Tag Archives: mind body spirit

When I Was Sick, An Introspection

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We’re (I’m) Not Superman
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I want to preface this by saying, I don’t get sick. Because of genetics, lifestyle choices, and dumb luck I’ve lived a healthy and active life. But last week I was sick. I had gastroenteritis, an unspecific medical diagnosis, commonly known as stomach flu. Maybe it was food poisoning (though both Sarah and I ate pretty much the same things), who knows. What matters is that it sucked. Really sucked.

Gastroenteritis is defined as “a medical condition characterized by inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract that involves both the stomach and the small intestine, resulting in some combination of diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal pain and cramping.” And I had it all. For over 24 hours I was miserable. Most of the time–when I wasn’t in the bathroom–all I could do was sit quietly on the couch; for a time I laid on the floor with my knees pulled up. It passed. Of course I lived. But I also learned.

I mention this because it made me realize that no matter how much we (including me, or as my wife would say “especially” me) view ourselves as superman, sometimes we’re not — we can’t be. Sometimes no matter how much desire there is to get up and do the job or even defend the home; physically there’s no way it’s going to happen. That afternoon, lying in an almost fetal position wishing the pain would stop, the most I might have been able to do would have been to crawl a short distance to get out of the way. I wanted to write about this soon after the incident because already my brain is starting to revise history, to minimize how bad I felt, and trying to justify that if I would have had to, I could have. But I can still remember how I felt laying there sweating, my gut spasming in intense pain, just trying to breathe.

I learned that we need to have redundancies built into our preparations, and not with stuff this time but with skills. If you can’t do it, who can? You don’t even have to be sick or hurt, maybe you’re just not there. Have you taught your spouse, partner, or children the skills that need to be done? Is there a family member, friend, or neighbor that has the knowledge and ability, and would be willing to help? Hopefully this person is nearby because maybe someone driving to your home isn’t an option (time or opportunity).

To be truly prepared for a disaster, or especially a collapse, we must have strong social support systems. We can’t survive on our own. Humans are social creatures. We’re meant to live in supporting communities to learn from, teach to, share with, barter with, care for, and protect each other.

Being Prepared In Body, Mind, and Spirit

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If we knew the world around us was going to collapse tomorrow we’d hope that we were as prepared as possible. We’d hope we had adequately covered our five basic needs of food, water, shelter, security, and energy. We’d hope we had built in redundancies for the unavoidable failures and shortcomings. We’d hope we had developed some type of community knowing we can’t survive alone.

But what kind of condition would your body be in? How are you physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually?

In the past couple of weeks I have gone to see both my dentist and my doctor (actually nurse practioner). Both visits were just normal check-ups. But the medical appointment was the first physical I have had since getting out of the military 13 years ago. What motivated me to finally go (medical-type people are the worst), was the same thing that’s motivated me on most of my projects and new endeavors over the last few years — the desire to be prepared.

Motivators in are lives our important. Most of us are intelligent and aware enough to know what we should do, but finding the time, desire, and motivation is hard. Most of need more motivation than, “just because I should.”

For example we all know that physically we should:

  • Exercise regularly. Thirty minutes of moderate, varied exercise five days a week.
  • Eat well. A moderate intake of a healthy variety of quality foods.
  • Drink plenty of fluids (especially water). Experts say that the amount should be two to three liters of water per day (more in hot weather or if you’re exercising heavily).
  • Get enough sleep. This means seven to eight hours of sleep, every night.
Prophylactically we can/should:
  • Have a physical exam. At my exam I found out my cholesterol was a little high and my Vitamin D was low; both things I can easily correct now that I know about them.
  • Have dental exam, and complete any needed work. I had the beginning of a couple of cavities; I’m sure they could wait, but I chose to get them taken care of now when there is easy access to dental care. Personally I’d rather avoid dental work during a collapse.
  • Ensure immunizations are current. I’m not talking about things like the flu shot (I choose not to get those), but I found out I needed a Hepatitis A vaccine and a tetanus booster. Both of those are diseases that could be rampant in a collapse.
  • Consider getting lasix eye surgery to correct your vision. Or stock up on lots of extra glasses, imagine going without.

But there are other ways to stay “fit” that we don’t  think of as much, like what do you do to keep your mind active? If you’re a prepper you’ve got this one covered already, because there is always so much out there to learn. But simple activities like doing crossword puzzles, sudoku, playing games, math in your head, anything that keeps the cognitive function, um, functioning and challenged on a regular basis.

What about your emotional health? This is one that many of us prefer to ignore, because “we’re fine, thanks.” But it is crucial to have a good emotional support system. How do you release the built-up stress of day-to-day activities? Maybe through exercise, meditation, music, talking, pets; it doesn’t really matter as long as you know what it is, and it is working for you. Knowing who you can you talk to when you’re down, a friend, a family member, a spiritual leader, a counselor; again the choice is yours, but there must be someone — there are times we all need someone to lean on.

Then there’s spiritual. This is an interesting one because we tend to be dichotomically divided here. Either religion/spiritualism/belief is a big part of our lives, or it isn’t at all. But I feel that people need something to believe in, something they see as bigger than themselves, something to strive for beyond this life.

Statistically speaking we know the world isn’t going to collapse tomorrow, or probably not even the next day. But I think we all believe that the world, as we know it, is going to have some major changes in the relatively near future. In a collapse I can only imagine that everything that can go wrong will go wrong. Physical problems will surface with the increased amount of physical effort required. Stress, anxiety, depression will be compounded exponentially. Little issues, that we all have and may just be inconveniences now, will no longer be able to be hidden away when you’re hungry, tired, scared, in pain, cold, worried, and lonely.

No one can be responsible for taking care of your body but you. It’s not being selfish to take care of yourself; if you don’t take care of yourself then you can’t take care of anyone else. Make it a priority to be ready.

(Wednesday: Momma Bear)