While most groups and forums deal heavily with a focus on food and gear, there are many other items that you need to understand to be a well prepared prepper. Stress management is one of those items.
How well do you handle stress? This is a question you need to answer honestly. You are the only one who will have to hear the answer, so please be honest with yourself. Stress can be a dangerous thing. And knowing how to deal with it can be a life saver.
There are two sides to stress management. Your stress and other people’s stress. Your first focus should be on learning how to deal with your own stress. There are a ton of techniques out there and finding the one that works best for you may take some time but it is time very well spent.
Stress can cause negative effects on the body. Short term effects can be headaches, nausea, high/low blood pressure and more. Long term stress can cause heart problems, diabetes, depression, asthma and other things. Stress can also cause you to make poor decisions. In a SHTF situation, a bad decision may be your last decision.
The second focus of stress management is learning how to help others cope with their stress. When you are in a group (and you should be) what effects one will effect all. One person’s health problems or bad decisions will be everyone’s problem. So it’s just as important to know how to help others deal with their stress.
In a SHTF situation, stress will be a given.
Through years of practice I’ve developed a way to keep me calm by closing my eyes, slowing my breathe and visualizing the stress leaving my body. It works quickly for me, again because I’ve practiced it. The few times it hasn’t worked (for really high stress situations) I’ve used Wim Hof breathing. This is a great technique to learn for yourself and to help others deal with their stress.
So take some time to figure what stress reducing techniques work for you.
