Posts Tagged ‘first step’

2 Aug

Recovery – Things are going to be ok no matter what

Posted by Bprep4 in Beginning preppers, Emergency Planning, Emotional Recovery, Emotional Survival, food storage, Preparedness, Readiness, Recovery, Survival. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , .

When I think about my recovery from situations in my life I find a common statement:

Things are going to be ok  – NO MATTER WHAT!

*

And that is because I have prepared and planned it that way through mental preparedness and meditation.

*

There is a reason I am where I am. I tell myself. Be it that God has me there or the Universe scheduled my path to experience a few hardships. What do I have to learn here? In these circumstances I have found incredible strengths.

*

Stepping into the hospital a couple years ago for a major surgery scared the hell out of me.

Harold Wilkins walks through rubble left by Hu...

Harold Wilkins walks through rubble left by Hurricane Andrew (Photo credit: State Library and Archives of Florida)

I hadn’t been that frightened since Hurricane Andrew was pointing it’s wicked energy our way and we looked like we were in its path for certain.

All I really could do in either situation was sit still within, find productive activities,  be at peace, and put my faith and life in the hands of my creator for the moment. Neither situation was a lengthy process, thankfully. That awful storm didn’t reach West Palm. My surgery was a painful patch but I had prepared mentally and in other ways as well.

Food storage on both accounts carried me through these crisis. In the hurricane scare, bread, water, and batteries were gone in the stores. We planned well, so we had a good supply. We adapted. We would have set up camp in our backyard and gone about life as close to usual as possible. During the hurricane warnings in the days before we gathered gasoline, water, and set up our home to ride out the monster. We even had a john boat in the front room in case we had to float our family out of a flooded home.

In the surgery recovery, I relied on the foods I had that would help me to eat until the healing settled so I could work again. Setting up the sick room in my last week before my hospital visit I made sure I had anything and everything I needed to lay in that bed and rest, heal. I stocked the headboard with small water bottles, first aid supplies, small food containers like puddings and applesauce. I placed books and other items to help me bide the time. I camped out my recovery for 2 weeks. I was unable to work for months but through preparedness I was able to get the time I needed to become healthy once more.

I planned my recovery in both of these situations by devoting some thought to the What if’s. These experiences had me looking at how fragile our lives really are. If our surroundings are disturbed we still have our health, right? We no longer have the creature comforts we hold so dear but we still have our family, friends, good memories? Yes! We need those to strengthen our resolve. I will be ok! Everything that is dear to us is gone. But we still have so much to be grateful for. Hold onto those good things at times of crisis. This is your hope!

Meditation For Preparedness:

Lay beautiful things inside your mind for times like these. Meditations are wonderful examples of this. I have a meditation that involves the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi. I want you to know that I am not Catholic but I find this prayer a wonderful tool for clearing out troubles in my mind and spirit.

From Wikipedia:

St Francis in Prayer (copia)

St Francis in Prayer (copia) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.
 
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
 
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.

 

This prayer enlightens me to what is really important in life.

*

English: Waterfall

English: Waterfall (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As I do this I imagine a
cool, scene with a waterfall flowing into a pond.
*
Breathe in sets of six counts and exhale that breath in the same count.
*
This is where I settle.
*
This is my safe place, my sanctuary, my time out.
*
This is where I go when the day might get too heavy, stresses get too demanding, my schedule gets too crazy.
 
Where I will go in moments when I have to live out of my pantry or my 72 hour kit in moments I can spare out of my reality.
*
I will require a moment in time where I can reflect and  feel safe so I can recharge and press forward with action and not defeat my own purpose for preparedness with gloomy thoughts or standing still or overwhelming fear.
*
We must feed our spirit gratitude and light even if the world seems dark around us.
*
There must be hope. 
*
Keep moving in planning for emergencies!
*
 And keep moving if we are in a disaster.
*
Move always with purpose.
 

Prepared Mentally Healthy Excersizes

Preparedness is an excersize in living  healthy lives mentally no matter what. Providing the substances we need for food, hydration, tools to provide a back up plan to any situation where normal routines and life interruptions occur enable us to continue without much of an inconvenience. Sure, we will have to prepare our foods a little different if there were a lose of our home or an evacuation was necessary we will also have to prepare our minds to accept what ever comes our way. If the home is intact and we were just without electricity, that’s  a minor disruption if we did have the equipment to generate back up energy.

Ok, so we just have to do things a little different.

The Mind On Autopilot

In times of extreme shock or trauma humans go on auto pilot. Some folks go to panic. Soldiers have to be conditioned mentally and so should we. What have we trained our Auto pilot to do for us?

We plan to be in these situations so that when they do occur, we are not surprised we are merely redirected. In both circumstances I went into a numb state knowing I had to do certain things and just wait it out. There was no turning back or side stepping these events. They were happening!  I stood ready in both of these minor crisis to act if I needed to. Our mind does that for us. The aftermath of disasters if we are lucky enough to escape unharmed must be worked through. We will need time to adjust to new surroundings or life styles and lay in the foundation of a rebuilding. Coping with circumstances where we feel we have lost something or that something has been taken for us is not easy. It requires a mindset telling us not to harbor anger, sadness, doubt, dispair. The emotions certainly will be normal and they are going to happen.

We cannot let them stand in our way of being productive and healthy.

In the recovery of a 12 step program the first half of the first step is:

We admit we are powerless over _________ fill in the blank with what ever it is that has invaded your life. While there is very little we can do to control a situation we can take measures and actions to take us out of the center of it and find a new way to direct our thinking. Dwelling on the problems do us no good.

Taking affirmative decisions to live the best we can under our circumstances is a healthy way to begin recovery.

Related articles