Trust Your Instinct, Your Internal Voice
December 27, 2011
You know that ‘voice’ in the back of your head? You should listen to it… In other words, you should trust your instinct, your internal knowledge, your feeling, your sense, your intuition. Humans know the power of a nagging suspicion. Believe your inner feelings when you get uncomfortable about a person or situation.
Recognizing, trusting, and acting upon your internal voice is a form of self-communication that will keep you ahead of the pack while making better and quicker decisions than the rest.
While some decisions are better made with a long analysis and thought process, there are many that are better made with quick thinking and reaction. A UCL (University College London) study found that you are more likely to perform well if you do not think too hard and instead trust your instincts. The research shows that in some cases, instinctive snap decisions are more reliable than decisions taken using higher-level cognitive processes.
A study in the Journal of Consumer Research concluded that people who deliberate about decisions make less accurate judgments than people who trust their instincts. In five separate studies, the researchers found that better judgments can often be made without deliberation.
As you gain more life experience, you build up a reservoir of subconscious subliminal instincts. When called upon, more often than not, your instincts will be right – or close to right.
A problem that many people have is that they do not listen to that voice. Some have issues with their confidence, and they allow their instincts to be clouded with doubt.
When it comes to survival preparedness, making the right decision is key. Your decision response time could make the difference between success and failure – being first or being last – getting out of a dangerous situation or being caught in the middle of it with everyone else.
Next time you have to step off into the unknown, tune into the voice of your intuition. It speaks to you from the purest place, knows the truth of who you are and can lead you to the answer that’s right for you.
Be Prepared. If you enjoyed this, or topics of current events risk awareness and survival preparedness, click here to check out our current homepage articles…
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The Mind-Set of a Safety Net
May 24, 2011
Guest Comment:
I was watching the news today and they had this one tornado survivor talking about the aftermath of the Joplin disaster and how he could hear the heavy equipment and knew that help was coming. This really got me to thinking about the “mind set” of people and how they just “know” that help is coming no matter what. This way of thinking is positive but also can be extremely unrealistic.
This is what this Modern Survival site is about, preparing for when there is NO ONE there to come to the rescue, when there is NO ONE to help you or those people around you for a long time IF ever. People have this ingrained in there thoughts that why prepare and why store up anything, everything will be okay within a week or so because the government is going to come to the rescue no matter what. This has to do with all over the entire world and why so many people are caught off guard when disaster does strike.
I really feel that there is a real mental barrier that has to be breached within people to actually feel that the worst can and does happen and people have to plan and be prepared for it. People also have to feel that they might be totally on their own and the cavalry is not going to come to save them.
Ken adds: This site and many other respectable survival preparedness sites certainly espouse the mindset of self-reliance, at least enough of it to get by for awhile – the more the better. It is unfortunately true that many folks knowingly and unknowingly enter situations which present risk, or live life this way – often at high risk levels, while being subconsciously (or even consciously) reassured that there are safety nets in place. We are fortunate that much of modern society does indeed provide safety nets, however, to rely upon or expect to be ‘saved’ from disastrous situations could become threatening to way-of-life, or even life-threatening.
While the web of safety nets that are around many of us provide some peace of mind, they are also expensive to build and maintain, and are partly to blame for some of the atrocious debt that we are currently burdened with as a country. A government ‘Nanny’ is not what many of us want. Years ago the majority of people could do just fine without the Nanny. Unfortunately nowadays we seem to have crossed the point of no return whereby more than 50% are in favor of the Nanny State, and are in many ways depending on the many safety nets that exist. The problem is, many are using these nets for their daily living, rather than for safety-emergency only. Just an opinion…
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How To Achieve your Goals
April 22, 2011
It is one thing to think about or talk about the things that we want to do – our goals, but it is quite another to actually do something about it and put the thoughts or talk into actions.
I have had my own occasional issues of procrastination, like I’m sure most of us do. It is very easy to think of all kinds of excuses of why you can’t do something right now. The reason being, their really are good excuses for most of us because our lives are so busy with the demands that are upon us – especially for those with kids and a family at home. There isn’t much time to accomplish things that aren’t part of the normal routine.
The thing is, when you get right down to it, EVERYTHING that you do is a choice that you make. So many of the choices that we make each day are not even conscious choices. They are choices made out of a routine – they are automatic – because this is what we did yesterday, and the day before…
Once you get into a routine of day-to-day life, hardly anything will ever change for you. Seriously. That’s the way it works. You habitually do nearly the same things each day of your life. The same things during Monday through Friday, and the same things during the Weekend, more or less.
To get what you want, you have to go out and get it. There is no other way. No one is going to give it to you.
So, how do you do it?
Define it. First you must define what ‘it’ is. I mean, really define it. It may start with a fuzzy vision of what you want, but you need to keep thinking about it until it becomes clearer. I know I’m talking in general terms here, but many ‘big’ goals start out blurry and need to be sharpened before you can go to the next step.
Want it. You must really want it in order to achieve it. If you do not really truly want it, you won’t make time to get it.
Believe it. You must believe that you will be able to get it. Any doubts will severely damage your ability to get it. The following steps will help you believe it more.
Write it down. Write it on paper or in an electronic document. You must do this. Even though I’m computer savvy, and am often surrounded by multiple computer monitors, I often like to write things down on paper. It sometimes seems more ‘real’ that way.
Split it up. In the process of writing down your goal, it is extremely important to split up the goal into manageable tasks. You must have small ‘chunks’ that are achievable in a reasonable time frame so that you can check things off on your way towards overall accomplishment. This is very important. This process also very much helps while defining the overall goal. It kind of goes together.
Review it. Sleep on it. After you’ve captured your plan in detail, look at it later. You will often find that you will adjust or change things when looking at it in a new light.
Schedule it. It’s not magic, you’ve got to schedule time for the steps that you’ve documented. Be reasonable. This is also important. Schedule chunks of time that you know you can make for yourself. Otherwise there will be disappointment which will lead to doubt, which will chain-react and destroy the effort.
Do it. If you have done the steps above, the doing it part will actually be easy and fun. You will be excited about it, which will lead to more positive results, which will chain-react into success!
Seriously, this approach works. One of the biggest keys to being successful at achieving a goal, particularly a big goal, is not only the preparation and planning, but the key is really believing that you will do it. Not that you ‘can’ do it, but that you ‘will’ do it. You’ve already achieved the result before you’ve even begun. You will get there. It will happen.
In summary, this is simply an approach towards achieving any goal, of any type, which I believe really works.
No go do it!
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Todays Modern Survivalist
May 30, 2010
The modern day prepper / survivalist is at the core, a reflection of the fragility of the complicated and intertwined systems that we depend upon today that enable modern comfort, lifestyle, and the ability of millions to live in close proximity with each other.
Many non-preppers look at this movement as a bunch of doom and gloomers who are actually hoping for the end of the world so that they can finally put their survival plan into action. Granted, there are those who are at the extremes of any group and no doubt there
are some who actually hope for TEOTWAWKI. But it is my opinion that the majority of preppers today are middle class working people who recognize the current risks within today’s modern day systems, and are quietly preparing for what may or may not come to be.
I do not believe that the majority of preppers have a negative doom-and-gloom outlook, but instead are more than likely to be self motivated optimistic people with good sense and awareness, and living ordinary lives like most everyone else. Having a positive outlook on life is itself one reason why some develop preparedness plans. Desiring freedom, happiness, and life, for yourself and family are all positive attributes that are shared by all preppers.
The prepper may appear to be seeking out doom and gloom, but in actuality is staying current with the risks that are facing the world, knowing that being one step ahead of the crowd could very well save them from unnecessary hardship, or life itself.
Today’s modern day survivalist is not the one who is all ready to go live by themselves in the woods, although I’m not criticizing those that are, but instead they are the ones who have stored up some extra food (maybe a month, maybe 6 months), have been eliminating their debt, and have been thinking about and acquiring other supplies that attribute towards living a more self sufficient life, one that is not so dependent upon the systems that enable today’s modern day society.
Modern survivalism really is a way of life, not necessarily one that is drastically removed from the creature comforts that we enjoy today, but a state of mind where one instinctively questions the news around them and has the ability to recognize when something isn’t quite right, prepares oneself to adapt to circumstances around them, and where choices are made from common sensibility.
The modern survivalist does not take for granted the things that make life so easy right now. The times we live in since the industrial revolution are a mere blip on the time-line of humankind. We recognize that things can disappear just as fast as they came, and keep a wary eye looking for signs of that day, all the while continuing our daily lives in ‘the system’ with everyone else.
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Keep The Important Things Close
April 30, 2010
As more and more people enter hard times, be it financial or personal, soul searching often brings us back to our roots. The realization of the artificial nature of modern society, a look around us at what was thought to be important, only to realize it was false, wasteful, a trick, an illusion.
Author unknown:
Keeper
I grew up with practical parents. A mother, God love her, who washed aluminum foil after she cooked in it, then reused it. She was the original recycle queen, before they had a name for it… A father who was happier getting old shoes fixed than buying new ones.
Their marriage was good, their dreams focused. Their best friends lived barely a wave away..
I can see them now, Dad in trousers, tee shirt and a hat and Mom in a house dress, lawn mower in one hand, and dish-towel in the other. It was the time for fixing things.. A curtain rod, the kitchen radio, screen door, the oven door, the hem in a dress. Things we keep.
It was a way of life, and sometimes it made me crazy.. All that re-fixing, eating, renewing, I wanted just once to be wasteful. Waste meant affluence. Throwing things away meant you knew there’d always be more.
But then my mother died, and on that clear summer’s night, in the warmth of the hospital room, I was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn’t any more.
Sometimes, what we care about most gets all used up and goes away…never to return.. So… while we have it….. it’s best we love it…. and care for it… and fix it when it’s broken……… and heal it when it’s sick.
This is true for marriage……. and old cars….. and children with bad report cards….. and dogs with bad hips…. and aging parents….. and grandparents. We keep them because they are worth it, because we are worth it.
Some things we keep. Like a best friend that moved away or a classmate we grew up with.
There are just some things that make life important, like people we know who are special…….. and so, we keep them close!
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Borax Multi Purpose Cleaner Will Save You $$$
April 26, 2010
Borax is an affordable, natural cleaning, odor eliminating, eco-friendly cleaner that has seemingly endless uses around the home. You can potentially save a lot of money by using this product instead of other special purpose cleaner products which are much more expensive.
Today there are so many branded cleaners to choose from. Most of them are marketed towards specific cleanup purposes with their special formulas while just a few seem to be marketed towards multipurpose use. You see, more money is made from these companies if they convince you that you have to purchase different cleaners for different cleanup purposes. Also, every so often these products are re-formulated and ‘improved’ to an ‘advanced’ formula to recapture your attention, or to have an excuse for a higher price.
The brands are constantly reinventing themselves and offering more choices of formulated cleaners to train you into believing that you need many different types of cleaners, each with their own specific special purpose. Take a look in your closets to see how many different cleaner solutions that you have.
What in the world did our grandparents do back in the day, when these miraculous cleaning formulas were not available? There homes must have been a dirty filthy mess without them! Wait a minute, I have an idea, lets find out what they used back in the old days…
Borax
One popular cleaner that I can remember being used is something called BORAX. Borax is a multipurpose powdery cleaner whose ingredient comes from a naturally occurring mineral compound of the element, boron. Much of the world’s borax comes from the Rio Tinto Borax mining operation in Boron, California.
The most common brand is “20 Mule Team Borax”. It has primarily been known as a laundry booster for whiter, cleaner clothes, but it has many more household uses. It cleans, disinfects, deodorizes, softens water, and neutralizes many bugs. Lets look at a few borax recipes.
List of Uses for Borax
- Floor Cleaner (1/3 cup Borax, 1 gallon warm water, squirt of dish washing detergent, splash of ammonia)
- Window Cleaner (2/3 cup Borax, 1 gallon warm water)
- Disinfect and Clean Toilet (1/2 cup Borax added to basin water, let stand for awhile, then clean with toilet brush)
- Car Wash Cleaner (1/8 cup mixed with about 1.5 gallons of water)
- Eliminate Urine Odor on mattress – handy for accidents while toilet training a youngster (dampen area, sprinkle and rub in Borax, let dry and vacuum)
- Ants (mix equal amounts of Borax and powdered sugar, place near ant problem area – keep away from pets)
- Carpet Stains (mix Borax with water to make paste, rub into stain, let dry and vacuum)
- Unclog drains (dump 1/2 cup Borax into drain, let stand for 15 minutes, then dump in hot or boiling water )
- Prevent Weeds from growing in pavement cracks (sprinkle Borax in cracks)
- Garbage Disposer clean and sanitize (dump 1/4 cup Borax into disposer, splash in just a little water and let stand for an hour or so, rinse with hot water)
- Tile and Grout Cleaner (sprinkle Borax with just enough water to paste, scrub with brush)
- Laundry Booster (add 1/2 cup Borax to wash load for brighter, cleaner, deodorized clothes)
- Carpet Powder Deodorizer (sprinkle Borax on carpet, let stand overnight and vacuum)
- Flea Killer (sprinkle Borax on carpet, let stand overnight and vacuum)
The takeaway from all of this should be to consider alternatives to what we are being marketed and sold today. Thinking and using common-sense is a learned way of life. Don’t be stuck in ‘the system’. Discover what our ancestors used for frugal solutions to problems. Although many advancements clearly win out over past solutions, not all new products are any better as a solution than what our grandparents and great grandparents used. I believe that Borax is just one of many nuggets out there, waiting to be picked.
What inspired me to post on this topic was having used some ’20 Mule Team Borax’ yesterday while cleaning our patio furniture, and realizing its versatility and effectiveness. Although I have been using this product for some time now, each time I do, I am reminded of how simple solutions such as this can save time and money.
Update: I must say that using a borax solution for car wash cleaner is very effective. I have been using this solution as a car wash soap for some time now, and it definitely cleans better than other special purpose car wash soaps that I have used. I have not had any scratching of the paint whatsoever and it really cuts through the road grime, bug residue, and dirt. I’m still amazed at how much cleaning solution can be made from one box of borax, all at a fraction of the cost of other manufactured soaps.
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Survival Preparedness With Limited Resources
April 6, 2010
Survival prepping can be taken to the extreme, especially if one has enough financial resources and physical space. However lets look at the scenario where you have limited resources and are on a tight budget, but you are convinced and motivated that you need to begin prepping for an uncertain future. How do you prioritize your preparedness purchases as it relates to your expenses, what is the plan, and what do you do first?
First of all let me say that survival preparedness is not solely about having preps stored away, although this is an essential step. Preparedness really is a way of life, a way of thinking in your every day life. It is a mind set that is significantly different from the typical brainwashed citizen worker bee.
Okay, having said that, lets look at the situation. Number one, look at your budget. Assuming there is debt being serviced, be it credit cards or loans, take a hard look at your monthly essential payments for your expenses. Really strip it down to the basics. How much take-home do you need to survive in your present situation. Keep in mind that paying minimum payments on credit cards will not get you out of debt anytime soon. Have a quick read of my post that talks about credit card debt. There is always a way to trim your budget by giving up one convenience or another. Decide how much money you are willing and able to designate to prepping each month, and begin, even if it is not all that much. You will probably want to make a few mid-priced purchases that I describe below, but you can save for that if you are motivated.
With limited money and space, what should I purchase first for my survival preparedness?
Lets be smart about this and start with the necessities of life, Water and Food. IN THAT ORDER.
Water is First Priority for Survival Preparedness
Water is a resource which often gets ignored or overlooked because of it’s seemingly endless supply. Every day, we need to intake about 2 to 3 quarts of water. Some of this comes from the food we eat, maybe twenty percent, but the rest is from what we drink. Think about this… If the regional power goes out, it may not take long before the water pressure may drop, depending on your location, situation, and the municipal backup generator situation . You will not survive more than 3 – 5 days without any water. Period.
Water sources are often readily available, so long as you don’t live in the desert. Maybe a nearby reservoir, a river or stream that is not far away, or the lake or pond nearby will all provide alternative sources of water. That is all good and well, but remember that you will have to transport the water, so be sure you have the means to do so (simply storing water ahead of time will be easier and healthier). You will definitely need to have a filtration method to screen out any ‘bad’ stuff from collected water. I highly suggest investing in a good water filter. I personally have several – the main water filter that I use is a counter top filter named the Berkey. My secondary water filter is a smaller portable filtration system named Katadyn that I keep with my vehicle 72 hour kit as well as a spare at home just in case. Depending on the size of the Berkey
If you solely depend on a municipal water source, and you do not live right near a source of water, then you need to make other preparations. Either you need to be prepared to leave your area completely and during the first sign of trouble, or you need to be prepared by physically storing water. A potential problem with storing water is that it is quite heavy. One gallon of water weighs about 8 pounds making storage in large volumes nearly impossible to move (which may not be a problem for you if stored in a good accessible area).
How Much Water Do I Need for Survival Preparedness ?
A 200 pound person will need about 3 quarts of water per day, strictly for consumption. Lets add one more quart for a safe margin and make it a gallon of water per day, or 7 gallons per week per person, strictly for consumption. Do the math and figure out what you will need for your family and the length of time that you are preparing for. As an example, 2 adults for 4 weeks will require about 56 gallons of water. Water storage for the same two people for 3 months will require 168 gallons. Remember, even more water will be needed for cooking and sanitary reasons. For example, without water pressure, how many gallons does it take to dump into a toilet to flush it out? Answer, probably between 2 and 3 gallons. Add up all of your use-case scenarios and factor them into your water storage calculations. For those that live where you can count on rainfall throughout the year, you can utilize rain runoff from the roof and gutters into collection barrels. This would be great for secondary water usage requirements, but you will need to filter and purify this water for drinking.
How Do I Store Water ?
A guideline to storing water is to mix one eighth teaspoon (1/8 teaspoon), or about 8 drops of regular unscented bleach to each gallon of water for purification. You can safely store water in clean containers that had consumable liquids such as milk jugs or soda bottles. Best to store in a dark place away from heat. It is generally recommended to drain and refill the water containers every six months or one year. This is not critical because water will basically last forever, but a periodic check for impurities or problems is a good idea.
To store enough water for several people for one month or more, it may be practical to purchase water storage barrels, commonly available in 55 gallon plastic drums. Be sure that the plastic barrel you choose is food grade (HDPE #2). Although I’m sure these barrels can be purchased at many locations, here is one example of a 55 Gallon Water Barrel
The bottom line is to start with your water preparations so that you will live to utilize your next prep which is food.
Food is Second Priority for Survival Preparedness
Beginning your food storage preps is actually pretty easy. Instead of starting off by ordering cases of MREs or 50 pound bags of rice and beans, it is far better to begin by simply buying a few more of the same items that you buy at the grocery store every time you visit. The point here is to buy what you normally eat. If you have searched around other sites, I’m sure you’ve heard this before, and it is absolutely true. Also, another great idea to keep in mind is to think ‘variety’. In addition to buying what you normally would eat, pick up some treats and sweets too.
Storing the extra food is also pretty simple, even in a small apartment. You can buy just about any size plastic storage bin these days, which make perfect containers for any food item. We also found some perfect sized bins that fit and slide right underneath your bed, which perfectly holds the typical size canned food. When determining how much food to store, you can calculate using 2,000 calories per day per person as a minimum requirement. Simply look at your food container and multiply the calories per serving times the number of servings in the container to give you the total for that item. I put together a food storage inventory spreadsheet that keeps a nice organized list of your items along with the survival day count based on calories. You can download it here.
Once you have built up a base supply of the foods you normally eat, then you can venture into other things like that 50 pound bag of hard red wheat. However you will need to learn proper ways to store it for long term, and you will need to be sure that you know what to do with it when you need it (making your own wheat bread for example). Also it will be a good idea to try these other foods first, to be sure you don’t have allergies and that your system can handle it 
So, there you have it. For your survival preparedness plan, first get started with water storage and then food storage. Then and only then, should you move on to other things. If you begin this way, the resource burden should not be too heavy or too expensive. Go at your own pace as your budget allows. Stick with water storage and food storage before you are tempted to purchase other preparedness items. Remember, you are doing this for you and your own liberation. This process will begin to change the way you think. Like I said, it is a way of life, even in good times.
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