6 Survival Skills that Will Save Your Life

In any emergency or crisis scenario, you want to have the following survival skills.

1. Finding and purifying water

Storing water in preparation for any anticipated or projected emergency will ensure that you have clean and safe water to drink and use when the crisis hits. However, what if you were caught by the emergency away from your home, in the wild? Knowing how to find water is going to be a skill that will definitely save your life. Remember that you can only survive for three days without water. There’s a very informative post on Howstuffworks.com about how to find water in the wild.

Knowing how to purify water is also very important. There are various methods of water purification like boiling and distillation. There are also filters and chemicals you can use. Knowing how to purify water is not only useful when trying to survive in the wild or the great outdoors but also at home. During emergencies, tap water often become unsafe to drink directly and will require purification first.

2. Building a fire

This is still a very important skill to have even if you have lighters, torches, matches and fire steels in your BOB, home emergency kit, emergency car kit and EDC. During an emergency or crisis, anything can happen. You could lose your entire stash, your gears might malfunction, they could be taken from you, etc. So, have a backup plan that you cannot lose and that no one can take from you: the skill to build a fire without a match. The guys from howtostartafirewithoutmatches.com  have made a series of video tutorials showing various way to get a fire going using friction, solar magnification and other ingenious means.

3. Building a shelter

Having the skills to raise a four-man tent in just a few minutes may be impressive but what if you are caught in the outdoors without it, can you still build a shelter that can keep you warm and dry? Learn how to build a makeshift survival shelter out of natural resources and you can start by reading this article on Boys’ Life.

4. Finding food

When stranded in the woods with your food supplies dwindling, knowing how to find or recognize wild edibles will sustain you and keep you alert. These articles on whikihow.com and the ecologist.com can teach you the steps on how to forage and the top 10 foods to forage.

Of course during a SHTF scenario or a long-term crisis, you need a number of different skills in order that you can eat. These skills include gardening, canning and preserving, hunting, trapping, fishing and foraging. You will really increase your survival in any situation if you know even a little of each of these skills so start learning.

5. First aid

Basic first aid skills, CPR, Heimlich maneuver, patching up a wound, securing a broken bone, etc. – these are necessary skills to have that will help you save a life during an emergency when calling emergency responders or going to a hospital is no longer an option. Consider taking first aid classes because knowing how to administer first aid is a very important and necessary survival skill. Get to know more of the importance of getting trained for first aid in this Survival Cache article.

6. Signaling for help

If you need to be rescued, you must have basic knowledge of signaling in order to communicate with rescuers. There are different signaling methods including whistles, reflective mirrors, fire and smoke, bright clothing, markers and flashlights. In the United States, there is a “rule of three” when sending out an SOS, meaning that three of something means that help is needed. Example: 3 whistle blasts, 3 rifle shots, or 3 fires burning.

Get to know more about signaling for help in this post on Art of Manliness.

Make sure you learn these necessary survival skills because the last thing you want to be doing in an emergency situation is reading an instruction manual.