The Power Of Mental Preparation

By Semperpapa

It has been 24 hours since the worst mass murder in American history took place in Newtown, Conn.
Of the 27 people who were murdered, 20 were small children and this detail makes this the worst act of mass murder.

For normal folks, the idea of anyone deliberately executing 5 and 6 years old children is so far from the realm of rationality that we can only sit back and look at the evidences with unadulterated horror.

But as the raw wounds of such tragedy give us emotional pain, we are reminded of the positive impact that mental preparation can have on each one of us.
The stories of teachers immediately responding to the threat by taking their students to bathrooms or closets after barricading the classrooms are telling of what appears to be mental preparation to respond to perceived threats. And a big thumb up must go to these individuals who may have saved countless more lives.

Mental preparation is a vital exercise every person should do in order to have a shot at surviving sudden unpleasant events that may occur in our daily lives, and in cases like yesterday, can be a life saver.
I have been a long time proponent of preparation and I have, of course, been labeled 'paranoid'.
I have had people telling me that they refuse to live in a constant state of alertness, insisting that such state is not a life. I propose that not engaging in some sort of mental preparation may jeopardize life itself.

From mentally covering responses to an invasion of my home to always being aware of my surrounding when I am in public, to consider what reaction I would have in the case of work violence, I continuously update my mental data bank with possible scenarios and responses.

It is interesting that security specialists are adamant about promoting such idea of preparation, that former Special Forces operatives are promoting them also, suggesting that being aware and prepared could make all the difference in the world at the right time.

After all, the members of our Military and Law Enforcement Officers spend their whole careers virtually training to respond to emergency situations. This thin line of dedicated men and women train to be prepared to instinctively respond to unexpected circumstances.
As civilians, we have an obligation, toward our loved ones, our community and ourselves, to also mentally train and prepare for such unexpected events, because, as the saying goes, when life and death is determined by seconds, a cop is only few minutes away.
We cannot have Law Enforcement Officers in every school, or office building or shopping mall. These first responders are trained to get to the place of emergency in just minutes, so what we civilians must try to do is to limit the impact of the assault long enough for help to arrive, we must try to contain the threat long enough for the professionals to take over.

The real power of mental preparation, the way I see it, is that when scenarios are played in our heads long enough, should the threat materialize, some of our reactions are almost automatic.
Case in point. When one night few weeks ago my dog rushed downstairs in my home and his bark woke me up, it took me about five seconds to go from deep sleep to up and weapon ready, including making sure my wife was in bed, basically registering that she was not roaming the house for some reason.
It also helps tremendously to have a dog and to know the dog's behavior ( our dog, for example, only barks when someone is actually at our front door and not when he hears someone just walking in the street. So when he barks, we pay close attention).

The reason for my quick reaction is that I have been mentally preparing for such an occurrence several times and my reaction was instinctive. Should that have been a real threat, I would have been ready to defend my wife and myself.
Is this any guarantee? Of course not. Any kind of preparation is not a guarantee to be able to stop a determined criminal actor, but it may at least slow it down. And that may be the difference between life and death.


So take some time and do some mental preparation in your personal life. We owe it to those we love.
Some students in Newtown may owe their lives to it.

Just my thoughts!