Have you ever wondered why the survivalists know the skills they know? Is it necessary? Well, in this article, you’ll learn why basic survival skills are important to know.
We have developed primitive skills in order to flourish and survive. Before the industrial revolution, it was essential to know what was around you and to master wilderness survival skills in order to ensure a person’s survival in the wilderness.
Nowadays, these essential skills are widely forgotten, because many people think that they do not need to know a single basic survival skill. So, now we can ask ourselves, why are survival skills important?
If you were backpacking in a deep forest with no internet connection and you were to accidentally twist an ankle or maybe even something more serious like breaking a leg, then you and maybe your group are in a serious scenario.
You will need to know fundamental survival skills in order to survive the life threatening scenario you are now in.
There are three primary survival points that we need to remember before starting. Obviously, the first is how to stay safe in the wilderness, what to do in case of an emergency, what the average person needs to know to survive.
The second skill is how to live efficiently, making do with what you have.
The third skill is also one that will always be important, how to spot danger, and how to deal with it.
Let’s dig in.
1. Injury
First off is the medical situation you must attend; you should get your first aid kit in this survival situation, and you should know how to use it.
Next, it is essential to make a fire as a signal and for warmth. Then, a primitive shelter to wait for help and avoid all the animals and insects that may carry disease.
Your next step is to purify your water to make it safe drinking water and eat the plants and/or animals that you can catch. Then, if help still doesn’t come, make the tools necessary to help yourself. Finally, you must understand weather patterns to indicate how fast you must build your shelter and make your fire.
There are many life-threatening things out there that will require survival skills in order to endure properly.
2. Getting Lost
When answering the question, why are survival skills important, getting lost is an eye-opening reason.
Every single year, thousands of people get lost and even die in developed countries.
If you get lost and don’t know how to do the best with what you have, you can end in a very painful death.
Knowing what to do if you get lost is essential for an active outdoor person who likes to take long hikes or trips. This can save your life and potentially your friends and family’s lives too. There are various survival techniques you must practice if you get lost. These are things like finding drinking water, building a fire, building a shelter, and more.
3. Rewarding
Second on the list to answer why survival skills are important is the fact that it can be very rewarding.
Knowing primitive and societal survival skills may provide you with meditative exercises that might help with relaxation.
In addition to that, building shelters, starting fires, and even training for self defense all has physical benefits as well, and may get you ripped.
4. Confidence in Saving Your Life
Having confidence that you can save yourself and your loved ones in an emergency situation is essential for outdoor survival.
You will build self-esteem if you are able to build a fire, a shelter, and perhaps eat wild plants and animals. You will have confidence in whatever the future will throw at you.
If you can identify the root causes of your problems in a collapse, societal breakdown, or in a scenario where law and order do not apply and take care of your loved ones, you will have confidence.
You must be able to step out your doors with the ease of knowing that you can handle whatever nature or society throws at you.
5. Stuff Happens
When we are referring to this, we are mainly thinking of survival in society.
There is an endless escalation of terrorism such as shootings, bombing, and many more tragedies. We have all learned lessons from events such as 9/11 that we have to be aware of the world we live in. You’ll need basic skills to have a better chance at survival in these everyday life situations.
After America bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, many died instantly, but those who lived soon mostly died of contamination, municipal water sources, and many more problems.
If they had survival skills such as building water filtration and knowing how to render water drinkable, more of them would have survived.
Stepping aside from shootings and bombings, there are many crimes being made every second such as rape, mugging, murder, and much more that you can prevent with self-defense, which is a very handy survival skill.
6. Appreciating Nature
Lastly, we do have to take in account the nature part of it and how it will enhance your view of the planet.
With so much of the world now covered with modern technology, it is harder and harder to find places untouched by man. So, getting out and enjoying nature in its entirety will help you appreciate the simple things.
Being able to pick up food in the wilderness after hard work will feel a lot better than picking up food at the supermarket.
Appreciating nature will enhance the way you see the world and will give a fresher outlook on life. Perhaps you are stuck at a 9-5 job and you are looking for more excitement, then this is definitely an option to consider.
7. It’s Mentally Healthy
Finally, when answering the question, why are survival skills important, it is healthy for you! It’s a good idea to go out more in mother nature.
You will get closer to the natural world. The world is controlled by humans, and sometimes it is good to stray away from them for a while. Nowadays, it’s almost impossible to find a place that is untouched.
You will explore new things and look at the spectacular surroundings, possibly with some self-reflection.
You will soon have a deeper connection with the natural world, and will allow you to appreciate your everyday life.
What are Some Basic Wilderness Survival Skills?
Now that I have covered why survival skills are important, it is essential to actually know what some of the most important survival skills are in wilderness scenarios.
Shelter
Building a shelter is your number one priority because you risk sunstroke and dehydration in hot weather. In cold weather, you may be at risk for hypothermia or succumbing.
Your first step is to find a good location to build your shelter if you cannot find one. Location is key. You want to build a shorter shelter to prevent the wind from destroying your shelter.
If you have a tarp, you can build many things with that. However, in the cases that you don’t, you will have to branches and large leaves to make a lean-in shelter that is better than nothing.
A shelter needs to have proper ground, don’t sleep on the floor. Once you are completed, you can start sleeping arrangements.
Fire
Fire is also very important for staying warm, drying clothes, boiling water, and cooking food.
There are several ways to make a fire, but one of the easiest is just to have a lighter. Even if a lighter runs out of its fluid, it can probably still make sparks which are essential for starting a fire.
Before starting a fire, you should, of course, gather as much dry wood as possible, make a windbreak to avoid the fire burning out or starting a potentially major fire, and have lots of dry leaves and twigs to feed the fire often.
Water
A person can survive three days without water before death. In rare cases, where the environment is just right, and you are under special circumstances, a week.
You first need to find a bucket or something to hold your water.
Maybe you have rain that is a viable water source, and you can collect that, or maybe you have a nearby water source that you can boil to drink.
You should make a water filtration system before boiling to remove sand, dirt, and other dirty things that may be lurking in the water.
Next, you should boil the water for at least three minutes for the best results.
Food
You will need to find food to fit your nutritional needs. This is the least of your concerns since you can last around three weeks without food. However, if you’re lost for an extended period of time, it will become necessary, and you’ll need to find food to eat.
Final Words
Survival skills will help you out with this unstable world and may save your life one day. In this article, we covered five stunning reasons why survival skills are important, and I hope you will now try to learn at least the fundamentals.
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