Survival Skills

10 Survival Skills Needed During A Crisis Situation

Survival Skills Needed During A Crisis Situation
Written by Hank Robertson
(Last Updated On: March 16, 2024)

Learning survival skills is important in helping you and your family get through difficult times. When a crisis comes, in any form, you’ll know what to do and ensure survival.

The main thing that makes it difficult for people to deal with uncertainties is that they aren’t prepared and don’t know how to respond or react. When you master certain techniques, you can easily provide for your basic needs. Ensuring you and your loved ones live through any disaster you encounter.

Today we’ll cover 10 survival skills you need to get through a crisis. Let’s dive in!

Health Survival Skills

Almost all crises are accompanied by injuries or illnesses. That is why it’s important to acquire health skills and take care of emergencies as they come.

When a disaster comes and someone sustains an injury, you will know what to do.

Learn basic health skills to protect yourself, take care of your loved ones, improve your health, and survive uncertainties.

Acquire first-aid skills to handle high-pressure situations and avoid panicking.

Remember that you may have to treat wounds, cuts, and other injuries caused by disasters or survival scenarios. Including handling someone unconscious. So, knowing how to administer first-aid will prove helpful.

The most important first-aid skills to know are Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), saving someone from choking, dressing wounds, managing bleeding, handling head or brain injuries, and treating severe allergic reactions.

Make sure you always have all the personal medication you need.

Your first-aid kit should contain everything you need to survive an emergency.

The most important things to remember are to remain calm, aim to preserve life, provide pain relief, prevent the escalation of injury, and call a health professional once you’ve contained the situation.

Learn or improve your first-aid skills by knowing the basics, practicing regularly, and taking first-aid courses.

Make sure you have a first-aid kit in your home that’s stocked with the basic and most important supplies. Such as bandages, medical tape, gloves, eye shields, dressings, antibiotic ointment packets, antiseptic wipes, different sized sterile gauze pads, antiseptic solution, tweezers, and a first-aid manual.

Using Natural Remedies

If you don’t have a first-aid kit, are stuck in the outdoors, and an emergency comes, you have to respond appropriately.

You may be stuck without your medical kit and run into an emergency. This is where natural medicines come in handy.

When you know what to look for and how to use it, you can save your life or the lives of the people around you. Natural medicines can be used to cure wounds, prevent colds, reduce swelling, treat skin irritation, relieve fever, lower blood pressure, and so much more.

All you have to do is identify and use the right herbs or plants.

If you get stuck in the wilderness, for example, certain herbs can help you treat emergency-induced insomnia and an upset stomach.

In addition to a first-aid kit, make sure you have medicinal herbs at home. Examples include ginger, chamomile flower, garlic, Ginkgo Biloba, ginseng root, turmeric, valerian root, elderberry, milk thistle fruit, feverfew leaf, St, John’s wort, and echinacea.

Use the proper dosage, watch out for reactions, and make sure you understand potential side effects.

Natural medicines can interfere with certain medications and cause serious side effects. So, don’t use them blindly. Consult a health professional or your doctor if you have a critical condition, rely on certain medicines, are pregnant, or breastfeeding.

If you want to heal wounds, boils, or sores, turmeric, cinnamon, bayberry, black pepper, aloe vera, ginseng, and safflower will help.

If you want to reduce fever, herbs like sandalwood and safflower can help. If you want to improve your digestive system or neutralize stomach acids, herbs like marshmallow root and leaf will help. For infections, use goldenseal, aloe, and chirayata.

To improve the taste of food, add turmeric, peppermint, or cloves.

Other important herbs you need for various conditions are basil, chives, apple mint, thyme, variegated lemon balm, golden oregano, variegated sage, fennel, and cilantro.

Finance Skills

Financial skills are important for survival. If you know how to manage your finances, you can meet all your financial obligations and avoid pouring money down the drain. When emergencies caused by unexpected events happen, you’ll have the necessary funds.

So, start saving and investing to ensure you have all the funds you need for certain survival situations.

When a crisis hits or inflation occurs, you will be able to protect yourself, your loved ones, or your business.

You won’t worry too much about banks closing down and the failure to access money because you have cash reserves. You’ll be able to provide for your physical and overall needs because you are prepared.

So, review your expenses, start saving, and build cash reserves to face challenges and mitigate them as they come.

Financial planning, budgeting, investing, raising money, improving cash flow, and investing in personal finance courses should top your priorities list.

Search for reputable online courses and improve your financial skills. Focus on courses with high student ratings and positive reviews.

You can also watch YouTube videos and read money blogs to cultivate your skills.

The most important thing is to apply what you learn and make sure you are in a position to survive any crisis that emerges.

Outdoor Survival Skills

Master outdoor survival skills to properly handle disaster situations, sustain life, and provide for your various needs.

Survival skills help you sustain life in any type of natural environment. You can have access to shelter, food, water, and medication when you are stranded in the outdoors. For example, when you are fishing, hiking, hunting, or horseback riding and an unexpected event occur, you can deal with it.

All you need to do is know the plants to use and avoid. Have proper knowledge about certain animals so you understand how to protect yourself. This is especially true if you get stuck in a forest with wild animals.

Have an outdoor emergency kit that contains a map, compass, fire starter, signal mirror, warm clothing, a 2-meter length rope, water purification system, food, cordage, fish hooks, a flashlight, a knife, and a first-aid kit.

Your survival backpack should provide you with enough supplies to meet the bare necessities. For example, food, shelter, clothing, water, medication, and a handheld GPS for navigation.

A first-aid kit can also help you handle sprains, treat injuries, and access the medicine you need.

One of the things that make survival difficult is panicking. That’s why you have to prepare your mind for critical situations and train it to handle life and death situations. This will help you reduce stress, remain calm, and get through the disaster.

The best way to train yourself is to think of all survival situations and practice how you’ll handle them. Do this frequently until you are comfortable with it.

Remember to remain calm, think clearly, and apply what you’ve rehearsed when disaster strikes.

One of the most important outdoor survival skills to master is rope typing. This will come in handy in case you have to do rock climbing, sailing, or want to secure hunting traps, fishing lines, and survival shelters.

If you know different types of knots and how to tie them properly, you’ll survive any situation.

Watch YouTube videos on different types of ropes and knot tying. Learn about building a shelter in the outdoors, making fishing lines, netting, and setting hunting traps.

You can also use the rope to hang food, hang clothes, mark trails, and so much more.

If you get stuck without a rope, learn how to make one with plant material.

All you have to do is find and use a fiber-based plant. For example, hemp, dogbane, and milkweed.

Gather enough strands to make a rope. Weave the strands into the type of rope you need and make sure it’s strong enough to serve your needs. For example, if you want to support your weight, make sure the material you gather and the rope you make are enough to handle that.

Navigation

The best way to increase your chances of endurance and find your way out when you get stuck in a survival scenario is to master navigation.

If you get lost in a forest, snow-covered mountains, or desert, you’ll find your way back home. As long as you know how to find the right course.

The best ways to find and start moving in the right direction are identifying the high ground, using a compass, using the sun, and using the stars.

Find high ground or a high point and use it to determine where you should go. Climb a small tree or the nearest hill to find your way. If climbing a tree or a hill is impossible, use the sun and tree limbs.

Tree limbs often point in the southern part of the sky as they are exposed to direct sunlight because the sun spends most of the day in the southern part. So, you can find the south that way.

Another trick is to use a stick. Simply push it into the ground and mark where its shadow is on the ground. Wait for a couple of minutes and then find out in which direction the shadow has moved. That direction is east. So, use it to find your way.

The simplest and most effective option is to always carry a compass and a map with you and use it for navigation.

Reading a compass isn’t difficult. A basic understanding of how it works can help you survive any situation and navigate your way out of it.

Starting A Fire

Starting a fire is one of the most important survival skills you need to master. It will come in handy in survival situations and when you get stranded. You’ll be able to keep predators at a distance, provide light, signal rescuers, provide warmth for yourself, purify water, and cook.

Make sure you know at least two ways to start a fire so you can provide for your needs. The first option is to carry matches or other tools that will help you start a fire. Another option is to know the best ways to start a fire without those tools. This is because you can’t predict when and how accidents happen.

So, if disaster comes and you don’t have the required equipment, you can easily start a fire, provide heat, cook, and do everything you need to survive.

Learn to cook over a fire so you can prevent starvation.

Never cook your food over an open flame because it’s not effective. It will get burned and you’ll only be left with charcoal. Let your fire burn down to coals and then start cooking.

Another option is to wrap your food in banana leaves and other non-poisonous leaves, place them on top of the coal, and let it cook.

Most rescuers use aircraft to search for survivors or lost persons. So, using fire to signal them is the best way to ensure you get found. It makes it easy for them to find and rescue you.

If you are using fire to signal rescuers, make sure you build 3 fires in a triangular form. This is because it’s recognized as a distress signal. So, when someone sees that, they will know what to do.

The most important thing is to carefully bank your fires and avoid igniting the surrounding areas.

Other signaling methods include using a flashlight, whistles, mirrors, flags, and bright color markers.

Building A Shelter

Building a shelter is the basic survival skill you need to master. It is a great way to avoid fluctuating temperatures and stop them from causing illnesses such as the cold.

Learn to protect yourself from excessive exposure to the sun, wind, rain, or cold. Build a shelter that’s strong enough to protect from the elements, predators, creepy crawlies, and so on.

When choosing the best location to set up camp, consider a few important things. For example, type of soil, type of terrain, weather conditions, water sources, and wildlife.

The most common survival shelters you can use are a debris hut, a lean-to shelter, a put tent, tree pit shelters, and a snow shelter.

You can buy a survival tent that’s durable, comfortable, safe, and easy to move with. However, if the emergency catches you unawares and you don’t have your survival kit, you’ll have to build the shelter from the material that’s available in your surroundings. For example, wood, leaves, and tree branches.

Learn how to set up a tent and secure it. This will come in handy when you do have your survival kit with you and need shelter. Practice in your backyard until you can complete the entire process in a couple of minutes. This makes it easy for you to easily pitch your tent in survival situations as quickly as you need to. For instance, when it’s about to rain or there are strong winds.

Food Acquisition Skills

You need food and clean drinking water to survive. So, learn and master food acquisition skills to prevent starvation.

When going on a trip, make sure you pack extra food that will help you during emergencies. Include non-perishable and high-energy foods. Including protein bars.

The main goal is to pack enough food to cover breakfast, lunch, and supper and ensure you never starve.

Learn to acquire foods from the wild in case you don’t have your emergency kit with you when a crisis comes.

Know the right plants and fruits to eat and ones to avoid. Remember, not all plants are safe to eat. So, know which ones are appropriate to avoid infections, illnesses, or poison.

Some edible plants include clovers, chicory, burdock, cattail, dandelion, and edible pennycress.

Learn effective methods to find food including fishing, trapping, hunting, and foraging.

Finding Safe Water

Master effective ways to look for safe drinking water and avoid dehydration. Ensure access to clean water and have enough to cook, drink, and in some cases, wash clothes.

Finding clean water can be difficult if not impossible when you are stuck in the wild. That’s why you have to know the best ways to treat it.

So, always carry water purification tablets with you in case you need them for emergencies. Know how many tablets you need for what amount of water.

Another option is to use a water filter and other purification methods.

Some of the best water filters are the LifeStraw Personal Water Filter, Sawyer Mini Water Filtration System, and Katadyn Pocket Water Filter.

You need treated water for cooking, drinking, showering, and brushing your teeth. So, make sure you know and use the best water purification methods.

Self Defense Skills

Attacks are highly likely to occur when you are stranded in the outdoors. So, learn self-defense skills to protect yourself from any form of attack. In some cases, you may have a few seconds to respond.

So, if you know what to do, you’ll face any attack and protect yourself. Whether it’s an animal or a human.

Carry a pocket knife for defense.

If you find yourself in a survival situation and don’t have a knife, make one from flint or other similar stones and ensure survival.

Flintknapping is difficult but the good part is that all you need are sharp edges. Make sure the stone has razor-sharp edges that will help you survive.

The goal is to create a knife or an ax head you can use to defend yourself or hunt for food.

So there you have it 10 simple survival skills that you need to possess in a survival situation. Take some time to make sure that you have these mastered and you will be further ahead in any crisis situation.

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