Have you ever "evacuated" to a foreign land with nothing but yourself to rely on?
If you were suddenly forced to "evacuate" your homeland TODAY; how would you feel being 'alone' in a strange place without any plans, possessions, or any pre-existing attachements or support structure? (Not necessarily meaning that you'd be the only person at your new location)
1) Would you feel scared? excited? insecure? thrilled? worried? energized? terrified? confident?accepting? rejecting? resigned? resolved? resentful? curious?
2) Would you feel cheated, or challenged by the sudden change of events?
3) Would you feel trapped, or freed from your worldly responsibilities?
4) Would you feel lost, or found?
5) Would you wilt, or would you thrive?
6) Would you feel prepared, or inadequate?
7) What is the first thing you would do?
8) After that, what would be your primary focus?
9) How long would it take you to accept/create "a totally new life"?
10) Have you ever had the experience of being "homeless" in unfamiliar surroundings?
11) If so, what was the most valuable thing you learned or realized?
12) What was your most valuable skill, triat, or charasteristic that helped you cope?
13) Are you actively preparing yourself NOW for a potential "emergency evacuation"?
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Replies
Also, Joe, if you see this, I would like to hear some from you on this, too. I'll try to email you on this. thanks, e
sundance293 said:
2. I would feel challenged.
3. I would look forward to the challenge. I would miss my creature comforts, but it would be what it is, so no point crying over spilt milk.
4. I think I would feel that what was happening was what I always knew would happen, so I guess found?
5. I think I would thrive once I had a plan in place, (I am a born organizer, so a plan is a necessity for me.)
6. I would feel prepared in some instances and totally unprepared in others.
7.I would look for a safe place to hunker down in, and hopefully my sisters would be with me and we would all pull together.
8. My next focus would be find water and a way to purify it.;
9. I think it would be an ongoing process, but I would enjoy the entire process, even the bad parts, as the end result of my life's mission.
10. Once in my lifetime after separating from my ex, I was living in another state, with no family around, and I was sort of scared but I did just fine.
11. I have had to start over so many times in my life, I have learned that I always do just fine.
12. I am a "take charge" person, and I am not the type to just sit around and whine. I actually do enjoy solving problems, so I think being the oldest child in a family of nine children has taught me skills that have assisted me all my life. Having responsibilities at an early age, and the necessity of being organized and methodical has greatly assisted me throughout my life.
13. Yes, I have prepared as best as I can under my circumstances, and I have an evacuation plan in place. But I also realize my preparations are woefully inadequate in many areas. Hopefully the combined efforts of my sisters will carry us through.
Those who are both prepared and practiced will do OK. Most will not fair well as they are not prepared or practiced, and they will be the cause of the panic, chaos, and much loss of life.
If people were suddenly evacuating themselves into your area, without support, with nothing but themselves, hungry, thirsty, cold, exhausted, would you know what to do to help these people?
And how would you do this?
Provide a safe place to rest, facilities drink & wash-up, and a soup & warm-up station!
How would you decide who to help, and who not to help?
You ask directly if and what help each one needs. You triage those who need help. Those who dont need help, you ask if they are willing to help; in what way or area they want to help; and if they have any special knowledge/skills. If there are many people you keep a roster, and pass "help needed notices" and sign up sheets at meal stations, and you work with the community to fill the needs and disburse the people where they are best suited and/or most needed.
Do you know the local county, or city response plans to such an event.?
Yes, I am on several community and international response teams.
Do you know the person responsible for such plans?
Yes, I work with them regularily, sometimes 24/7 for weeks or months.
Do you think this person has the skills, or the wisdom to handle an huge influx of strangers into your area?
Yes we do. Tried and proven during Katrina, and many other emergencie and traumatic events around the world.
What kind of support do you think this person would need to do such a job?
Willingness and Participation from others is the key!
A Central Command, Dispatch and Teamwork in specialized "satellite" groups works best
How do you think your local government, and civic organisations would respond to such people?
Gov does very well in some aspects
Civic orgs do very well in other aspects; we do it all througout the year for transplants, immigrants, transients, victims...
How do you think your neighbors would respond to this situation?
Some are wonderful, helpful and giving. A few really go out of thier way to be helpful and full scale participants.
Others are resentful, selfish or apathetic/non participating (other than gossip and complaining about the recievers, and about the givers too). People who do not contribute, often focus on finding fault with others. People who spend thier time contributing have little time for fault-finding, until requests/complaints come rolling in an/or must be addressed.
(BTW the questions were'nt meant to have only two options, they were just examples from both ends of the spectrum to stimulate thought processes, and get the ball rolling; I tried to set that tone by the list in question one, but I guess it's only natural to take them literally.) Thank you for picking up the ball and throwing it back into the circle!
1. Depending on the various situations that I might find myself in I could feel any of these emotions. There seems to be a polarity in the options presented here, and my honest answer is that this polarity reflects real life. If I find myself in a situation beyond my skills level I will probably oscillate between these varied emotions, especially, if I find I have to act before I have assessed my situation. Should this be the case, then I've learned to trust my intuition. I will put feelings on a back burner and act on my intuition. LOL, which uncannily is often a feeling based intuition, so I guess I would put my emotions aside and listen to my inner feelings, Also, I would pay very close attention to my sensory perceptions. When humans are stressed, we develop tunnel vision, in all our senses. So, for me, the challenge would be to deliberately open that sensory tunnel, if I'm forced to act before I have had an opportunity to access. But most likely, I would probably be just reacting, instinctively...
If I am in a life threatening situation, then I would work diligently to steady my breathing and expand my focus. I've learned long ago, that I cannot actually stop my heart from pounding heavily and loudly in my ears when I am in a dangerous situation. And my hands will invariably shake from the adrenaline rush. I can't change these physical reactions in my body so I've learned to accept them, and I work with what I can work with; breath, and focus. I will try to keep my head clear, and my heart open. But, my motor skills will definitely be compromised. I'll have to work with this in mind.
If the situation is not life threatening, then this is much easier. I become very open inside, and the feeling I usually feel in these situations is not listed in the options above, its called freedom. I usually feel very free in new environments. I think this is because the possibilities are wide open. My senses open wide and I breath in everything. I sort of go into an absorption mode, it's very euphoric. I absolutely love new experiences..
The biggest factor affecting my response will be if I find myself in a life-threatening situation, or nonlife-threatening scenario. It's take work to keep my sensory systems open when I'm in protection mode, it is very natural for me if I am in explore mode.
2. The honest answer is both. Cheated is not the right word, grief is. I will feel grief at any losses I have incurred. And I cannot imagine being in the above scenario without having experienced some loss. I've learned over the years to be genuine with myself in what I feel. I tend not to gloss over, or whitewash, my feelings and emotions. I will feel loss, and elation. There is an often unexpected experience of aliveness that happens when we are faced with sudden changes in our lives. Our most creative life experiences usually happens at the edges, when we are in transition, change, thrust into experiences that stretch us beyond our self perceptions. But these times are also stressful. If I'm thrown into a situation beyond my skills level, I will feel this stress keenly. I think understanding this about myself is one of the reasons why I constantly push myself to learn more skills, to allow myself to consider a wide range of possibilities. If our whole world is turned upside down, I don't want to be useless to anyone because I've hit oscillation mode, and become brain-paralysed because I refused to consider a possibility.
3. I am claustrophobic. If I find myself in a tough scenario where I am not coming up with viable solutions, and I am feeling a sense of time urgency to do so, I will feel anxiety. I will feel a sense of panic welling up inside of me. And the more people relying on me to solve a problem, the more people, or lives, that may be affected by my ability to maneuver through a situation, the greater intensity I may feel if I cannot come up with a timely and viable solution. Time urgency seems to be a big factor in this. However, I know this about myself, and I have a very quick recovery time to be back into an inner balance/centeredness. Most people would never even know I experienced the panic. Here's my antidote, we are all, every single one of us, doing the best we know how to do, in any given moment. And, there is only so much we can do, this is where the serenity prayer is helpful, knowing the difference of when your actions can make a difference, or when your acceptance makes the difference. I think this is called wisdom. I call this resiliency. I've been actively working to build my resiliency skills over the past 10 years. If I am in over my head, I'll panic, but I will recover from my panic very quickly. I won't panic, over my panic. :-). To me panic is what happens when a person is forced to have to deal with a reality that they haven't prepared for, or is beyond their skills levels. An old friend once shared something with me that may be helpful here. A mistake shows you the next lesson you need to learn. It's similar with the feeling of overwhelm, most humans are trying so hard to avoid the feeling of panic, overwhelm, not knowing, grief, and so on, that the avoidance of the feeling prevents them from learning from the feeling. So, I tend to go with the adage of feel the feeling, and then move on. Resisting the feeling is what shuts our brains down, and prevents us from learning from them. This isn't the same as wallowing in a sentimental emotion. That is simply another way to resist the more uncomfortable feeling. So I try to notice what I'm feeling, accept it, and let it show me what I need to learn next.
I seriously doubt I will ever not feel some sense of responsibility. But, I don't think this is what Karen means by worldy responsibility. In any given moment I feel I have a choice to respond, or to react. I try to be deliberate in my responses, as much as I am capable, rather than giving in to my programmed reactions. I have a lot to learn here still. So, to me responsibility is freedom, the words are synonymous to me.
4. I never feel lost, I always am where I am.
5. This is really dependant upon the condition of my body, my energy level in the moment, or situation. If I have been beaten, and am in lots of pain, if I have not had food for some time, or I've become dehydrated, if the serotonin levels in my brain have plummeted, if I have not had sufficient rest, my body wilts. And it becomes more difficult to thrive. I have noticed I have very real physical/energy needs, and this does affect my ability to function well, or thrive, or to function poorly, or wilt. Adrenalin, and cortisone will allow me to go for only so long. In a situation of prolonged misuse of my body, I will struggle. Just a fact about me.
The lower the energy level in my body, the more likely I will feel my emotions as raw and intense. I have become more skilled at maintaining my inner balance under these conditions. However, I am definitely still susceptible to them. In any new environment I will be actively looking for means to take care of my body/energy needs. For instance, I'm an introvert, I use my brain differently than extroverts, I will look for much more root foods to feed my brain, it requires more food for it to function. I will try to have protein first thing every morning, to keep my serotonin levels up. I will practice stillness all throughout the day, to give my brain the opportunity to upload all the data I am almost constantly absorbing. The assumption here seems to be that we will be evacuated into a place of plenty, but I don't want to assume this. So many of the places that so many people become forcefully evacuated to often do not have plenty. In many of these places people struggle for water, nutritious food, medicines, blankets. Often sanitation is a big problem. And all too often, they are actually forced inside an enclosure of some sort. I would probably try to avoid any sort of evacuation to any type of encampment if I could. It seems to me that these encampment type places would lower my options. Going to a healthy open country, or village, would be a much better choice, if I had a choice. An encampment would pose some very real challenges for me, it would be much like living in a chicken yard, the resources available would limit my capacity to adapt. Unless, I could smuggle in some seeds....
6. Again, this is situational. My basic skills are not were I want them to be. I know how to do them, but I am not so proficient that they are natural to me. So, if tomorrow, I had to suddenly make my on fire, from nothing, or filter my water, making my water filter first, and so on. I'd struggle. There would definitely be the sorts of learning curves that happen as we gain more experience. However, I feel adequate because I've learned from experience that I know how to learn, even through these stressful learning curves. I understand the physical discomfort of the brain laying down new neural networks as it adapts to new conditions and learns new skills. I've learned to be patient with myself when I totally suck at the new things I'm learning. And I have a great sense of humor about it all. Now, if I had to suddenly perform surgery on someone, I would feel inadequate. However, if it were necessary and the right tools were available, and there was no one else to do it, I would feel adequate to do the best I can, if necessary. The idea that we're not supposed to feel fear, or stress, is unrealistic to me. I would feel enormous fear, and enormous stress. But I would do what needed to be done anyway. And then probably vomit afterward. :)
7. Observe, and access. And smile inwardly, even in the worst possible conditions.
8. After accessing the local environment, it would be relationships. I almost always determine what the real needs are in a given situation and try to plug myself into the environment in a way that is most helpful to all involved....
9. This is an ongoing process for me as it is, every day, right now, we are already continuously creating, or destroying, accepting, or resisting, life is always new, never static, a work of art in progress...
10. yes
11. The best way to learn your way around new territory is to get lost in this new territory. I am very comfortable being lost. I have a good inner guidance system, that I have honed over the years. I always find my way through, and end up exactly where I need to be. It's uncanny. Most people who have experienced this with me are often blown away by it all. I think the problem for most people is that they think they are not supposed to be lost. So, they resist it. So, I translate lost into exploring, and not knowing, into learning. It completely reframes the experience for me. And then I listen to my intuition, and keep my senses wide open.
Colors are brighter, crisper, smells are sharper, sounds are clearer, I feel the breeze, or the heat more intensely. It will be cool when I can learn to live this way every day. It's hard to sustain, I get into my head too much some times, but its amazing, even when I do this while milking my goats... :)
12. A willingness to own my own perceptions, my creations, and to chose my responses with an open heart
13. yes
Now, one of the ways I have taken this deeper is that I imagine what it will be like for me, and others, if people are suddenly dropped in here, evacuated here, walk here, as survivors from dramatic circumstances. I don't think the answers I give for myself, necessarily apply to others. I tend to be almost weirdly self aware. I notice my body reactions, my thoughts, my self-talk and emotions more than what I've observed others do. I have had years and years of practice to become increasingly deliberate in choosing my responses. This is not what I observe to be typical behavior in most of the people I know.
How do you think most of the people you know, people that you see on the street, at the post office, in the grocery store, or mall would react, or respond to sudden life changes on a large scale?
And, if people were suddenly evacuating themselves into your area, without support, with nothing but themselves, hungry, thirsty, cold, exhausted, would you know what to do to help these people?
And how would you do this?
How would you decide who to help, and who not to help?
Do you know the local county, or city response plans to such an event.?
Do you know the person responsible for such plans?
Do you think this person has the skills, or the wisdom to handle an huge influx of strangers into your area?
What kind of support do you think this person would need to do such a job?
How do you think your local government, and civic organisations would respond to such people?
How do you think your neighbors would respond to this situation?
To stimulate some ideas here is a link to a story of someone who found themselves in such a situation, on a small scale, in Guatemala
http://offthegridnews.com/2010/06/14/real-life-crisis-survival-part-2/
For the record, I don't have answers to these questions, I working on them right now.... Love all :) e
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