self-awareness, how important are self-awareness skills, natural disasters and self-awareness meld.

Yes, mistakes are all about learning. I tell my grand-kids "That's how we learn,
by making mistakes", but there are no mistakes then, are there?

Each month has many special days, today October 18, 2018, is National "No Beard Day", OK, I can celebrate that. Be "Bald and Free" day was celebrated on the 12th of this month, I can celebrate that as well.

The theme for the entire month has been dedicated to "Awareness", I will expand that to "Self-Awareness", let us get started.

Awareness is one of the Trinity for survival, accepting personal responsibility and self-reliance complete the trio. Being aware of our personal limitations, as well as what we excel at are instrumental in surviving a catastrophic event. There are many parts of what makes up our individual knowledge, and skills, normally it is an ongoing learning process that takes place during our entire lifetime. Proactive measures taken well before a disaster strikes is what will determine how well we will survive, that is where Self-Awareness comes in.



October is Awareness month

We all have a level of being "self-aware", but to put that in a practical and usable concept is not always cut and dry. We must be truthful with ourselves while declaring our shortcomings, and those things we know well. It is difficult to take an inventory of our knowledge and how it relates to our emergency planning, is it something we jot down in our family disaster plan? It is not a task to declare outright months before something takes place, but instead a conversation that takes place between survivors during a trying period. Everyone is good a something, many things actually, but no-one is good at everything.

Survival during a Calamity is a community activity, humans are social animals and we rely upon each other even during the best of times. Co-operation during an event between neighbors, friends, and family is essential for our survival. 60% of us do not have any emergency plans or supplies on hand at all, 30% of us do, most have supplies for their own family members. That places the people that took the time and effort to plan and store supplies to be leaned on to assist the others. Self-awareness is realizing beforehand that this will take place, and when it is accepted that it is a fact of life it makes dealing with the event a bit easier. Federal agencies that are responsible for reacting to national emergencies recommend we each have a three-day emergency kit. I advocate having a seven-day backpack.

Included in the kit should be a copy of the family emergency plan, it will raise the self-awareness of the people affected and they will know what actions they are responsible for. When a plan is constructed well in advance of an event it can be practiced, modified, and discussed adding further to the group's confidence. The plan will also inspire us to learn more about the subjects we are tasked with, for instance, water purification. Perhaps stirring our curiosity to explore further survival skills and techniques, preparing for disaster melds into our lifestyles. Build or purchase a kit, know what is in it, and how to use everything. Building the kit ourselves raises our level of awareness, it takes considerable thought to put together supplies for survival during an unpredictable and unknown catastrophic event.

Build your own, or purchase a commercially prepared one.

Only the person building the kit knows what to store in it, that is one of the advantages of putting one together ourselves. There are numerous websites, and blogs with suggestions on what we all will need during such an occurrence. Some lists are loaded with self-protection, some subscribe to leaving town, and others are dedicated to staying at home as long as possible. It all becomes overwhelming after a short while, it is confusing and as human nature dictates, we are reluctant to the idea of not doing it correctly. Self-Awareness is about that confidence, we must simply prepare in a manner that we are most comfortable with. Prudence tells us to realize that we are not attempting to prepare to carry on life with all of the luxuries we are accustomed to, 80% is a good goal, but not practical. Awareness of that fact is also instrumental in aiding to our survival, everyone's needs are different, no one else can prepare for us. There is no correct or incorrect way to prepare as long as mobility, versatility, and planning are all part of the mix. The kit should be of the proper weight to handle without trouble. Versatile enough to be able to adapt to not one but however many disasters our locale may have the potential of being affected by. Planning will make it all logical, we have a tendency to react to emergencies as we have been trained, practicing the plan pays off.

(Follow this Link to EmergencyKitsPlus.com)

Start today, right now, FEMA has templates available (Link), I post this link in many of my blogs. Include the entire household in the planning, buy-in from the younger children and teenagers is critical to having a successful plan.

I read a story recently of a Lady (and Mother) who took it upon herself to write an emergency plan, she filled out the template, bought the kits, and put everything together perfectly. One mistake was made, she did not include her family, when the first practice came the family was taken by surprise, they had no idea a plan was in existence. Luckily it did not come to light during an evacuation, she was able to re-group after realizing what had taken place. Her suggestion in the blog is to make sure to include everyone on the planning from the beginning. That caused a substantial rise in her awareness level as well as her families, I'm confident she enacted an excellent plan which has the potential to save her families lives.


We are aware of how long our commute takes normally when the baby takes a nap, most of our day to day activities are predictable. When it comes to our awareness of being prepared for the mega-quake or tsunami that has been predicted for many decades 60% of us drop the ball. Granted 30% of any population will take the path of skepticism and never accept warnings or allow scientific evidence to alter their anchored ideas. That's fine and understandable, we all have our own personalities and see the world in a different light. However it is important for us to at least be aware of the possibility that something may happen, and if it does happen it is to our advantage to recognize it when it arrives at our door. Awareness is in that aspect more important than building a kit or putting a family plan together, having the where with all to have a quart of water and which way to run would be the basis of this.

OK, sometimes we can predict when they will take a nap.

A problem that becomes evident during an event is that help does not arrive in a timely manner. Effectively that places us in the position of being a victim, just the opposite of being self-reliant, and we are then in the place of zero awareness. Frankly being a victim is the polar opposite of what the 60% has in mind, it makes no sense to me for them to procrastinate in their survival awareness. The first responders are there to assist us in our survival, some need more than others, the elderly, handicapped, and disabled are a few. The rest of us should be aware of that and be prepared for our own survival until help arrives, healthy people will be at the end of the list.

Being aware of the basics of any natural disaster could be a life-saver as well, Flood water is dangerous, we need to know how dangerous and what makes it so. Hurricanes create Tornadoes, understanding where and what intensity are vitally important as well. A simple list of possible catastrophic events that we may suffer is a giant step ahead, again it raises our self-awareness bolstering our confidence when an event takes place. Being aware of the threats that are created by it are important as well, snakes in floodwater, carbon monoxide in the basement, and the knowledge of the possibility of gas or sewage leaks may save our lives.

I am worried I have added to the overwhelming feeling that many of us in this niche provoke in people, good grief you may be saying another one of those guy's. Actually not, my advice to my grandkids is when they are new to an environment to enter it with their "Eyes wide open", it's also the name of a movie. It is my attempt to make their awareness as natural as possible, which I believe it does, my advice to all of us is just that. Go into it with your eyes wide open, it explains everything I have written here. It does pay dividends, one of my grandsons worked for Disney World in Orlando, he moved there from California, he lived two blocks from the massacre at the Pulse nightclub. Though he was on the street the night it happened, he evaluated the situation, turned around and went home, he was scared but he made sense of the situation on the run.

We each may decide for ourselves if a bunker is in our future.

That's what this blog is all about, being aware of our surroundings, aware of the potential threats both predictable and not. We generally focus on huge disasters, but they don't have to be for them to be a life-altering event for us. Tornadoes as horrible but they are generally do not involve an entire state in their destructive path, but the entire community is involved in the recovery. Hurricanes and flooding are more widespread often they do cripple an entire state. Civil uprising's are local, it is rare for a riot to spread into an entire city, rarer yet to involve other cities nearby. On a more personal level a disaster could be the slamming of a finger in a car door, having a terrible toothache, or being told of a devastating disease are examples. It doesn't have to include hundreds of people to be a disaster, just ourselves will do. Catastrophes are at times more dependent on our reaction to them than the severity of the actual event if we are aware they may happen our reaction will be more tempered if we are prepared we will be more confident. Self-Awareness is the key, gathering as much information as possible we are then able to go into it with our eyes wide open, and that will see us through anything.

Thanks for reading and sharing my blog, Self-Awareness, Self-reliance and accepting Personal responsibility are the keys to surviving a natural disaster, going into everything with our eyes wide open doesn't hurt a thing.

jacquesandkate EmergencyKitsPlus.com