Create an emergency preparedness plan.
I think my best defense has always been a strong offense. I’m not a die hard sports fan, but I love a good sports metaphor. Still there is much I don’t get. Like when the home team is losing or things get tense, the fans in the stands always chant ‘defense ‘defense’ and I wonder why don’t they chant ‘offense’?
Being defensive has never worked for me. Pushing on, stepping forward, moving toward something gives me a much better feeling than holding tight.
Most of the emergencies Ive lived through were extremely unexpected and had surprising variables. What helped me the most were things like staying calm, thinking outside the box and listening to my own intuition. Rather than hunkering down or listening to anyone panicking around me, I’ve done better by acting calmly with purpose and attention.
My best preparation has been to fortify my own inner and outer terrain. When I practice staying in a calm state, when I do yoga, when meditate regularly, I am preparing for all unexpected life occurrences, some of which are emergencies. The way I prepare is different than when I was younger, before I lived through things like a school shooting, a baby in nicu, divorce, loved ones battling cancer and ,addiction, losing a home, losing a business, losing work, a global pandemic, financial crisis etc. I know that by taking the time to ‘sharpen my saw’ (as the saying goes), in this case the saw is me, I will be as prepared as I can be to confront whatever I have to.
I used to be all about flash lights and canned food, water and matches, hidden cash etc the usual kind of physical preparedness, but on top of those things, I regularly exercise my mind and body so I have some amount of mental and physical fortitude to rely on.
My friend calls them cosmic 2x4s. They usually don’t show up when you are ready, at least that has been my experience. Emergencies tend to surprise us.
We moved our family across the country in late fall of 1999. Y2K was sending many people to preparedness training. Since then I’ve come up with my own version of preparedness training. I think being prepared is a very independent, everyone is so different, needs are complicated, personal strategy. I wish everyone luck with their version.
Peace Kit 