The Resilient Mindset
Improvise, Adapt, Overcome!
As someone that has been in tune with the numerous messages about emergency preparedness, you may believe that you have compiled all the essential items needed to survive an emergency or disaster. Not only have you stockpiled food, water, and supplies, but you have also developed a family plan and mapped out a strategic route to get out of town. Hopefully, you have accomplished these tasks while keeping a balance in your life.
While material preparedness is important and an integral part of any preparedness plan, a critical component of resilience, a resilient mindset, is often under-emphasized and might be one thing missing from your bug-out bag. Without the proper mindset, a person will remain unprepared no matter how big the size of their stockpile. The correct mindset when it comes to coping with an emergency could be the difference between managing and struggling; and in the worst cases, between life and death.
In an emergency situation, the first emotion likely to be experienced is fear. The human body responds to fear by pumping a heavy dose of adrenaline and other hormones through our bodies to prepare for fight or flight. Muscles tense up, pupils dilate, breathing and heart rate increase, and our digestive system slows down. Simultaneously our senses become more acute. Increased levels of stress impact decision making, fine motor skills and concentration — all essential for surviving; but too much stress causes ‘distress.’ Lack of control, an uninviting environment, hunger, thirst, fatigue and isolation can make our reaction to the situation worse. Even after months of putting a comprehensive plan in place for a disaster, if you are unable to manage intense stress and fear, you may forget your plan even existed.
That is why the right mindset for survival is so important. Hurricane Katrina survivor Rick Teissier says, “You have to accept bad things are going to happen. How you react to them will make the biggest difference.” Teissier’s comments are further supported by a study by Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, that documents similar accounts of prisoner-of-war survivors who credited their resilience to ‘sobering realism’ as opposed to blind optimism.
When studying people’s reactions to disaster and stages of recovery, psychology professor George A. Bonanno, PhD found the majority of survivors of disasters and major life catastrophes were forced to cope during a time of serious adversity. One of the most important aspects of resiliency is self-efficacy, which is the “belief that one can influence one’s surroundings and the outcome of events,” as stated by Bonanno. Confidence in your abilities, the perception of your control over the situation and having the tools to maintain control is critical in remaining resilient when something bad happens.
In an adverse environment, the abilities to adapt and improvise are key characteristics to resilience. A person’s or organization’s adaptive capacity will be a indicator of its ability to manage and recover from the imminent uncertainty associated with an emergency situation. Adaptive capacity involves finding utility and imagining possibilities using the assets you do have rather than being confounded by the things you are lacking.
In a truly catastrophic event the lack of knowledge, skills and resilience can be the difference between life and death. Being prepared means more than just having the stuff…it involves the capacity to do the things. It means mentally preparing for the worst even while hoping for the best.
