Practicing more in the dark..

Hopefully by now, you have tried the "Light Test" I mentioned yesterday, if not you are only hurting yourself by not realizing and teaching yourself what you are missing. Learning basic things like, natural night vision, and night hearing are a lot more important than you may realize and may one day come to be something critical you will need. In order to survive in a bad situation, you may need to know things that are a lost and forgotten art.
If you did try it and realized what you need to continue learning and practicing, well.. to put it bluntly, you are a step ahead of most of the population, and are learning to survive where most will not make it.
Survival is a lot more than just buying food and water where most people think it is. Survival is an art, like painting or drawing.. The only way you are going to get better is practice even the most basic things that most people don't even think about. Things that have been forgotten in the advancement of technology, and luxuries. If you can talk to older generations in your family, I strongly suggest it. Ask how they survived in hard times, and what they had to know, and learn. Most people, especially kids now think that the older generations may be out of their minds, or "nuts". Most of them are the way they are because they may have had to live through and survive scenarios we don't think, or want to believe, can happen. You have heard the old saying "history has a way of repeating itself. It does, good, or bad. If you don't have older family generations around to talk to,.. go to a nursing home and talk to the residents, you may brighten up their day by asking them about their lives, and bring back good memories as well.. Older generations have a wealth of commonly untapped knowledge that isn't in the "cleaned up for society" history books. Get the brutal facts, and in the process you will learn a lot. I'm only 33 and have spent most of my life doing what I am advising you to do, and in the process have spoken to some that have asked again my age, and told me "You have the wisdom of a man 20-25 years older thean you are." I have had people 10-15 years older than me asking me to come to their house and speak to a group of their friends for what I have learned. I am offering it to you, here. You need to realize one thing... You are never to old to learn and will never stop 'till you get planted in a box. I still know and realize there is a world I still don't know enough about. Learning, and knowledge is addictive, once you get a little bit, you want much more. Open your mind and mouth and ask the older generations to grant you th HONOR of their hard-earned knowledge and experiences. They will surprise you with what they may have had to do to survive harder times.

Ok enough lecturing {:).. On to what you came to read and more interesting things.

To learn to see and hear in the dark is just the beginning, you need to lean how to walk and move as silently as possible. Turn the lights out and listen to your breath, if you can hear it, someone else can too. Open your mouth and control your breathing to where you can't hear it anymore,.. even when you are out of breath...Listen. It's small things like that that can add up in a scenario where you have to be silent.

On movement- Listen to that as well, and remember.. if you can hear it someone else can too. Practice movement until you can't hear it anymore Start slowly, when you step don't slam your heel on the ground. More people do it, and don't realize it. pick your foot up and when stepping gently roll your foot down from edge of heel, down the outside of the arch, to your toes.Keep practicing in the dark and at the same time, practice picking shapes in front of you and learning how to identify them. The more you practice, the better. Try to do it as much as you can on a normal basis and, before you know it, you will be doing it regularly without even trying! Everything boils down to necessity and experience. The more you do it, the better you will become at it.

Don't forget to leave comments and questions below and remember others may have the same questions you have and you can help others with your questions and comments. Lets make this a two way communicative blog and remember,.. I don't know what you are thinking until you ask. Pride is a common failure.

Until next time, Be Safe and Happy Prepping!