Are you spiritually and emotionally prepared?

by M. Jean Belton
(Bedford, TX, USA)

All these things are well and good, but personally along with your emergency preparedness supplies...we need to also prepare spiritually and emotionally. Education on both subjects will be a necessity when things hit the fan.

You have got to have the confidence to be able to help yourself and others instead of going bonkers. The confidence to be strong, not just materialistically ready, will be paramount.

Take some classes at the Red Cross, MRC, CERT training (which also includes Disaster Psychology), Citizen Police and Citizen Fire Academy, and FEMA website. They will teach you how to deal with disasters as a first responder, etc. All of these teach you how to help yourself when others are too busy to get to you. There are many more areas to learn and most are free.

American Red Cross
www.redcross.org

FEMA Training
www.fema.gov/prepared/train.shtm

CERT Training (Community Emergency Response Team)
www.citizencorps.gov/cert/