| ARTICLES |
Training That Saves Lives
Do you like to regularly spend time in the great outdoors? Do you like spending
time away from the busy world in which we live? Would you just like to spend
some time getting back in touch with the natural world?
Getting back to nature can be a wonderful and fulfilling experience for
everyone. However, in the event of an emergency, are you prepared?
Please take a moment to relax, stretching if necessary. I am going to describe a
scene to you and I want you to try and imagine yourself in the following situation.
You and a loved one are in the dining room of your home. You have just
finished a late evening supper. Now it is time to cleanup and wash the dirty
dishes. Your loved one has finished before you and starts cleaning up first. He
or she takes some of the dirty dishes and heads out of the room toward the
kitchen. The kitchen is just in the next room but you cannot see into it from
where you sit. As you are sitting you hear your loved one scream from the
kitchen and there follows a crash and the sound of someone falling.
You call out as you leap up from the table and rush to the kitchen.
As you enter the kitchen you see your loved one lying unconscious on the floor.
The dishes they were carrying are broken and scattered about. As you get
closer you see that one of their legs seems to be bent at an odd angle and you
think it may be broken. Additionally there is blood from a gash on their forehead
and some blood on the edge of a nearby counter top. It appears that your loved
one tripped or slipped on something and fell hitting their head on the counter
top.
Thinking quickly, you dial 911. An emergency operator takes your call and keeps
you calm by talking to you while an ambulance responds. Within 15 minutes the
ambulance and emergency response personnel have arrived.
Apart from questions emergency personnel ask you, the situation is now out of
your hands. You did what you could, as quickly as you could. Your loved one will
now be taken to a nearby hospital and given the best medical care available.
Now, how do you feel about what just happened? Did you feel calmer after you
called 911? Did you feel even better after the ambulance and medical personal
showed up and took control of the situation?
Now relax once again, and picture yourself in the next situation. Again I am
going to describe the scene to you and I want you to try to and imagine yourself
in the following situation.
You and a loved one are at a beautiful campsite deep within the woods. You
have just finished an excellent late evening meal cooked over an open
campfire. It is now time to cleanup and wash the dishes. Your loved one has
finished before you and starts cleaning up first. They take some of the dishes
and head down the hill to a nearby stream. The stream is just down the hill. As
you sit, you hear your loved one scream from down the hill and there follows a
crash and the sound of someone falling.
You call out as you leap up from the campfire and rush down to the stream.
As you get closer to the stream you see your loved one lying unconscious on
the forest floor. The dishes they were carrying are broken and scattered about.
As you get closer you see that one of their legs seems to be bent at an odd
angle and you think it may be broken. Additionally, there is blood from a gash on
their forehead and some blood on the edge of a nearby rock outcropping. It
appears your loved one tripped or slipped on something and fell hitting their
head on the rocks nearby.
Thinking quickly you get out your cell phone and dial 911. Unfortunately there is
no response as there is no signal available here. You start to call for help, but
realize that one of the reasons you chose this location is that there is no one
nearby. You also realize that it is at least a mile or more down the trail to where
your car is parked, and at least an hour to the nearest hospital.
Fortunately, it is light now but you realize that it will soon be getting dark. It will
also be getting colder as the sun begins to set and night comes.
You are on your own and all you have available is the camping gear you brought
with you.
What are you going to do? You are the only help immediately available, and the
life of your loved one may depend on your next action.
Now, how do you feel about what just happened?
I do not wish to alarm or scare anyone from camping by describing the above
situation, but I wish to make you aware that accidents can and do happen at
anytime. They can even happen if you are a seasoned adventurer, in good
physical shape, carrying gear in good condition, and traveling in an area you
have been to hundreds of times. Proper preparation and increasing your
awareness can reduce the possibility of a mishap occurring, yet even those with
the best laid plans can encounter the unexpected.
In the first situation, it is easy to get help for the injured party by simply calling
911. In our modern world, help, even for a life threatening situation, is often just
a phone call away.
The second situation is somewhat more complex. There is no immediate help
nearby, and medical supplies are limited to what you have brought into the
wilderness with you. Additionally, you have to deal with the outdoor
environment where lighting, temperature, and weather conditions can and often
do vary between extremes.
A fully stocked medical kit along with trained medical personnel would be nice to
have, but impractical to take camping all the time. In place of that you can arm
yourself with the best available tool, knowledge. For this I highly recommend
you look into attending a course on Wilderness First Aid.
Now some of you might say you do not need another first aid course, you have
already had what you believe to be sufficient first aid training. Responding to
this I would like you to honestly answer a few simple questions.
1) In your opinion, do you think your current first aid training would be sufficient
to deal with the above situation in the woods?
2) Do you routinely carry, and know how to use a first aid kit when outdoors?
3) Do you carry sufficient medical gear when outdoors to deal with every
possible situation?
4) Can you improvise any necessary equipment from the normal outdoor gear
you travel with?
5) Can you splint broken bones, using improvised material?
6) Are you prepared to deal with a possible head, neck, or spinal injury?
7) Can you recognize symptoms of exposure or dehydration?
8) Do you know how to treat a victim of exposure or dehydration?
9) Are you able to find, take, and record a victim's vital signs?
10) Would you be able to give a clear and concise report of a victim's condition
to emergency or rescue personnel?
If you answered no, or even hesitated in answering yes to any of the above
questions, I strongly encourage you look into attending a Wilderness First Aid
Class. It helps you prepare for possible emergency situations when you are in
the woods away from immediate medical assistance. The training you receive
could mean the difference between a life or death situation.
I have had basic first aid training at my workplace and have both attended and
taught classes in primitive and survival skills since the late 1990's. Nothing
compared to the 18 hour Wilderness First Aid class presented by Chris Tate that
I attended. According to Chris: "Wilderness First Aid is a comprehensive lesson
in how to react, respond, and save life in remote, life threatening situations."
Through the classroom instruction and practical outdoor simulations, we
learned how to respond to various wilderness emergencies. The course covers
a wide range of subjects from soft tissue injuries to lightning strikes. For
equipment we had no fancy medical kits, only the equipment that we normally
take on an outing to the woods. From this we learned the art of improvising the
necessary medical gear we need to treat injured victims.
The use of outdoors simulations is an exceptional teaching tool. After the
simulated rescue is completed both the volunteer patients and their rescuers
critique the experience from their respective viewpoints. This allows the
opportunity for valuable feedback that may not be normally available.
Additionally the situations are based upon actual emergency cases so that the
students can see how the real incident was handled.
It was an exceptional class, with a well-prepared instructor and excellent
practical course content.
The class will easily build your self-confidence in handling a possible emergency
situation when outdoors.
No previous experience is necessary and when completed you will receive a
certification good for two years.
For more information please check out the Wilderness First Aid website at http:
//wfa.net or phone (703) 836-8905.
This article first appeared in Great Outdoors Magazine, Spring 2003 issue. Patrick
Folsom runs the Full Circle Awareness Center in New Castle, Delaware. This
material may be freely distributed for nonprofit educational use. However, if quoted
in publications, written or electronic, attribution must be made to the author.
Commercial use of this material is prohibited without express written permission
from the author. Copyright 2004 Patrick Folsom.
Awareness, A Way of Life
(Part 1 of 2)
Awareness is the act or state of being aware. It is the ability of a person to
perceive and understand what is going on around them. There are many
different levels of awareness; physical, spiritual and mental, just to name a few.
For this article I will try to focus on the physical aspects of awareness, the
others you can discover on your own.
In the hectic modern day society we live in it is hard for someone to digest all
the input our senses receive in the course of a normal twenty-four hour day. Yet
we like to think that we are capable of doing so. Unfortunately, that leads many
people to believe that they are more aware than they actually are. How aware do
you believe you are?
Here are a few questions to check your level of awareness:
What phase was the moon in last night?
Where is the nearest area for shelter?
Where is the nearest body of water from you at this moment?
When did it rain last and how much did it rain?
Where is the nearest source of fire?
Where/what is the closest wild animal to you right now?
Where/what is the nearest edible plant to you right now?
Could you answer most of these questions? Did the questions seem to be
irrelevant to you today? Are you asking yourself who cares about these things?
If these questions seem to be to obscure, it maybe because most people today
are disconnected from the cycle and rhythm of life that goes on around them.
Life today is very different from what it was in the past. Our modern world has
placed most of our emphasis on technology and left us little time for anything
else.
In the past our ancestors lived closer to the earth and as a consequence were
more connected to the everyday cycle of life that went on around them. As a
matter of survival they had to be more aware of their surroundings. They did not
have any of the modern conveniences that we have today. Theirs was a simple
life, exposed to elements that they had absolutely no control over.
They needed to know the survival basics, shelter, water, fire, and food in order
to simply exist. As such, they needed to know where the nearest shelter was in
order to escape from the weather. A secure shelter was also important, as
primitive man was not necessarily on the top of the food chain. They needed to
know where the nearest drinkable water was and where the nearest food
source was that was edible. When fire finally arrived on the scene people had
to know where suitable material was that they could use.
These people didn't need to practice awareness; they lived it everyday,
although they may not have been aware of it at the time. Today we may take the
basics for granted, but in the past it was often a matter of survival of the fittest
or the wariest.
As time progressed and our ancestors began to travel around more, their
awareness did not decrease. They still lived close to the earth and as such were
still connected to the everyday cycle of life going on around them. As hunter
gather societies developed into agriculture societies people still needed the
basics of survival and these were directly related to their awareness of the
world around them.
Their survival hinged on knowing what material made good shelters and where
to collect it. They needed to know where the drinkable water was. They needed
to know the edible as well as the medicinal properties of plants, locally as well
as those further away. They needed to know what natural material was good for
making fire, containers, shelters, cordage, etc.
Yet as civilization advanced, and mankind became more urbanized, most of us
began to lose our connection to the earth. As a consequence we began to lose
our ability to perceive and understand the natural earth. We moved from a
nature-based society to a more technological one. Yet even in today’s modern
world some people still live close to the earth and are more connected to the
rhythm of life and therefore more aware than many of us. Their reasons may not
be of absolute survival necessity but to enjoy a more natural way of life.
Now you may say all that is well and good, but it is in the past. Some may ask how
does this apply to me, I live in the modern world.
OK, how about some more up to date awareness questions.
Where is the nearest shelter in case of emergency?
Where is the nearest hospital?
Where is the nearest drinking water?
Where is the nearest fire extinguisher?
Where is nearest supermarket? What supermarket is it?
Where is the nearest gas station?
What is the price of premium unleaded there?
What was the phase of the moon last night?
Were these questions easier to answer? Why?
In today’s modern industrial society most people would find these questions
easier to answer. They would certainly feel these questions are at least more
relevant to their way of life than the first set. Yet could they answer all of these
questions? That might be in doubt even though these questions are more
relevant.
In today’s society we have become almost completely disconnected from the
earth as well as each other. People today are more interested in what directly
affects them, and have little concern for what happens outside their own sphere
of participation. This decrease’s awareness because you end up only reacting to
what happens to you. There is no interaction, just reaction, which is just a
learned response.
I believe that we all still have the potential for increasing our individual
awareness. We remember things that happened if others bring the up, yet we
did not even react at the time. I believe that all our senses play a roll in our
awareness input. The information is received yet we have lost the ability to
process it or even realize it has been received and recorded.
For example, did you ever smell something, and immediately have a vivid
memory of something from your past? So vivid that you are almost reliving the
same incident over again? Perhaps something you hadn’t thought about in
years? The smell brought back those memories acting as a recall trigger.
As another example, take for instance a witness to a hit and run accident. The
witness informs police that they saw the whole thing, yet can only recall that the
car was blue. Later under hypnosis however, they can now recall the exact make
and model of the car as well as license plate number. They are additionally able
to recall the way the car sounded strange as well, how it smelled of burning oil
with the engine needing a tune-up. They may also be able to describe the driver
and any other occupants to police in some detail. All the information was
recorded but the witness didn’t even realize that it had been.
Your senses are always obtaining information even though you may not use the
information they are sending to you at the time. They don’t normally just turn
themselves off. The fault lies in the disuse of our ability to access and process
the information received. Everything we experience is recorded, it is just our
inability to process and use that information that we stored away.
In the second part of this article I will explain some simple exercises that you
can do to regain touch with your senses and begin to experience and process
the information that they are taking in. In this way you can begin to reawaken
your awareness skills and once again become connected to the cycle of life.
Pat Folsom
Full Circle Awareness Center
This article first appeared in Great Outdoors Magazine. Patrick Folsom runs the Full
Circle Awareness Center in New Castle, Delaware. This material may be freely
distributed for nonprofit educational use. However, if quoted in publications,
written or electronic, attribution must be made to the author. Commercial use of
this material is prohibited without express written permission from the author.
Copyright 2004 Patrick Folsom.
Awareness, A Way of Life
(Part 2 of 2)
In this, the second part of awareness I will provide you with some easy
exercises you can do to help improve your own awareness. Please realize
though, that all things take time and you can only improve your awareness by
constantly working on it. These exercises will help you on your way to realize
your full potential as a human being as well as reconnecting yourself to the
everyday cycle of life.
First though a few questions to test your awareness. Remember these?
What phase was the moon in last night?
Where is the nearest area for shelter?
Where is the nearest body of water from you at this moment?
When did it rain last and how much did it rain?
Where is the nearest source of fire?
Where/what is the closest wild animal to you right now?
Where/what is the nearest edible plant to you right now?
Could you answer these questions any easier this time? Why? Were you
expecting them? Did you prepare in advance, or were you increasing your
awareness since the last issue?
To help start you on the path to expanding your awareness, here are some
exercises you can try on your own. None of these are instant keys to complete
awareness, although some do have more dramatic effects than others. Don’t
expect immediate results, as with all things learning takes time and practice.
To begin, one needs to slow down from the hectic pace of everyday modern life.
Most people are in a hurry to get somewhere, then in a rush to get back home
again. Additionally almost everyone today is faced with deadlines or some other
time constraints. It is hard to enjoy the scenery if you are zipping down the
freeway at 65 miles per hour. The same is true for life. The natural speed of the
earth moves much slower than we do.
One way to slow down is to go and find a sit area. This could be in your yard or at
a park, anywhere you can just sit down and relax. Try to find a place without a lot
of people traveling by, so that you can enjoy the natural world without any
distractions. Sit and simply relax, think about nothing and just observe the world
with all your senses. Please do not fall asleep as you sit and relax, as this will
negate the purpose of the exercise. Try and stay there for about an hour if
possible, and watch nature become accustomed to your presence and resume
regular activity around you. Work on experiencing all your senses, feel the sun,
hear the birds, touch the earth, smell the air. In addition to helping your
awareness, the sit area is a great way to spend some needed relaxation time.
Another great way to slow down is to begin to walk differently and more
naturally. Again the slower you go the more time you will have to notice things
around you. In order to help you slow down and walk more naturally you may
wish to try a method called fox walking. I learned the art of fox walking at the
Tracker School run by Tom Brown Jr. He in turned was taught this method of
walking from his mentor, an Apache elder, known as Stalking Wolf.
To begin with start by holding your head high and look straight ahead. Lift one
foot with your leg and move it forward as if you were beginning to walk up steps.
When your foot comes down, let the outside of your foot touch the ground first,
in place of the heel, then roll your foot inwards on the balls of your feet. Finally
bring down the heel as you shift your weight forward. Next do the same with
your other foot. Doing the fox walk, do you feel how you have slowed down
already? Good! Fox Walking may seem awkward at first but it will become easier
the more you practice using it. Additionally you will not have to consciously think
about, or look down at your feet.
Another method to reawaken your senses is to try and use them more. We all
have the five primary senses we learned in school, sight, hearing, touch, taste,
and smell. However our world today is mainly visually orientated, and we have
neglected our other four senses. For instance, if you hear a sound your head
turns naturally towards it so that you can see what made the noise.
For this next exercises it would be nice, but not necessary, to have a friend
assist you if possible.
If you do these exercises with a friend, you can trade places and then later
discuss what each of you experienced. This is a great way to help each of you
learn and build confidence that you are on the right track. Also remember that
you should be moving slowly, fox walking if possible, so as to avoid any mishaps
and to allow more time for you to become familiar with the input from your
senses.
First you need to find a bandana, piece of cloth or other material in order to
make a blindfold, which will cover your eyes completely. You want to remove
your sense of sight as much as possible, so just closing your eyes will not work
as well. The inclination to open your eyes will be exceedingly hard to ignore. If
you’re blindfolded, opening your eyes will not matter, as you will still be unable
to see. You can also keep your eyes open under the blindfold if that makes you
more comfortable. As with all these exercises, please remember you are in
complete control and may stop at any time.
Place the blindfold over your eyes and try walking around the house as you
would normally during the day. Try the same exercise outside in your yard. Try
and listen to what your other senses are telling you now that your sight is gone.
Focus in on hearing especially, as it is the most often used or depended on
sense after sight, but don’t ignore input from your other senses. Try to do this
exercise for 30 minutes or more if possible. If you become uncomfortable,
remove the blindfold and take a moment to relax or trade places with your
partner.
This next exercise can be done anywhere and at anytime. It will also increase
your own personal knowledge base as well as helping improve your awareness.
First purchase or borrow a good book on plant or tree identification. Then sit
down with this resource and select a plant/tree that grows in your area. Find out
all you can about the uses of the plant/tree and what it looks like. Now that you
know more about it go out and physically find one in your local area. An idea you
may want to keep in mind is if you find your plant or tree in an especially nice
location consider using it as a sit area. Now that you think you know your
plant/tree continue to look for it wherever you travel. You may be surprised at
how quickly they begin to stand out to you from their surroundings.
Later when you become comfortable and believe that you would always be able
to locate your first plant/tree, begin the whole process again by choosing
another. Do not forget or stop noticing the first one but add now a second. Than
later add others, continually expanding your awareness and personal
knowledge.
Finally the best way to increase your awareness is to break the rut you are in.
What rut you may ask? Why the normal everyday routine that most people allow
themselves to get stuck in. This is the rut.
Think of it this way, when are you more aware of your surroundings, when you
are someplace familiar that you visit often, or in a new place? Most people
would say that they are more aware of their surroundings in a new place. In any
new location you are constantly looking around to get an oriented.
Everything is new and possibly exciting and you want to take it all in, and
become familiar with it. This is when your awareness is operating at its best.
Later when things get familiar we tend to get into the same old routine and we
tend to take our surroundings for granted. We seem to notice only drastic
changes.
In order to break the rut, you need to break out of old patterns of habit. There
are many was to accomplish this. First you need to discover the areas in your
life where you have established patterns, then try and think of ways to break
them. Start with the ones that are easy to change at first then work on the more
difficult ones. One easy way to change pattern that most of us have established
is the route we take to and from work daily. Here try to find new routes to take
even if it is just the simple change of one street at a time. You will find that the
more you break your established habits the more your awareness will increase.
Finally, the best way to increase your awareness is to treat every day as special
and unique. Try to see the world, through the eyes of a child, where everything
is magical and new. View each moment as it exists; try not to compare it to
others. Live for the moment and let out the child in you once again.
I hope this article will help you in rediscovering your senses and increase your
awareness. I would also love to hear about any experiences that you have in
doing any of these exercises. If you wish to share your experiences please feel
free to contact me. If contacting me by e-mail please put the word Awareness in
the subject line, so that I will not delete your message.
Pat Folsom
Full Circle Awareness Center
4 E. Hazeldell Ave
New Castle, DE 19720
E-Mail: PWFOLSOM@AOL.COM
This article first appeared in Great Outdoors Magazine. Patrick Folsom runs the Full
Circle Awareness Center in New Castle, Delaware. This material may be freely
distributed for nonprofit educational use. However, if quoted in publications,
written or electronic, attribution must be made to the author. Commercial use of
this material is prohibited without express written permission from the author.
Copyright 2004 Patrick Folsom.
Do you like to regularly spend time in the great outdoors? Do you like spending
time away from the busy world in which we live? Would you just like to spend
some time getting back in touch with the natural world?
Getting back to nature can be a wonderful and fulfilling experience for
everyone. However, in the event of an emergency, are you prepared?
Please take a moment to relax, stretching if necessary. I am going to describe a
scene to you and I want you to try and imagine yourself in the following situation.
You and a loved one are in the dining room of your home. You have just
finished a late evening supper. Now it is time to cleanup and wash the dirty
dishes. Your loved one has finished before you and starts cleaning up first. He
or she takes some of the dirty dishes and heads out of the room toward the
kitchen. The kitchen is just in the next room but you cannot see into it from
where you sit. As you are sitting you hear your loved one scream from the
kitchen and there follows a crash and the sound of someone falling.
You call out as you leap up from the table and rush to the kitchen.
As you enter the kitchen you see your loved one lying unconscious on the floor.
The dishes they were carrying are broken and scattered about. As you get
closer you see that one of their legs seems to be bent at an odd angle and you
think it may be broken. Additionally there is blood from a gash on their forehead
and some blood on the edge of a nearby counter top. It appears that your loved
one tripped or slipped on something and fell hitting their head on the counter
top.
Thinking quickly, you dial 911. An emergency operator takes your call and keeps
you calm by talking to you while an ambulance responds. Within 15 minutes the
ambulance and emergency response personnel have arrived.
Apart from questions emergency personnel ask you, the situation is now out of
your hands. You did what you could, as quickly as you could. Your loved one will
now be taken to a nearby hospital and given the best medical care available.
Now, how do you feel about what just happened? Did you feel calmer after you
called 911? Did you feel even better after the ambulance and medical personal
showed up and took control of the situation?
Now relax once again, and picture yourself in the next situation. Again I am
going to describe the scene to you and I want you to try to and imagine yourself
in the following situation.
You and a loved one are at a beautiful campsite deep within the woods. You
have just finished an excellent late evening meal cooked over an open
campfire. It is now time to cleanup and wash the dishes. Your loved one has
finished before you and starts cleaning up first. They take some of the dishes
and head down the hill to a nearby stream. The stream is just down the hill. As
you sit, you hear your loved one scream from down the hill and there follows a
crash and the sound of someone falling.
You call out as you leap up from the campfire and rush down to the stream.
As you get closer to the stream you see your loved one lying unconscious on
the forest floor. The dishes they were carrying are broken and scattered about.
As you get closer you see that one of their legs seems to be bent at an odd
angle and you think it may be broken. Additionally, there is blood from a gash on
their forehead and some blood on the edge of a nearby rock outcropping. It
appears your loved one tripped or slipped on something and fell hitting their
head on the rocks nearby.
Thinking quickly you get out your cell phone and dial 911. Unfortunately there is
no response as there is no signal available here. You start to call for help, but
realize that one of the reasons you chose this location is that there is no one
nearby. You also realize that it is at least a mile or more down the trail to where
your car is parked, and at least an hour to the nearest hospital.
Fortunately, it is light now but you realize that it will soon be getting dark. It will
also be getting colder as the sun begins to set and night comes.
You are on your own and all you have available is the camping gear you brought
with you.
What are you going to do? You are the only help immediately available, and the
life of your loved one may depend on your next action.
Now, how do you feel about what just happened?
I do not wish to alarm or scare anyone from camping by describing the above
situation, but I wish to make you aware that accidents can and do happen at
anytime. They can even happen if you are a seasoned adventurer, in good
physical shape, carrying gear in good condition, and traveling in an area you
have been to hundreds of times. Proper preparation and increasing your
awareness can reduce the possibility of a mishap occurring, yet even those with
the best laid plans can encounter the unexpected.
In the first situation, it is easy to get help for the injured party by simply calling
911. In our modern world, help, even for a life threatening situation, is often just
a phone call away.
The second situation is somewhat more complex. There is no immediate help
nearby, and medical supplies are limited to what you have brought into the
wilderness with you. Additionally, you have to deal with the outdoor
environment where lighting, temperature, and weather conditions can and often
do vary between extremes.
A fully stocked medical kit along with trained medical personnel would be nice to
have, but impractical to take camping all the time. In place of that you can arm
yourself with the best available tool, knowledge. For this I highly recommend
you look into attending a course on Wilderness First Aid.
Now some of you might say you do not need another first aid course, you have
already had what you believe to be sufficient first aid training. Responding to
this I would like you to honestly answer a few simple questions.
1) In your opinion, do you think your current first aid training would be sufficient
to deal with the above situation in the woods?
2) Do you routinely carry, and know how to use a first aid kit when outdoors?
3) Do you carry sufficient medical gear when outdoors to deal with every
possible situation?
4) Can you improvise any necessary equipment from the normal outdoor gear
you travel with?
5) Can you splint broken bones, using improvised material?
6) Are you prepared to deal with a possible head, neck, or spinal injury?
7) Can you recognize symptoms of exposure or dehydration?
8) Do you know how to treat a victim of exposure or dehydration?
9) Are you able to find, take, and record a victim's vital signs?
10) Would you be able to give a clear and concise report of a victim's condition
to emergency or rescue personnel?
If you answered no, or even hesitated in answering yes to any of the above
questions, I strongly encourage you look into attending a Wilderness First Aid
Class. It helps you prepare for possible emergency situations when you are in
the woods away from immediate medical assistance. The training you receive
could mean the difference between a life or death situation.
I have had basic first aid training at my workplace and have both attended and
taught classes in primitive and survival skills since the late 1990's. Nothing
compared to the 18 hour Wilderness First Aid class presented by Chris Tate that
I attended. According to Chris: "Wilderness First Aid is a comprehensive lesson
in how to react, respond, and save life in remote, life threatening situations."
Through the classroom instruction and practical outdoor simulations, we
learned how to respond to various wilderness emergencies. The course covers
a wide range of subjects from soft tissue injuries to lightning strikes. For
equipment we had no fancy medical kits, only the equipment that we normally
take on an outing to the woods. From this we learned the art of improvising the
necessary medical gear we need to treat injured victims.
The use of outdoors simulations is an exceptional teaching tool. After the
simulated rescue is completed both the volunteer patients and their rescuers
critique the experience from their respective viewpoints. This allows the
opportunity for valuable feedback that may not be normally available.
Additionally the situations are based upon actual emergency cases so that the
students can see how the real incident was handled.
It was an exceptional class, with a well-prepared instructor and excellent
practical course content.
The class will easily build your self-confidence in handling a possible emergency
situation when outdoors.
No previous experience is necessary and when completed you will receive a
certification good for two years.
For more information please check out the Wilderness First Aid website at http:
//wfa.net or phone (703) 836-8905.
This article first appeared in Great Outdoors Magazine, Spring 2003 issue. Patrick
Folsom runs the Full Circle Awareness Center in New Castle, Delaware. This
material may be freely distributed for nonprofit educational use. However, if quoted
in publications, written or electronic, attribution must be made to the author.
Commercial use of this material is prohibited without express written permission
from the author. Copyright 2004 Patrick Folsom.
Awareness, A Way of Life
(Part 1 of 2)
Awareness is the act or state of being aware. It is the ability of a person to
perceive and understand what is going on around them. There are many
different levels of awareness; physical, spiritual and mental, just to name a few.
For this article I will try to focus on the physical aspects of awareness, the
others you can discover on your own.
In the hectic modern day society we live in it is hard for someone to digest all
the input our senses receive in the course of a normal twenty-four hour day. Yet
we like to think that we are capable of doing so. Unfortunately, that leads many
people to believe that they are more aware than they actually are. How aware do
you believe you are?
Here are a few questions to check your level of awareness:
What phase was the moon in last night?
Where is the nearest area for shelter?
Where is the nearest body of water from you at this moment?
When did it rain last and how much did it rain?
Where is the nearest source of fire?
Where/what is the closest wild animal to you right now?
Where/what is the nearest edible plant to you right now?
Could you answer most of these questions? Did the questions seem to be
irrelevant to you today? Are you asking yourself who cares about these things?
If these questions seem to be to obscure, it maybe because most people today
are disconnected from the cycle and rhythm of life that goes on around them.
Life today is very different from what it was in the past. Our modern world has
placed most of our emphasis on technology and left us little time for anything
else.
In the past our ancestors lived closer to the earth and as a consequence were
more connected to the everyday cycle of life that went on around them. As a
matter of survival they had to be more aware of their surroundings. They did not
have any of the modern conveniences that we have today. Theirs was a simple
life, exposed to elements that they had absolutely no control over.
They needed to know the survival basics, shelter, water, fire, and food in order
to simply exist. As such, they needed to know where the nearest shelter was in
order to escape from the weather. A secure shelter was also important, as
primitive man was not necessarily on the top of the food chain. They needed to
know where the nearest drinkable water was and where the nearest food
source was that was edible. When fire finally arrived on the scene people had
to know where suitable material was that they could use.
These people didn't need to practice awareness; they lived it everyday,
although they may not have been aware of it at the time. Today we may take the
basics for granted, but in the past it was often a matter of survival of the fittest
or the wariest.
As time progressed and our ancestors began to travel around more, their
awareness did not decrease. They still lived close to the earth and as such were
still connected to the everyday cycle of life going on around them. As hunter
gather societies developed into agriculture societies people still needed the
basics of survival and these were directly related to their awareness of the
world around them.
Their survival hinged on knowing what material made good shelters and where
to collect it. They needed to know where the drinkable water was. They needed
to know the edible as well as the medicinal properties of plants, locally as well
as those further away. They needed to know what natural material was good for
making fire, containers, shelters, cordage, etc.
Yet as civilization advanced, and mankind became more urbanized, most of us
began to lose our connection to the earth. As a consequence we began to lose
our ability to perceive and understand the natural earth. We moved from a
nature-based society to a more technological one. Yet even in today’s modern
world some people still live close to the earth and are more connected to the
rhythm of life and therefore more aware than many of us. Their reasons may not
be of absolute survival necessity but to enjoy a more natural way of life.
Now you may say all that is well and good, but it is in the past. Some may ask how
does this apply to me, I live in the modern world.
OK, how about some more up to date awareness questions.
Where is the nearest shelter in case of emergency?
Where is the nearest hospital?
Where is the nearest drinking water?
Where is the nearest fire extinguisher?
Where is nearest supermarket? What supermarket is it?
Where is the nearest gas station?
What is the price of premium unleaded there?
What was the phase of the moon last night?
Were these questions easier to answer? Why?
In today’s modern industrial society most people would find these questions
easier to answer. They would certainly feel these questions are at least more
relevant to their way of life than the first set. Yet could they answer all of these
questions? That might be in doubt even though these questions are more
relevant.
In today’s society we have become almost completely disconnected from the
earth as well as each other. People today are more interested in what directly
affects them, and have little concern for what happens outside their own sphere
of participation. This decrease’s awareness because you end up only reacting to
what happens to you. There is no interaction, just reaction, which is just a
learned response.
I believe that we all still have the potential for increasing our individual
awareness. We remember things that happened if others bring the up, yet we
did not even react at the time. I believe that all our senses play a roll in our
awareness input. The information is received yet we have lost the ability to
process it or even realize it has been received and recorded.
For example, did you ever smell something, and immediately have a vivid
memory of something from your past? So vivid that you are almost reliving the
same incident over again? Perhaps something you hadn’t thought about in
years? The smell brought back those memories acting as a recall trigger.
As another example, take for instance a witness to a hit and run accident. The
witness informs police that they saw the whole thing, yet can only recall that the
car was blue. Later under hypnosis however, they can now recall the exact make
and model of the car as well as license plate number. They are additionally able
to recall the way the car sounded strange as well, how it smelled of burning oil
with the engine needing a tune-up. They may also be able to describe the driver
and any other occupants to police in some detail. All the information was
recorded but the witness didn’t even realize that it had been.
Your senses are always obtaining information even though you may not use the
information they are sending to you at the time. They don’t normally just turn
themselves off. The fault lies in the disuse of our ability to access and process
the information received. Everything we experience is recorded, it is just our
inability to process and use that information that we stored away.
In the second part of this article I will explain some simple exercises that you
can do to regain touch with your senses and begin to experience and process
the information that they are taking in. In this way you can begin to reawaken
your awareness skills and once again become connected to the cycle of life.
Pat Folsom
Full Circle Awareness Center
This article first appeared in Great Outdoors Magazine. Patrick Folsom runs the Full
Circle Awareness Center in New Castle, Delaware. This material may be freely
distributed for nonprofit educational use. However, if quoted in publications,
written or electronic, attribution must be made to the author. Commercial use of
this material is prohibited without express written permission from the author.
Copyright 2004 Patrick Folsom.
Awareness, A Way of Life
(Part 2 of 2)
In this, the second part of awareness I will provide you with some easy
exercises you can do to help improve your own awareness. Please realize
though, that all things take time and you can only improve your awareness by
constantly working on it. These exercises will help you on your way to realize
your full potential as a human being as well as reconnecting yourself to the
everyday cycle of life.
First though a few questions to test your awareness. Remember these?
What phase was the moon in last night?
Where is the nearest area for shelter?
Where is the nearest body of water from you at this moment?
When did it rain last and how much did it rain?
Where is the nearest source of fire?
Where/what is the closest wild animal to you right now?
Where/what is the nearest edible plant to you right now?
Could you answer these questions any easier this time? Why? Were you
expecting them? Did you prepare in advance, or were you increasing your
awareness since the last issue?
To help start you on the path to expanding your awareness, here are some
exercises you can try on your own. None of these are instant keys to complete
awareness, although some do have more dramatic effects than others. Don’t
expect immediate results, as with all things learning takes time and practice.
To begin, one needs to slow down from the hectic pace of everyday modern life.
Most people are in a hurry to get somewhere, then in a rush to get back home
again. Additionally almost everyone today is faced with deadlines or some other
time constraints. It is hard to enjoy the scenery if you are zipping down the
freeway at 65 miles per hour. The same is true for life. The natural speed of the
earth moves much slower than we do.
One way to slow down is to go and find a sit area. This could be in your yard or at
a park, anywhere you can just sit down and relax. Try to find a place without a lot
of people traveling by, so that you can enjoy the natural world without any
distractions. Sit and simply relax, think about nothing and just observe the world
with all your senses. Please do not fall asleep as you sit and relax, as this will
negate the purpose of the exercise. Try and stay there for about an hour if
possible, and watch nature become accustomed to your presence and resume
regular activity around you. Work on experiencing all your senses, feel the sun,
hear the birds, touch the earth, smell the air. In addition to helping your
awareness, the sit area is a great way to spend some needed relaxation time.
Another great way to slow down is to begin to walk differently and more
naturally. Again the slower you go the more time you will have to notice things
around you. In order to help you slow down and walk more naturally you may
wish to try a method called fox walking. I learned the art of fox walking at the
Tracker School run by Tom Brown Jr. He in turned was taught this method of
walking from his mentor, an Apache elder, known as Stalking Wolf.
To begin with start by holding your head high and look straight ahead. Lift one
foot with your leg and move it forward as if you were beginning to walk up steps.
When your foot comes down, let the outside of your foot touch the ground first,
in place of the heel, then roll your foot inwards on the balls of your feet. Finally
bring down the heel as you shift your weight forward. Next do the same with
your other foot. Doing the fox walk, do you feel how you have slowed down
already? Good! Fox Walking may seem awkward at first but it will become easier
the more you practice using it. Additionally you will not have to consciously think
about, or look down at your feet.
Another method to reawaken your senses is to try and use them more. We all
have the five primary senses we learned in school, sight, hearing, touch, taste,
and smell. However our world today is mainly visually orientated, and we have
neglected our other four senses. For instance, if you hear a sound your head
turns naturally towards it so that you can see what made the noise.
For this next exercises it would be nice, but not necessary, to have a friend
assist you if possible.
If you do these exercises with a friend, you can trade places and then later
discuss what each of you experienced. This is a great way to help each of you
learn and build confidence that you are on the right track. Also remember that
you should be moving slowly, fox walking if possible, so as to avoid any mishaps
and to allow more time for you to become familiar with the input from your
senses.
First you need to find a bandana, piece of cloth or other material in order to
make a blindfold, which will cover your eyes completely. You want to remove
your sense of sight as much as possible, so just closing your eyes will not work
as well. The inclination to open your eyes will be exceedingly hard to ignore. If
you’re blindfolded, opening your eyes will not matter, as you will still be unable
to see. You can also keep your eyes open under the blindfold if that makes you
more comfortable. As with all these exercises, please remember you are in
complete control and may stop at any time.
Place the blindfold over your eyes and try walking around the house as you
would normally during the day. Try the same exercise outside in your yard. Try
and listen to what your other senses are telling you now that your sight is gone.
Focus in on hearing especially, as it is the most often used or depended on
sense after sight, but don’t ignore input from your other senses. Try to do this
exercise for 30 minutes or more if possible. If you become uncomfortable,
remove the blindfold and take a moment to relax or trade places with your
partner.
This next exercise can be done anywhere and at anytime. It will also increase
your own personal knowledge base as well as helping improve your awareness.
First purchase or borrow a good book on plant or tree identification. Then sit
down with this resource and select a plant/tree that grows in your area. Find out
all you can about the uses of the plant/tree and what it looks like. Now that you
know more about it go out and physically find one in your local area. An idea you
may want to keep in mind is if you find your plant or tree in an especially nice
location consider using it as a sit area. Now that you think you know your
plant/tree continue to look for it wherever you travel. You may be surprised at
how quickly they begin to stand out to you from their surroundings.
Later when you become comfortable and believe that you would always be able
to locate your first plant/tree, begin the whole process again by choosing
another. Do not forget or stop noticing the first one but add now a second. Than
later add others, continually expanding your awareness and personal
knowledge.
Finally the best way to increase your awareness is to break the rut you are in.
What rut you may ask? Why the normal everyday routine that most people allow
themselves to get stuck in. This is the rut.
Think of it this way, when are you more aware of your surroundings, when you
are someplace familiar that you visit often, or in a new place? Most people
would say that they are more aware of their surroundings in a new place. In any
new location you are constantly looking around to get an oriented.
Everything is new and possibly exciting and you want to take it all in, and
become familiar with it. This is when your awareness is operating at its best.
Later when things get familiar we tend to get into the same old routine and we
tend to take our surroundings for granted. We seem to notice only drastic
changes.
In order to break the rut, you need to break out of old patterns of habit. There
are many was to accomplish this. First you need to discover the areas in your
life where you have established patterns, then try and think of ways to break
them. Start with the ones that are easy to change at first then work on the more
difficult ones. One easy way to change pattern that most of us have established
is the route we take to and from work daily. Here try to find new routes to take
even if it is just the simple change of one street at a time. You will find that the
more you break your established habits the more your awareness will increase.
Finally, the best way to increase your awareness is to treat every day as special
and unique. Try to see the world, through the eyes of a child, where everything
is magical and new. View each moment as it exists; try not to compare it to
others. Live for the moment and let out the child in you once again.
I hope this article will help you in rediscovering your senses and increase your
awareness. I would also love to hear about any experiences that you have in
doing any of these exercises. If you wish to share your experiences please feel
free to contact me. If contacting me by e-mail please put the word Awareness in
the subject line, so that I will not delete your message.
Pat Folsom
Full Circle Awareness Center
4 E. Hazeldell Ave
New Castle, DE 19720
E-Mail: PWFOLSOM@AOL.COM
This article first appeared in Great Outdoors Magazine. Patrick Folsom runs the Full
Circle Awareness Center in New Castle, Delaware. This material may be freely
distributed for nonprofit educational use. However, if quoted in publications,
written or electronic, attribution must be made to the author. Commercial use of
this material is prohibited without express written permission from the author.
Copyright 2004 Patrick Folsom.
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