How to survive the wild - Bear Grylls way

Surviving naked in wild.

If you have no idea to how to survive in wild, I suggest you watch Survivor or Naked and afraid series, which were the most popular TV shows during the times of its broadcast. One was CBS, and the other on Discovery. I did not fascinate people going into the jungle as a challenge, to survive just with few matches, and eating spiders and cockroaches. Sometimes it was too gross to watch. However, as those TV shows were so popular sometimes, we are forced to watch, like when you are in the waiting room for the dentist! and you cannot avoid looking at this madness :). We are way over the era of surviving in a jungle alone, and until we hit the next apocalypse, we would be helped by our smartphones and GPS system. I am sure in few years, even before we land on mars, we will be able to establish safe survival routes by interconnected star link satellites, and it would be easy to wait until helicopter evacuates you, in the middle of the Congo jungle watching latest Survivor episodes all night, in case if you were lost.

Jungle: https://unsplash.com/@jeremy_holden

Seriously, How to survive the wild? What would Bear Grylls do?

Let's step aside the joke for a moment and assume this is a serious question. Although chances are rare, imagine that you have been lost inside the jungle of Congo without a compass or a map, and you have enough food until you come out of it. But how will you find the direction? Often, I have seen in those survival TV programs first they try to locate themselves, and you cannot do that unless you climb a mountain or go to a top of a tree. There once you are above the thick canopy of the tropical forest, you can see the distance and even catch the direction of the sun. You will know what is at the horizon and what the terrain looks like beyond you. There you can analyze the data and make a mental map of important landmarks. If you see a river or a stream, great, you will just have to follow this as humans tend to live by the water always, until they learned how to divert water to the places, they want it they did. So, it is likely there will be habitats downstream. Once you make a map of your own you can climb down the tree and start walking in the direction you wanted following landmarks.

It is true once on the ground you have to tackle every bush which obstructs your path and avoid every snake and spider. Yet, without knowing which direction you are going, it will take ages if you walk blindly so, the first step matters, and it matters a lot. I am sure you have not analyzed when watching such a program, if you haven't done do it next time. After all it would be fun to watch them how they do it practically and Bear Grylls will do exactly that.

Tropical forest: https://unsplash.com/@redcharlie

Let's move into mindfulness.

Now you know where I am heading. We have a jungle in our brains, and it is flooded with flora and Funa which is called information which freely flows inside from our sensory organs throughout the day, and it can be really wild inside. Just like inside a real jungle if you try to tackle every problem when you encounter, you will get nowhere and arrive at no destination and unfortunately die in the wild. However, there is hope. There is hope as long as there are trees. You have to climb, the Hope tree, which is called mindfulness, not once twice as many times as necessary throughout the journey. And bring out clarity to the information that you pose. Correct your path, identify rivers and roads, see landmarks.

Why? you may ask. I would say because the information jungle is dynamic, just like true wild forest, and we cannot avoid getting lost in it. So called living is surviving the jungle of information. Some are well equipped with hand saws and compass, still would not work until you climb a tree and know where you are. Some are born with Smartphones With GPS. Still might not work as you might miss the helicopter if you do not climb as canopy is too thick. So, still mindfulness matters. Mindfulness brings clarity, showing what is happening inside our brain. True nature of our thoughts. More importantly you do not have to be on the tree all day! You can still continue the journey as you are wiser with the wisdom it provides, but as long as information is changing you have to repeat the process. After all jungle is not in our control.

Jungle : https://unsplash.com/@hellocolor

Imagine you were blamed by someone, we cannot avoid hearing this, and it creates ripples in our thoughts. If you identify this, you can quickly climb the mindfulness and bring out the clarity necessary without reacting with anger. And this is a better response. Same goes to sadness, jealousy and even happiness. Once we identify the nature of the jungle of information, we will be able to survive and even enjoy it just like Bear Grylls.