The Importance of Rest

Without a doubt, a lack of proper sleep and recovery time, will physically drain you as well as sap your emotional strength.  Survival is demanding of all your resources and a lack of rest will make it that much harder to deal with the myriad of problems you will face as a result of whatever caused you to be in survival mode in the first place.  Being alert is a problem that many face on a regular basis now because of our hurried pace of life.  My last post talked about building a proper shelter and mentioned making a bed to lay on to stay warm and dry.  Once you realize that you’re in a survival situation and you’re going to have to spend one or more nights in the outdoors, it is imperative that you begin to make preparations to get relaxing and healing rest.  This will be further complicated if you are sick or injured.

In the first hours or days of survival, you will be generally better fed and more able to build a good shelter structure and bed area.  Food and water can be hard to find in some areas, with filling and nutritious food being perhaps the most difficult.  Water doesn’t run from you, doesn’t get spooked by your scent and other than filtration and boiling is relatively easy to deal with.  The point being that you are going to be further weakened by hunger the longer the situation continues and so the majority of your efforts to build a shelter and bed need to expended at the beginning of your survival saga.  Obviously, if the situation requires you to travel from place to place each day to leave a troubled area or if you are trying to get back to your car or home, you are going to have to make do the best you can.  This is where having that Mylar blanket in your pocket that I wrote about in the last post comes in handy.  Even a trash bag or other piece of plastic can help you stay dry when placed overhead in your shelter.  If you don’t have anything with you, keep your eyes open when traveling by rivers or streams as sometimes pieces of plastic or other items you can re-purpose can be found in the debris.

A survival situation is also spiritually debilitating.  Being able to pray and feel the Presence of God has kept many a person strong and sane in an otherwise mind and  heart killing scenario.  Knowing He is there will help keep the loneliness at bay.  It is also important that you observe the weekly Day of Rest as well.  A person cannot run on empty seven days a week and continue to be productive.  As soon as possible, if the survival situation continues for more than a week, try to set aside as much of Sunday as possible for worship and rest.  It says in the Ten Commandments to “Remember the Sabbath (rest) day to keep it holy.”  God isn’t concerned that you will forget the day of rest but rather that you will forget to keep it Holy.  (Separate and different from the other days of work and stress by making it a day of worship and rest)

So, build a proper shelter and bed.  Then, when that special day comes along out of every seven, spend time recovering and resting, being thankful for every blessing that you do have and praying for those less fortunate.  And after all, we shouldn’t just practice this when we are desperate and surviving, but now when things are normal.  So, get out there and practice your skills, but make Sunday a day when you honor God by keeping it holy and resting from your labors.

James B.

PS. You can check out my website at www.waypointsurvival.com and look at and order my custom knives at www.benderknifeworks.com.  But remember, I don’t do any business on Sunday, it is the Lord’s Day and I want to keep it Holy!