Most of the time, we think of survival as something you do until you’re rescued.
But what if you DIDN’T want to be found?
What if you had to try and survive while being pursued by people who wanted to take what you have, or who wanted to hurt you?
The people chasing you could be terrorists, they could be random thugs out to hurt someone for fun, or they could be some other hostile group.
Recently, we talked to survival expert Reggie Bennett — who was a SERE instructor with the US Air Force — about just how you survive AND escape a hostile pursuer… and he says a lot of your survival is all “in your head”…
SERE Escape And Evasion:
3 Survival Tips To Master The Mental Game
It takes special skills to stay out of sight and undetected.
This is why people undergo Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) Training.
Going through SERE training teaches you how to trigger yourself psychologically.
It gives you the mental strength you need to both survive and evade whoever’s trying to catch you.
Here are the three best tips I can offer you on how to do that:
1. Know Yourself Under Stress
First, you have to know yourself.
You’ve got to recognize that there is going to be physical stress, there is going to be mental stress, and that physical and mental stress will saturate you.
You will end up making bad decisions, including getting caught, if you don’t understand this.
2. Acknowledge Your Stress and Manage It
Once you recognize the dangers of mental and physical stress, you have to accept and manage that stress.
Learn how to divide what bothers you mentally from what is hurting you physically.
You’ve got to work on psychological stress in your brain.
Physical stress, like cold, heat, and external dangers, has to be dealt with physically.
It’s that simple.
3. Know Your Tolerances And Avoid Making Bad Decisions
Finally, you’ve got to know your limits.
If you exert yourself too much, or if your psychological state overwhelms you, you will make bad decisions.
The key to surviving in a SERE situation, or any survival situation, is to know your psychological and physical states at all times.
It is all about pacing yourself, rather than forcing yourself to go on past all endurance.
Only when you pace yourself and know your limitations can you avoid making bad decisions, which is what makes the difference between staying free and alive… an getting caught and possibly dead.
