Don’t Panic!

I tend to catastrophise quite a lot as many things tend to activate my fight or flight mechanism. One thing I have learnt over the years through hard won experience is that most things are not the emergencies I imagine them to be.

So, the first item in my emergency preparedness plan is a sense of perspective. I have to step back, look at the situation as objectively as I can and decide how much of a problem it is. The use of Calm – see the post two days ago for a free 30 day trial – has helped where age and experience just seemed to make it worse! I am more able to look at the long view and realise that in a year, for example, I may still remember it but most others won’t. On that basis there have been very few situations that have required an emergency preparedness plan.

If it so happened that I did need to have such a plan, the first thing I would focus on is the safety of my family. If they are OK then everything is just an added extra. When there was an earth tremor in Japan measuring 4 on the Richter scale we simply took the children out of the house and went to a park whilst the after shocks were happening. All our possessions could be replaced if the building collapsed but we couldn’t. As it turned out we had a very nice trip out and when we got back, all was quiet again.

Where we live now, climate change is making suburban wild fires far more likely so that is the main concern. If we were told to evacuate we would take Albus, our cat, and a small bag each with the things we couldn’t bear to lose. I think it’s difficult to say here and now what those things would be because if we wanted to take everything that might come into that category we would need an Uber! When all is said and done though very few things are that central to our lives that we would risk our safety.

I suppose what this says is that the people I love are the centre of any emergency preparedness plan I may have. If they are safe I can survive anything.