Embarrassed By Your Survival Skills? Here's what you need to do

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Survival Skills Suck? Here’s What You Need To Do

You think that your survival skills aren’t good enough? Well. At least you’re being honest about it. So that’s not exactly a bad start.

Think of it this way, you’re much more in touch with reality than the other 99%, many of whom think that prepping is a weird hobby for paranoid people, so good job at admitting your problem!

The only way to stop being embarrassed about your survival skills is to improve them.

Here are five things that you can do today to Improve Your Survival Skills:

1) Learn to start a fire:

It doesn’t get more basic than this. Once you can build a fire without matches or a lighter, it will do your confidence a world of good.

Fire has innumerable uses:

It provides comfort, light and warmth.
It enables you to cook food and boil water for drinking.
It can protect you against wild animals and it’s a great way to signal for rescue.
In times of stress, fire can improve your mood and help you think straight.

Today, lighting a fire in the wild has become pretty easy, thanks to fire starters. However, it is recommended that you learn to do it the old school way – by creating friction between two pieces of wood. The intense friction results in an ember, which can be used to light up dry grass and wood shavings.

Please understand that you’ll not get better simply by simply reading about survival – you have to actually practice what you’ve read. How about you try to start a fire today in your backyard? (Just don’t burn the house down) Surely you can find a couple of pieces of wood – a dry branch is all you need. This video will help you to understand the process better:

2) Get good with knots:

Knots have a number of potentially life-saving applications. They can be used to create temporary shelters and to form makeshift spears by attaching knives or sharp rocks to long sticks or branches. Knowledge of knots is indispensable for navigating

Knowledge of knots is indispensable for navigating steep inclines, making fishing poles, animal traps, rafts and so on.

You can learn to tie various knots right now, without any special equipment – just an old shoe lace is good enough for practicing. Contrary to popular perception, knots are not difficult and you don’t need to know a zillion of them. Just the 5 basic knots illustrated in this video are useful in just about every survival scenario. They are also pretty handy in day-to-day life.

3) Learn to build a temporary shelter:

Many people think that learning to build a shelter is a un-needed skill. Their logic is that you could always sleep under a tree or enter some kind of empty building in an urban scenario.

Well here’s a fun fact: human beings can only stay alive for 3 hours if their body temperature is unregulated. In simple terms, if your body becomes too hot or too cold, you won’t be able to last more than a few hours.

Temporary shelters provide protection from the elements (harsh sunlight, rain and fierce cold and wind). Coupled with the knowledge of building fires and tying knots, a shelter can save your life by preventing the onset of hypo/hyperthermia. Check out these videos to learn more about shelters:

4) Assess your present situation:

When it comes to survival (and most other things in life), your attitude is far more important than your skills. You can be better prepared for a SHTF situation just by doing some basic research and using a bit of (un)common sense. A simple google search will tell you which natural calamities are most likely to befall your particular region.

Here are a few examples:

If you live in Japan or California – you have to prepare for quakes.
If you live in Florida, flooding is almost inevitable.
Some areas of the world are especially prone to terrorist attacks.
Those living in Siberia or Alaska need to know how to survive in extreme cold if the power supply is cut off.

You need to have a practical plan to tackle the survival scenarios that you are most likely to encounter.

Let’s take this scenario: A person who lives in a neighborhood with a high crime rate should be ready to defend his/her property against burglars. The scenarios are different for everyone and there are many variables such as age, physical fitness, number family members, pets etc. Assess your situation and nurture your skills accordingly.

5) Learn to make safe & drinkable water:

We have polluted this earth so much that it is often unsafe to drink water directly from lakes, rivers, ponds and streams. Every year, millions of people die due to water-borne diseases. These diseases are especially rampant in refugee camps and other congested settings due to high levels of contamination.

Humans can’t survive without water for much longer than two days. More than three fourths of the human body is comprised of water. Hence, your ability to procure potable water is crucial for your survival. Make sure your bug-out bag has a portable water purification unit and a metal cup for boiling water.

You can also learn about new ways of obtaining water in the desert by watching the following videos, and how to purify it by reading THIS blog post.