I SPOKE RECENTLY to a Traumatic Brain Injury support group. These are people who had accidents or health events that caused trauma to the brain - and their lives have been changed in such a way that they react differently and sometimes uncontrollably to situations or stress in their lives. My talk was about the importance of Emergency Preparedness in case of natural disasters, especially earthquakes. One of the women was noticeably in tears at points during my talk, and she commented that when you have had a major trauma you become anxious about everything. And it caused me to pause and reflect about how any type of trauma can cause anxiety about life. We take everything for granted, expecting that each day will be like the next. Yet, when something occurs that unsettles that routine, we are left in a state of momentary or long-term shock, and it rattles our notion of life and our place in it.

Last year I broke my arm after a freak fall in my garden, and I am very hesitant every time I am near the place where I fell. Anxiety rises. Many years ago as a teenager, I had a minor car accident, and as a result I became very cautious when driving - aware that I was not invincible and that other people did not always pay attention to stop lights or other rules I'd learned in driving school. When we had our earthquake in the Bay Area in 1989, many of us were polarized by that event. It took months of talking it out with friends, neighbors, and our work mates to absorb the shock and bring us back again to a point of seeming normalcy. The fabric of reality was disrupted by an event over which we had no control, and our comfort zone was definitely shaken up.

One thing that came to mind as the woman in the Traumatic Brain Injury group shared her anxiety was that we need to turn anxiety into awareness. The mind has a way of attempting to shield us from being hurt, and when there is a big event, we hold on to the memory of it and put up a shield to anything that may reflect that situation. Yet, the opportunity in an uncontrollable event is to become more aware. For instance, as a result of my broken arm, I am much more deliberate about watching where I am walking and paying attention to what my surroundings are. After the auto accident, I recognized that I needed to pay attention to the drivers around me. It wasn't important to be the first one to move forward on a green light - it was important to make sure that all the cars in the cross traffic had come to a full stop.

As I explained to the Brain Injury group, what Emergency Preparedness does for us is to provide us with the tools for coping in the event of something unforeseen. By being aware of our surroundings and knowing steps to take in order to help ourselves through an event, we are developing an internal insurance policy that will carry us in times of need. Just as we learn how to do a Heimlich Maneuver or CPR, anything that will give us more information about self-reliance and how to handle ourselves in unforeseen situations, will empower us. It turns anxiety - which is a feeling of helplessness - into awareness. And awareness allows us to take control of a situation, rather than being victimized by it.

Awareness cannot stop uncontrollable events, but it gives us the ability to cope with them because we practice being conscious of where we are in space and time. Examples of this include minor things like paying attention to where we park our car. Is it in a safe space?

Who is around when we park? What is the feeling we get about where we are? Is a little voice inside saying, this is not the place to park, and do we listen to that voice or dismiss it? When we leave our homes, do we make sure that appliances are turned off like washing machines, dryers, and dishwashers? Do we make sure the burners of our stove are off, and that the heater is off, and that we've closed windows and locked doors?

Disasters often occur when no one is home, so when we take steps to make sure that we've done our part consciously to help avoid needless issues, we are using awareness as an insurance policy.

Paying attention becomes a valuable tool for turning anxiety into awareness because it gives us the ability to feel empowered rather than helpless. When we walk through our lives consciously we are prepared to react to situations before they become traumatic events, and that ability insures that if there is something that can be done, we will have the awareness to do it. And if we cannot change an event, we can at least find our way through it with a greater degree of confidence in our ability to manage the outcome.

Things To Consider:

1. Have you made an emergency plan for your family in case of disaster that you practice periodically?
    
2. What have you done to make sure your residence is more safe for the kinds of disasters that occur in your area?
    
3. Do you have emergency supplies for your family and pets that you rotate frequently? Consider doing so each time the seasons change - or when you change the clocks. This is a great time to replenish emergency supplies and change batteries on fire alarms.
    
4. Doing what you can to prepare for emergencies before they happen is like an insurance policy. You know you've done your part so that you don't have to be anxious. Contact your local fire or police department to find out what their community emergency plan is for your area. Also, you can google your particular type of disaster (tornado, hurricane, earthquake, etc.) for detailed information on how to prepare, what to do during, and what to do after.
    
5. Remember - people who are prepared are part of the solution, and those who don't are part of the problem.

© Kathleen Jacoby, 2008

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 
Kathleen Jacoby is a writer, author, and numerologist, who has been a contributor to PLW since its beginning. Seasons of the Soul is also a quarterly print edition newsletter published since 1996, and can be purchased for yourself or as a gift at a cost of $12 per year. Contact Kathleen for more information at: KathleenEJacoby@aol.com.

You can also read Kathleen’s BLOG: www.KathleenJacobyblogs.com.