Survival Self Care

Mental Health Is Just As Important As Physical Health

When you’re in a survival situation, there are many things you have to be focused on at once. From food and water to shelter, self-defense and more, you have to keep yourself and your family protected at all times.

You’ll need to make sure that you take care of your physical needs, but at the same time, you can’t neglect your emotional health. By practicing good survival self-care, you’ll be able to not only exist, but to thrive when your environment isn’t optimal or it’s way outside of your normal comfort zone.

There are many issues when it comes to self-care. In normal times, we tend to think of relaxation and luxuries such as facials, massages and more. But in survival mode, you may need to enact a simpler regimen that keeps spirits up and prevents your body from beginning to break down.

Keeping Your Mind and Soul Calm in Survival Mode

You might believe you’re taking care of every single physical need that you have, but if you’re not addressing your emotional health when you’re in survival mode, then you’re not going to fare well physically over time.

Being anxious and worried all of the time will have an impact on your health and on top of whatever else you have going on around you, you certainly don’t need the added pressure of dealing with that issue.

There are plenty of things that you can put into practice so that you are able to remain calm despite living in chaotic times. One thing that you can do is to practice meditation. This is something that can be done even if you’re a complete beginner.

You don’t have to have any special resources, either. Though it’s sometimes thought of as a religious habit, meditation is not associated with any specific religion. It’s simply a technique. Many of us do it without even realizing we’re doing it. Those times you find yourself looking at a fire or a burning candle for long periods of time are meditative moments.

To do it, all you have to do is practice the way that you focus your attention. You can do this through mindfulness, which is a form of meditation. Other forms of this habit are focused meditation.

This is where you keep your mind trained on an item or a particular thought and doing so allows you to reach a level of extreme calm. You can also practice mantra meditation. Most people new to this will find their mind jumping from topic to topic and that’s perfectly normal. Let your mind wander around as we’re so used to that in our hyper world. You’ll soon find yourself slowing it down and allowing those thoughts to begin to drift away like cartoon bubbles.

This is when you use a word or phrase or even a sound to still your emotions and calm the mind. Journaling is another habit that you can form that will help keep your mind at ease and allow you to feel peace during tumultuous times.

Writing down your thoughts or what you’re thankful for can boost your mood as well as establish a habit of mindfulness. When you journal, you can take the things within you that are interfering with your ability to remain calm or your worries and by writing them down, you’re getting them off your shoulders and freeing up your mind’s clutter.

Coloring is something else that you can engage in to ease your mind and find peace in chaos. There’s a scientific reason that this activity works to help you in a fearful situation.

When you color, the activity works on the part of the brain that has the ability to control your emotions, and it relaxes and quiets the mind. This is one reason that adult coloring books have become so popular recently.

You’ll want to take time away from keeping up with an influx of news or information when you’re in survival mode. While a little bit of information to keep you up to date is a good thing, a constant diet of having the same news fed to you nonstop is bad for your emotional health. It keeps you revved up and doesn’t allow your mind to have a break from the situation.

Maintaining Good Spirits in the Household

When a crisis occurs, the adults often go into survival mode and completely cast aside self-care. It’s no wonder they end up frazzled and anxious. If you’re in the thick of chaos, the worst thing that you can do is neglect your down time or the things that relax you or make you laugh.

Most people automatically think about what they’re going to do in a bad situation to keep their children entertained. They want to keep their kids happy so that their minds aren’t constantly focused on what’s going on.

Having something fun to do is a way of giving comfort to kids. But it’s just as important that you make sure you have that comfort, too. You can break out the board games that you’ve spent years amassing or that you’ve stockpiled for such a situation.

Many people don’t realize that something as simple as a board game has the power to bring on relaxation no matter what else is going on. That’s because as you play, a part of your brain releases dopamine, which is also known as the feel-good hormone.

When your body receives a boost of this, you’ll feel happy and satisfied - even if everything around you isn’t going well. Plus, as you play a game and others are playing too, there’s bound to be some laughter.

Laughter lowers stress, which in turn can make you feel better and lessen any anxiety you might be experiencing. In addition to playing games with kids or other family members, you can also play games with your pet.

Even something as simple as a game of catch with your dog is a great way to stay in good spirits. Just owning a pet and caring for it has been proven to lower stress levels, so soak up those puppy cuddles whenever you need them.

You can also use things like activity books. There are some for kids and some that are specifically for adults and contain all kinds of different things to do. For example, some of them will include things like search-a-word.

Or they might have coloring pages. Others will have portions filled with brain games - like solving a crime. You can even find some adult activity books that are all about favorite characters, television shows or movies.

There are puzzles that you can buy, too. You can find these in small sizes - such as 100 piece puzzles that you can play so that you get a quick way to relax. But you can also find them in larger and more challenging sizes.

If you have some puzzle board and puzzle glue, you can turn the puzzle into a picture when you’re done, which is also a way to not only relax, but to create art as well. Doing art projects is a good way to take care of yourself.

You can get some paint by number projects, paint sheets, blank canvases for freestyle painting - or you can even paint what’s in nature, such as rocks. The kids will love doing these activities with you, too.

Feeling Human in Inhumane Conditions

When your normal way of life is disrupted, your living conditions can take a drastic downturn. When the conditions that you’re living in are bad, it can weigh on your mental health.

It can cause anxiety, stress and even depression. But just because the world around you has turned upside down, it doesn’t mean that you can’t find a way to overcome bad living conditions.

When a survival situation occurs, you might find that you no longer have any running water. That’s one of the issues that bothers people. Because without running water, the majority of your daily activities are suddenly disrupted.

You can’t shower or get a drink out of the faucet when you need to. You can just flush the toilet. When this kind of disruption occurs, you want a solution - and fast. You’ll feel better when you’re clean and this is the main reason that you want to find an alternative when your running water isn’t working.

One of the things that you can use is a solar shower. The sun works to heat the water that’s in a container and you can use the tubing and shower head to get clean that way. There are some portable showers that are super inexpensive and easy to use.

They work by pulling the water directly from a container. So you can store rain water in a rain barrel, let it get sun warmed and then shower this way. If necessary, you can also take a sponge bath.

Or, you can use collected water in a portable bathtub. These are designed for adult or children sizes and many can be folded and tucked away or brought along if you’re in a bug out situation.

If you’re going to use the water for things like brushing your teeth, make sure you use a decontaminate in the water first. You can also wipe off with baby wipes or waterless bath gels.

There are also things like dry shampoo to keep your hair from feeling greasy. You’ll want to stock up on soap that will store for years, because not all of them will. You can get soap flakes, too.

But if you’re buying bar soap, keep in mind that the plain or the ones with fewer ingredients in the soap, the better it is for long term storage. One of these is Ivory soap.

If you need something to stock up on so you have a way to wash your dishes, you’re going to want to get something like Dawn dishwashing liquid - because even if you don’t have access to hot water, it’ll still work to clean your dishes.

In the old days, to wash hands, water was poured into a bowl or basin, and everyone used the same water throughout the day. In a pinch, this will work for you as well. Toilet paper is one of those necessities that you hope you never have to be without.

It’s hard to imagine, but toilet paper didn’t always exist, and people had to use other alternatives. You can do the same if you have to. You can use dampened newspapers or other paper.

You can also use cloth squares that you use a strong disinfectant on and keep for reuse. There are portable bidets you can buy that cost less than $20. You can also get baby wipes - or in a dire situation, you can use certain leaves.

Just make sure you know what kind of leaves are safe to use in your location. You don’t want to use anything that will cause an allergic reaction or rash. Toilet paper may not seem like one of the most important things when compared to food and water, but as we saw in the beginning of the pandemic, it was one of the first items to sell out and become unavailable.

Keeping Your House Clean in Survival Situations

When you’re in a survival situation, you want to keep yourself clean, but you also want to keep your house clean. In the event that your situation means you have no way to use electricity, you need an alternate way to vacuum your carpet.

Years ago, before the rise in popularity of vacuum cleaners, most people simply swept their carpets. It’s not quite as effective as using a vacuum cleaner, but the broom can help remove some dust and debris and can help you get in the nooks and crannies of your rooms.

If you’re worried about stirring up dust from the dirt and debris in the carpet, all you have to do is slightly dampen the bristles on the broom to prevent this. As you sweep, don’t try to go in several directions.

Choose to sweep in either a horizontal or vertical motion for the entire length of the carpet. When you gather up all the dirt and debris, sweep it into a dustpan and dump it into the garbage can.

You’ll want to use a broom with stiff bristles rather than a corn or straw one because those bristles have a tendency to break off when sweeping carpet. If for some reason, you can’t or don’t like the idea of using the broom method, then you can pull up the dirt and things like pet fur just by using tape.

Though packaging tape is the method that works best, you can use duct tape. But keep in mind that looser areas of carpet tend to come up because duct tape is stronger. All you need to do is peel off sections of tape and fold them into circles that are wide enough for your hand.

You can put these circles of tape on your hand and press your hand palm side down to the carpet. Flip your hand over and use that side to pick up anything the first round of tape missed.

Minimize the amount of dirt brought into your home by having everyone remove their shoes as soon as they enter. Keep shoes by the door and this will go a long way in keeping floors clean.

In a survival situation, you might not have access to cleaning supplies. You can still clean your home with pantry items. Use white vinegar and mix it evenly with water. This not only cleans but disinfects counters as well.

If your counters are looking discolored, you can whiten them back up with lemon juice. Vinegar can also be used to effectively clean your bathroom, too if you add a few tablespoons of castile soap and baking soda.

Castile soap alone can be used to wash your body with as well. Plain baking soda can be used to wipe the inside of your refrigerator. It can also remove any grime that may be stuck.

One of the problems you might have with a survival situation is you might not have a way to wash clothes the way you normally did. If that’s the case, you can do it the old fashioned way with washing tubs and a scrub board.

A ringer will extract the excess water and then you can line dry the clothes. If you’re not physically able to do that much scrubbing for the clothes, then you can invest in a portable mini washing machine that doesn’t require any electricity.

These work using a hand crank and can hold different amounts of clothing loads, depending on the size you buy. Taking care of your home and surroundings and giving yourself a way to feel clean will go a long way in boosting your mental state when the rest of the world seems to be crumbling around you.

Making Sure You Get Your Minerals and Vitamins

When you’re in survival mode, it can be discouraging. It can be easy to overlook making sure you get the right amount of minerals and vitamins. But you need to make this a priority, because otherwise, your physical and emotional health is going to suffer from the deficiencies.

However, when you’re in a survival situation, you might not have access to these necessities. When you can’t just buy vitamins right off the shelf, you have to figure out how you can still give your body what it needs.

Some natural remedies are already prepared for you. For example, spending plenty of time in the sunlight will give your body vitamin D. You only need to make sure you go outside and get about 10 minutes of sunlight every day in the middle of the day when the sun is at its peak to get enough vitamin D.

But you also need to be sure that you get plenty of vitamin C. Without enough of this vitamin, you can develop scurvy. Plus, the deficiency can make it more difficult for your immune system to do the job it needs to do.

When it comes to this vitamin, people automatically think of fruits, especially oranges. You can get plenty of this vitamin from oranges, but you may not have access to fresh fruit.

If that’s the case, then you can add red pepper to your diet. A half a cup of red chili peppers contains all the vitamin C that an adult needs, but so do yellow peppers. A medium potato has about half the amount of vitamin C that you need.

That’s why it’s important for you to grow the fruits and vegetables that can keep you healthy. Some vegetables are high in everything that you need. So, grow things like carrots and broccoli as well as spinach.

Green peas and sweet potatoes have a high concentration of vitamins and minerals. You’ll want to grow things like green beans and sweet potatoes as well as tomatoes.

Be sure to grow fruit, too - like strawberries, blueberries and other fruits.

Some of the vitamins and minerals you need can already be found growing wild. Dandelions have an abundance of both. They contain plenty of vitamin C as well as things like magnesium and iron.

Taking care of yourself to boost your physical and emotional health requires you to look at all of the things you take for granted now and determine how you can keep as much of your normal life routine going in the middle of a disaster.

Little things, like having the ability to wrap up in a clean towel after a warm bath, can soothe your soul and help you feel human again after a long day of dealing with stressful circumstances.

This is why experts recommend that in addition to all of the food supplies you keep for caloric concerns and nutritional elements, you also stock up on some indulgent favorites, like hard candies that will serve as a pick-me-up treat when everyone is feeling defeated and down.

Make sure, when you’re planning for your self-care, that you talk to each individual in your family and find out what things they prioritize in their life to make themselves happy.

While one person may think of a nice, warm bath as their go-to stress reliever, another may say that reading a book peacefully in a hammock is what brings them calm. A child in your family might say that simply having you sit down and play with them is what brings them happiness, so you’ll want to make sure you have toys or games on hand, especially if you have to bug out.

Don’t rely on stockpiles to keep you going. Eventually, if it’s a long-term survival situation, these will run out. You’ll need to know how to make your own supplies, like your own soap, for example.

These self-care products can be used on a regular basis or saved for whenever your family is at a low point in an effort to boost everyone’s spirits and re-energize them for the tough times ahead.

Make sure that in addition to your family, you think of your pets, too. Having food on hand, or a dog coat for cold winters will help them survive and not suffer from the situation, too.

Survival is something that you have to look at from all angels. Stay healthy and safe physically. But also embrace the challenge of maintaining a positive outlook by nurturing your soul in whatever way makes you happy.

You can read more of our survival prep tip articles here.