5 Practical Survival Skills You Should Learn and Practice Today - Newslibre

5 Practical Survival Skills You Should Learn and Practice Today

The world is increasingly dependent on computer technology for everything from banking to getting to work. Consider how many people did their entire jobs remotely at the height of the pandemic. That dependence pushes everyone farther away from practical survival skills that people took for granted even a few generations ago.

This also coincides with a recent sharp drop in membership in organizations like the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts that often impart such skills. If you feel like your skills could use some help, keep reading for five practical survival skills you should learn and practice.

5 Practical Survival Skills You Should Learn and Practice

1. Building a Fire

Exposure is one of the primary threats that people face in survival situations. Temperatures drop and they can’t find a source of heat. If it gets cold enough, hypothermia or even frostbite can set in. Knowing how to build a fire can help keep you warm if you find yourself trapped in the wilderness. Beyond that, it can discourage animals from getting too close and may even help people locate you.

Building a fire requires knowing how to identify and gather tinder and appropriately dry wood. It also requires learning how to arrange the wood in a way that allows for airflow while keeping the fire contained.

2. Creating Shelter

The next step in preventing exposure in the wild is creating some kind of shelter. While a fire will provide heat, it offers you limited protection from things like rain and snow. Once you get wet, survival becomes even more tenuous. The most basic shelter is a lean-to, which you can make with sticks and branches.

You can also carry a one-person tent in your vehicle as a precaution against emergencies. Don’t wait to figure out how to set up your tent. There are state parks that allow camping. You can also run online searches for tent camping near me.

3. Finding Food

You can find something edible to eat in most locations, even if it’s only berries or nuts. Since vegetation varies so much from location to location, find someone knowledgeable to teach you about the local plant life and what is and isn’t safe to eat.

You should never eat any plant you cannot identify with certainty. Be particularly cautious about mushrooms of any kind. While many are edible, some are lethal. Carrying some food with a long shelf-life on you or in your vehicle can help stave off hunger. Think in terms of freeze-dried fruits, emergency ration bars, and pretzels.

4. Finding Water

Depending on your location, finding water may prove fairly easy or difficult. Finding water in a desert, for example, often requires training. Whenever possible, though, boil and strain the water before you drink it. It helps to kill things like bacteria in the water and removes larger particles that you might miss.

Bear in mind that a lot of surface water is contaminated in some way, although that is often less of a problem away from cities, towns, and farms. You can find chemical tablets and water purification straws that you can carry with you.

5. First Aid

5 Practical Survival Skills You Should Learn and Practice Today - Newslibre
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If you find yourself trapped away from civilization, there are fair odds that are or will end up injured in some way. Untreated injuries can become a breeding ground for all kinds of problems, particularly infections. At the very least, you should know how to clean and bandage cuts, make a splint, and provide basic treatment for burns.

Working knowledge of CPR might or might not help, depending on your situation. Again, you can find basic first aid kits that you keep in your car that will contain essentials like bandages, over-the-counter pain relievers, and antibiotic creams or ointments.

It Could Save Your Life

These days, most people get little or no instruction in basic survival skills. That means it’s on you to go out and find people or training that impart these skills to you. Of course, like any skill, survival skills are perishable skills. You must make an effort to practice them over time. This will reinforce the skills and make them second nature when you need them.

 

Check out: 10 Tips You Should Consider Before Traveling with Your Pet

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