Preparing Your Mind To Handle A Natural Disaster

5/13/2016 (Permalink)

Survivors and heroes feel fear just like you and I do.

Most of our days on this earth are calm and uneventful. But if a storm or other natural disaster creates an alarming emergency, how can we be mentally prepared?

Scott Finazzo, author of The Neighborhood Emergency Response Handbook, says we have much less understanding of how we would react in an emergency than we think we do. Things like 80 mile-an-hour winds or three foot flames at our home or business can cause emotions and stress to overtake logic and reason. Here are some tips from Scott and others to prepare your mind to function well during a natural disaster.

1. Understand your role

Think about and realize what you’ll need to do during a natural disaster. Your role could be physically, mentally, and emotionally challenging. If you accept and understand that reality now, you’ll be better able to manage your actions and decisions during an emergency.

2. Use visualization

A 20-year firefighter, Scott Finazzo recommends envisioning worst-case scenarios—the sights, sounds, smells, and emotions that come with being in the middle of a major natural disaster. By envisioning in detail, your brain creates a bookmark similar to an actual experience. Later, your brain can “refer back to” what you envisioned. Your brain searches for how you reacted to the earlier experience and the decisions you made even if the experience and decisions were only in your mind. Fabricated memories can dictate your behavior toward logic and reason in critical, stressful situations.

3. Be prepared physically

Preparing yourself physically helps prepare your mind. Have your home well protected. Know your emergency evacuation route. Have essentials and valuables in an emergency kit you can quickly grab on your way to safety. Preparing physically will give you and your family some peace of mind should a natural disaster strike. You’ll have a plan to follow and that can keep you calm and keep your stress level down. The same principle applies to your business and your employees.

In How to Mentally Prepare for Disasters and Emergencies, Ramani Durvasula, a licensed clinical psychologist, says preparation is key. “[Preparation] can largely help because it can address real anxieties about clean water, food, etc,” Ramani says. “With those real issues addressed, it makes it easier to simply focus on the psychological symptoms of anxiety and manage those without worrying about being hungry.”

4. Manage your fear

Survivors and heroes feel fear just like you and I do. What’s the difference between them and us? They have learned how to manage their fear. They acknowledge the crisis and look ahead and think about what they need to do next to be safe and protect others. Realize that in an emergency you will be fearful. But also realize that the best thing you can do when you’re fearful is to act and get out of the fearful situation.

5. Build up and use relaxation techniques

At the Parks & Recreation site an essay by Sonia Myrick recommends breathing, relaxation, and meditation exercises. Sonia also says you can adapt relaxation techniques to almost any situation or emergency.She also recommends cognitive restructuring — a useful technique for understanding and reframing the negative thinking that we all experience from time to time. Cognitive restructuring can change attitudes, values, or beliefs in ways that alter self-expression. It occurs as a result of insight or behavioral achievement.

Help Is Here

The team at SERVPRO of Bloomfield/Enfield has specialized training and experience in fire restoration services, natural disaster prevention, and natural disaster cleanup. Call SERVPRO of Bloomfield/Enfield (860.216.2785) anytime, 24/7.

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