DON’T Panic
I’ve written several articles and most of them relate to Survival. Survival during catastrophic events including those involving the use of firearms. If you’ve missed any of these articles, you can see them all at JohnsonGroupTac.com/Blog. I talk a lot about the mental state of persons involved in catastrophic events and how you can consciously control the panic and rationalize your next actions. A lot of how you react to a catastrophic event is learned and imbedded into your mind prior to the event through knowledge, training and prior plan creating.
If a person never pictures themselves in a specific type of catastrophic event that person will most likely not know how to react to such event, and panic will set in. The basis of surviving such events begins with your Attitude. I’ve read several publications about the needed attitude to survive and after reviewing several real life experiences I’ve become sold on the fact that survival starts with the individuals attitude.
One of the most recent publications that I read explained that before even assessing the basic physical needs needed to survive, we need to look at a persons mental and emotional state. What is the best way to react to the crisis when it arrives, or, where does your head need to be? Your head needs to be somewhere calm and focused with the right attitude needed to persevere. It goes on to explain that the opposite of this attitude is called Panic. Every experience that a person has must pass through the portion of the brain that’s responsible for the panic response. Even before you can consciously think about it, that part of your brain has to first tell you whether or not you need to run away from it or attack it.
Unfortunately, many will not do any of the two mentioned and they will just panic. Either by freezing in the moment in shock of what they are observing or by screaming uncontrollably.
The writer goes on to explain that panic is a natural and incredibly powerful emotion. It is unfortunately part of our Fight or Flight response. In a modern-day, real-life survival situation, it can be incredibly destructive. Once panic sets in it is nearly impossible to control. Coping with the unexpected and dealing with dangerous conditions requires great ability to think calmly and with clarity, and to cleverly adapt to changing circumstances. That is the only attitude that works. Panic undermines that ability.
So, what the writer is saying is when the situation is at its most threatening or difficult, you need to be at your coolest and you have to think with clarity. You have to remain calm in order to survive. When I write about catastrophic events, I include any type of event where a deadly encounter may occur.
From Civil Unrest, Natural Disasters to one-on-one encounters with persons who want to harm you. Your brain and the way it functions is the first line of defense to surviving the incident.
Most people prepare physically for unforeseen events by stocking supplies, purchasing necessary equipment, prepping their home or property or by purchasing a firearm and ammunition. But how many train their brains for what may occur.
How many people actually practice the thought process needed to survive these events. Someone once asked me what shooting positions I practice. My answer was, all of them. They replied, but which ones? My answer was, every position that I can safely practice. The day I have to protect myself with a firearm is not illustrated in the “Real Life Shooting Position” playbook. I don’t know what position I will be in when that time comes and I have to squeeze the trigger. So, I practice and introduce my body and brain to the feel of shooting in all of them. I’m not going to Panic if I have to shoot from a non-traditional shooting position because I’ve previously thought about and trained in those positions.
My goal in all of my handgun training classes is to help prepare my students for real world scenarios and that includes shooting from all positions to include retention, shooting with one hand, weak hand, prone …… and more.
As an Official Partner with USCCA we would like to provide you with a FREE Guide on “The Physiology Of A Fight” or send us an email and we will get to you right away.
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For any questions regarding my article, email me at
[email protected]
Oz Johnson/Lead Instructor, NRA Certified
JohnsonGroupTAC.com
602-448-8283 / 602-410-7355
