9 Ideas to Simplify Prepping

                                                                                             By Jeanette Vale

• Lower your expectations.

A bug-out-bag can consist of ten items: handsaw, Knife, Shovel, rope, water purification tabs, thermos, wire, fire starter, mess kit and a plastic tarp.  The more you know, the less you carry.  With these simple tools you can obtain food, water, shelter, and warmth. Or buy one ready made:  Survival Kit Deluxe

• Ask others for help.

Don’t do this alone.  If you are the only one who is prepping for the family, make it a game.  If it’s fun, others are more likely to help out. 

 Or show them a vision of what you are trying to achieve.  Social media influencers  can inspire those in your household.  When people are shown a vision, they get excited and jump in to help.

  I have a fifteen year old niece who has caught fire with prepping.  Guess what!  Her mom doesn’t have to put in a garden, the teenager is doing it and getting her siblings involved too!  It's a beautiful thing.

• Notice snags and restore the flow.

What is your next goal in getting prepared?  What is stopping  it from happening?  Break down roadblocks into smaller solutions and execute. Assign another person to solve it, delegate. Be okay with simple solutions.  Because of the cost of things now and the urgency of timing, go simple, fast, and cheap.  Do “In Search Of” ads. Tell your neighbors what you need.  Someone is bound to have what you need and they might be tired of tripping over it.

• Maintain an emotionally supportive circle of friends.

Friends make or break you.  Make sure you have good friends who want to see you happy and healthy.  Go to lunch, talk, have fun.  The hard times right now can feel bearable when you have friends to shoulder the burdens with.  Go camping with them, test your gear together. Grow a garden together.

• Maintain emotional composure or express distressing emotions.  Say what’s on your mind.

I love saying what is on my mind.  Say it slowly and kindly.   Allow people to hear it and process it.  Don’t apologize for it.  And thank them for their understanding.

• Challenge previously held beliefs that are no longer serving you.

  I love saying, “you know, that doesn’t serve you the way you think it does”.   It’s a nice way of saying, “stop it” and inviting them to analyze how it is effecting them.  As stress rises in our families due to financial strain and food shortages, we can make a concerted effort to let go of things that take up energy or money.

•  Identify the stressor and make a direct attempt to change it

I once hiked with a young friend.  She was limping and it worsened with time.  I finally asked her what was happening.  She pulled off her shoe and we found a one inch piece of glass that had been cutting into her foot.  She thought it was a small stick.  Strangely she just accepted it and hiked!  It took awhile but we got it pulled out of her  flip flop.  I said to her, “Don’t settle for suffering that long!   Take a look and solve things so you’re not miserable”.  Sadly, I was speaking to myself as well.

• Distance yourself from people or situations that cause high stress.

Be aware of people who have bad-apple antics.  It’s okay to give criticism if you have a constructive solution to replace it,  but if a person tends to  break down the unity in a family / group you can ask that person to change their energy.

• View the problem through a religious perspective.

Belief in God or a higher power helps during hard times.  Do these beliefs help people endure hardships longer and with better attitudes?  I personally think so.

There is an underlying idea that ‘I am suffering now for a purpose.  I don’t understand it, but I will get through it.  I can do hard things and I am not alone.  One day this will make me better, stronger, etc’.  

The other helpful belief is that the fellow sufferer in this storm with me is a brother or a sister and I will  help them.  

There is less isolation and more bridge building when there is a belief in a Heavenly Father and as a result a better chance at survival.