Acid, and Flax Meal. These can be used in your everyday diet and easily rotated for freshness.
In other areas of supplies, we are making our own toothpaste and deodorant. The toothpaste is very simple to make with just baking soda, Himalayan Salt, and peppermint oil. This toothpaste can also be placed in the emergency pack, along with a bottle of peppermint oil that is also good for many other uses, including keeping insects away. I haven’t used shaving cream in many years, and my wife keeps it very simple yet beautiful in her grooming and make up.
Many foods that are normal in households, we do not have in our’s. We do not have potato chips, soda, candy, gum, ice cream, chip dips, frozen dinners, packaged pre-measured food mixes, cereal, rice, grains, bread, cake, pie, refined sugar, iodized salt, potatoes, and more. Our home is quite boring for anyone used to these items. We avoid grains and have relieved much inflammations and stomach discomforts. We hardly ingest any sugars, except those starches found in the fruits and vegetables we eat. We actually shop in about 2% of the grocery store now. Quality over quantity!
While our food and supplies are more basic than most regular lives of other people, the less we have the more relaxed and happy we have become. Less, has actually become more in the area of freedom and happiness in our lives. Less processed food and more naturally grown and prepared at home food, has given us more quality health and less pain and discomfort. Less manufactured products has given us more free money to use in other prep areas.
TV, Media, News Print:
Television is one of the largest tools to program and alter the thoughts, consciousness, and overall personal traits and actions of people, along with their belief system. The quality and overall character of the shows and programs has diminished in very fast in the last fifteen years into a drama fest and attacking of many healthy traits of character and discipline. We choose not to expose ourselves to dysfunction, there by, staying functional in reason and accountability to our beliefs of character and values.
Exposure to any outside influence will not only alter a person’s mind, but the drama aspect is like a sticky substance of addiction that will make some people feel uncomfortable without the drama in their life. Drama causes certain endorphin chemicals to be released into the body and can become an addictive situation.
Instant Gratification Syndrome:
People in modern societies of the world are presently living in an age where almost anything that is desired can be had almost instantly. There is no longer a waiting period of any substantial amount for anything, as long as you can or are willing to pay for a faster service to get whatever it is you want to you when you want it. A person can have almost anything, anywhere in the world, delivered to them overnight.
Even any news or information is raced to the people that want it, in a competition frenzy of the medias around the world. “You heard it first here”, is the cry of many networks. People are being programmed to feed on drama, and without it in a quieter survival situation of simply food, water, and shelter, a person might actually go insane from exposure to peacefulness. They will be driven by an internal programming force to actually create drama, in order to have a more familiar and comfortable environment that they are accustomed to.
As a prepper, we should be letting go of this dramatic technological programming, and be preparing our minds for a simpler life. That is the most severe scenario, where we are living off what we make from the earth and nature around us. Many people, including preppers, are not going to be able to easily handle the more simplistic lifestyle of TEOTWAWKI or SHTF scenario, where all power and technology is useless to pursue, due to the lack of people to maintain it and the more serious priority of securing food and water daily.
For this reason, we should be spending more time away from the use of technology, and use manual devices to do our work as much as possible, while limiting ourselves to only a minimal amount of artificial forms of entertainment. We should also be limiting our need for instant gratification in as many ways as possible, as lack of patience can affect our hunting, security, and even our safety in doing everyday survival chores. Frustration due to a lack of patience, can make a person react anxiously in there daily survival efforts, and possibly suffer a life-threatening injury from an inappropriate action.
This is why people describe off-grid living as “a slower pace of life”. If you hurry in the wilderness lifestyle and you get hurt, there is not a hospital a few blocks away. Thinking is a serious part of life in off-grid living. You must plan your moves wisely, to avoid injury or damage to what you have. A mistake in this way can ruin food, damage needed hides and make them useless, or cause you an injury that will limit your ability to due what is needed to survive.
We that are serious preppers must train for the worst and live happy lives, knowing that we are ready for however severely life changes for us and the world. That’s what prepping, or preparing as I like to say, is all about. Preparing for lifestyle changes brought on by a serious event of disaster, whether natural or unnatural. To wait until something serious happens, to start changing our overall mindset, is a recipe for insanity and not prepping at all.
It’s Not Just About Food and Water:
I always say this, because it is a fact. We all must preparing mentally, physically, spiritually, and in skills. Those skills are also mental skills, physical skills, and spiritual skills. If we do not train the mind, it is unprepared. If we do not train our bodies, they are unprepared. If we do not train our spirits and build a close relationship with them, we are not prepared closely together.
To train our minds, we must avoid drama-technology as much as possible. This exposure actually ruins the rational thought processes of the mind. Most of the shows on TV today are geared towards playing fun at dysfunctional living. They will not serve to grow a healthy thought process or a mentally stable and sound mind. We must consider real-life scenarios of disaster, conflict, and survival where we stay in the solution, rather than how TV dramas only stay in the problem. Hence dysfunctional!
To train our bodies, we must step away from all technology and have a physical relationship and respect for the thing that carries us around and helps us lift and utilize many everyday items, including bring food to our mouths. A living off-grid lifestyle requires a body that can accomplish many chores daily just to survive. More chores depending on the weather or terrain. If we wait until something happens, thinking that we will get in shape as we go, then we are not preparing. That is unless we are preparing to die.
If we are not building a relationship with our internal spirit, then we are not preparing to have that internal power drive us forward through severe adversities, comfort us through any craziness, or give us courage to walk or run through fear when we need to and fight for our lives. We must spend quiet time with our spirit to build a solid relationship, with our creator as our guide, or whatever your beliefs is in any specific or general way. The spirit of the universe or mother nature for example. To me, God is all the same with all people. Just different ways to say it. Same feeling and same origin inside where we communicate with that power.
We must learn many skill, at least in a general way, or we will be handicapped in the wilderness no matter how good of shape we are in with our bodies. We are not going to survive with just the clothes we have now. We are not going to survive on just meat alone. We have to learn plant, both edible and medicinal. We must learn to hunt and process even the smallest hides for shelters, bedding, clothing, and footwear. We must learn team skills with others, and bartering and trading skills, as well as basic mannerisms to avoid conflicts that can lead to long term battles.
We Must Let Go:
We as preppers, must let go of technology as much as possible. Networking is great, but we must also do our own time in prepping our minds, bodies, spirits, and training in our skills of mind, body, and spirit. We must let go of convenience as much as we can, even if we start small.
As we have done this in many areas of our lives, we have experienced healthier and happier minds, more peace in our hearts, more available money for preps, and an overall feeling of more freedom in general with life. Less shows to keep up with. Less money spent on foods that are unhealthy. Stronger thought processes that would be deemed as high intellectual ability. We have also become healthier, stronger, and leaning more towards going off-grid, because we are more prepared for the life-style away from technological convenience.
About the Author: Dave writes preparingwithdave.com. He created this page to share his experience, knowledge, actions, and continuing path with others. He hopes your tour around the website is informative and you continue to visit for updates and sharing of your comments. Please visit Dave, on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/preparingwithdave
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