When faced with a disaster, you might imagine that your plan of action should be to immediately get away from physical danger as soon as possible… and you wouldn’t be wrong. But today, we want to talk a little about physical danger that might not be visible at first: specifically, the stress that emergencies and disaster can cause you.
Life can be overwhelming even in the day-to-day so can you imagine how your body might react to a disaster such as an earthquake or hurricane? Small amounts of stress can be exciting (such as the adrenaline rush you get from extreme sports) but too much can take a toll on your physical and mental health. It can even disrupt and affect your digestion and muscles, causing tension, headaches, and constipation.
All of these are good reasons to get out of unhealthy stressful situations quickly… or in other words, escape!
At the same time, it’s impossible to know quite how you will react in an extreme situation, especially if you usually stay away from anxiety or adrenaline-inducing activities.
Will you stay and fight, or will you take flight? How will you handle yourself?
In order to prepare yourself physiologically for a disaster, it might not be a terrible to try something new that makes you a little uncomfortable. It doesn’t necessarily need to be extreme to anyone else. If simply cycling down a big hill makes you uncomfortable—do that! Whatever you do, try taking a step outside of your comfort zone in a manageable way might actually do you some good. If you get to know yourself a little better—and get to understand how you handle yourself when you’re faced with the unknown—you might find yourself thinking of disaster planning a little differently!
It might even seem less scary. And that’s what getting prepared, whether you’re building up a survival kit or going rappelling for the first time—is all about.
-Content created by Sophie Wooding – Writer, gardener, cyclist and emergency preparedness enthusiast!