When we think about prepping, images of stockpiled food, alternative energy sources, water filtration systems, and survival gear usually come to mind. These elements are vital for self-reliance and resilience in challenging times, and they form the backbone of material preparedness. Yet there are other equally essential, often-overlooked dimensions to preparedness, things that might not come up as frequently but are invaluable for long-term success.

In prepping circles, the conversations are rich in talk about physical and material assets, but there are hidden aspects, like mindset, personal character, and community bonds, that strengthen an individual and create a lasting foundation for true resilience. Here are the often-unspoken, but invaluable, elements that can make all the difference in facing an uncertain future.

1. Personal Development: The Foundation of All Preparedness

Stockpiling resources only goes so far without a strong personal foundation. A prepper’s mindset often includes adaptability, problem-solving, and a deep commitment to learning. Developing these skills requires intentional growth in areas like self-discipline, critical thinking, and stress management. By expanding these strengths, you’re preparing yourself to adapt to new or unexpected situations, not just sticking to rigid plans.

Skills like cooking, first aid, or learning how to work with your hands are often emphasized, but underlying these is the ability to learn and grow as needed. Personal development is an unspoken but essential part of becoming truly self-sufficient.

2. Mindset and Character: Building Inner Resilience

A survivalist’s mindset is more than just a belief in being prepared; it’s about the willingness to persevere through discomfort, loss, and setbacks. When challenges arise, mindset and character provide the fortitude to keep going. This includes developing patience, emotional regulation, and the ability to stay calm under pressure.

Character and integrity come into play when resources are limited and decisions get difficult. If a crisis tests the moral boundaries of a community or family, those with a foundation of integrity can navigate challenges without compromising their values or making decisions they’d later regret.

3. Perseverance: Embracing the Long Game

One of the greatest assets in preparedness is perseverance. Often, those new to prepping go through cycles of enthusiasm followed by discouragement if they hit financial or logistical setbacks. The ones who truly make preparedness a lifestyle don’t approach it as a “project” but as a consistent, long-term journey.

Real resilience comes from the willingness to keep improving your situation, whether that means adding to your skill set, restocking your supplies, or staying physically and mentally fit. Perseverance is the unshakeable commitment to keep moving forward, even if progress feels slow.

4. Relationships: Building Bonds that Sustain

Perhaps the most underappreciated asset in preparedness is relationships. It’s easy to imagine a “lone wolf” approach to survival, but the truth is that relationships can make or break one’s resilience. Whether it’s family, friends, or neighbors, people who are united in common values, trust, and mutual support can do far more than isolated individuals.

In a survival situation, each person’s strengths complement the others, and diverse skill sets increase a group’s chances of success. But this kind of unity doesn’t develop overnight; it requires cultivating trust and communication well in advance. Building relationships within your local community, especially those who share a preparedness mindset, is an often-overlooked part of self-reliance.

5. Community Development: Creating a Network of Support

Beyond individual relationships, a resilient prepper looks to the wider community. When a crisis strikes, those with local allies and a network of like-minded individuals can respond faster and more effectively. This doesn’t mean compromising your privacy or security—it means seeking out genuine connections and nurturing a spirit of cooperation. Community development can be as simple as knowing who can help with specific tasks, organizing skills-sharing events, or supporting local businesses that align with your values.

Local communities can create networks for bartering, resource sharing, and security, all of which make the community stronger as a whole. Preppers who embrace community development can create systems that allow for interdependence, rather than total self-reliance, which, in the end, can be more effective and sustainable.

True preparedness goes beyond what we can store in our homes or grow in our gardens. It encompasses who we are, how we relate to others, and our capacity to continue growing, regardless of our circumstances. When preppers embrace personal development, mindset, character, perseverance, relationships, and community development, they lay a foundation that can weather any storm.

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The night defines the day, the land defines the sea, the wall defines the room, thus, the negation defines the position.

By Moss Town Bear (aka Sam Daniel)

It is understood that one part is known due to the existence of its counterpart. We define the day by the nightly negation of light; the sea by the negation of fluidity; the room by the negation of space, but equally, one’s identity is known by the negation of indifference.

An infantile thought that takes residence in the mind of many informs the thinker that the positive is a good, right, and desirable thing; and the negative is a bad, left, and undesirable thing. Yet, position is born of apo- meaning “origin”; and site meaning “place”. Hence, positivity is the prenatal spirit that springs forth original thoughts and actions. Negation is born of ne- meaning “not”. Hence, negativity is the denial of an exogenous thought or action that possesses the potential to pervert one’s prenatal spirit. Thus, like a pond with fertile water that’s held by the fortified clay, positivity and negativity are interdependent forces that enable the human to animate in the world, but not be absorbed by the world.

Similar to the fertile water and our aquatic friends therein, the positivity within the human allows the trace of consciousness to swim without interruption. It houses the library of one’s history and the laboratory for one’s future; yet it is lighter than a feather and as empty as a desert. It is the undefinable, yet it is the source of all definitions; it can define all except itself – like the earthworm that cannot separate the earth from the worm. Positivity has the capacity to conjure all possibilities, of dreams and nightmares, of conscience and characteristics, of morals and dogmas; hence, the human possesses negativity to protect itself from total dissolution into the ocean of everything.

The negativity, like the fortified clay, defines one’s identity by deciding not only the thoughts and actions that enter, but also the thoughts and actions that exit. It has become obvious that the curse cast upon the notion of negativity has effected a perceptual error that illustrates negativity to be a monstrous thing that is bad, left, and undesirable. However, the perceptual error can be corrected by interpreting negativity as a motion rather than matter, a function rather than a form, and a verb rather than a noun. Thus, the negative is not a bad, left, and undesirable thing, instead it is a primordial force that repels the thoughts and actions that are bad; that ought to be left; and that are undesirable.

The appropriate question in this moment is: What encodes the negativity to repel one thought or action and not another? At the time that the spiders web is severed, the spider immediately re-imagines and re-creates its web by re-membering the prenatal template. This reveals the hypothesis that the human was posited with a prenatal identity. However, if the negativity of a human is corrupted by illogical thinking and unfelt feelings or punctured by poisonous interventions, the definition of one’s identity will begin to bleed like water through sand. The corrupted or punctured human will often utter responses that deny their differences, such as, “It’s fine”; “It doesn’t matter”; and, “I don’t mind”. These responses – aside from the speaker subliminally confessing that they must de-fine that which matters to their mind – are an example of positivity bleeding out of the human upon vocal waves. It is plausible to presume that, like the bleeding wound that becomes a stiff scab, the human that has abdicated their positivity will inevitably begin to form a calloused identity, and thus, affirming their indifference.

These final words intend to empower one to fortify their force of negation by reiterating that the human body is a Nation unto itself; its feelings are its culture; and its logic is its leader; but, its prenatal spirit is its judge. Thus, one ought to remember beyond the words they embody to begin to resurrect their original place. Upon recovery of this ancient template, may one cultivate the custom of declaring, without guilt, the differences that define their boundary and the Law within. With all words and actions said and done, let us stand upon the living constitution insofar that when a malevolent temptation presents itself, we may authorise, with humour and humility, “No”.

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The idea of homeschooling often conjures images of structured lessons at home, textbooks on the kitchen table, and parents carefully guiding their children through a curriculum. But the truth is, whether we realize it or not, we all homeschool our children daily. From the moment they are born, children absorb the world around them and learn from every interaction, observation, and experience.

The question isn’t whether you homeschool your child but how you homeschool them. Are you intentional about what they learn from you? Or are they simply picking up lessons by accident through your behavior, words, and habits?

Children are like sponges. They absorb everything from their environment, and their first teachers are always their parents. This learning doesn’t only happen when you sit them down to teach a specific skill; it happens constantly. Every interaction, every conversation, and every action you take becomes a lesson in their eyes.

Think about how children pick up the language. They don’t learn to speak because we give them formal lessons in grammar. They learn by listening to how we talk, watching our facial expressions, and understanding the emotions behind our words. The same is true for other, less obvious lessons. They learn how to handle hard times by watching how we react to pressure. They learn how to communicate by observing how we speak to others. They learn our values through the choices we make every day.

Without even realizing it, parents are teaching their children all the time, whether through how they solve problems, treat people, or manage responsibilities. This is homeschooling in its purest form—teaching through example.

Given that our children are constantly learning from us, it becomes crucial that we are intentional about what we teach. If we ignore this responsibility, they will still learn but may learn lessons we didn’t mean to impart. They might pick up our bad habits, fears, or negative attitudes.

Intentional homeschooling means controlling the lessons your child absorbs. It involves being aware of how your actions and words affect them and consciously modeling the values, habits, and skills you want them to develop.

For example, if you want your children to value hard work, it’s not enough to tell them that hard work is important. They need to see you putting effort into your tasks, staying focused, and persevering through challenges. If you want them to learn kindness, they must see you treating others respectfully. Intentional homeschooling means leading by example and being mindful of the lessons you teach through your actions and words.

One of the most powerful aspects of homeschooling, intentional or otherwise, is that learning happens everywhere. Whether your children attend a formal school or not, many of their most important lessons take place in the home.

When you cook dinner, they can learn about nutrition, math (through measuring ingredients), following plans and responsibility of tasks. When you manage resources, they learn about budgeting and the value of money. When you repair something around the house, they see problem-solving in action. And when you make time to read, exercise, or work on a hobby, they learn the importance of personal growth and lifelong learning.

These moments are opportunities to shape who your children will become. Being intentional about these everyday lessons can help your children develop a variety of skills and values that will assist them throughout their lives.

While formal education plays an important role in a child’s education, it is not a substitute for the lessons learned at home. Schools provide knowledge and skills in subjects like math, science, and literature, but they cannot teach values, ethics, or character in the same way a parent can. How you handle conflict, how you talk about your work, and even how you treat yourself all contribute to your child’s education in ways no classroom can replicate.

By understanding that education starts at home, parents can take active roles in shaping their children’s education and emotional, social, and moral development.

Everyone homeschools their children, whether we recognize it or not. Children learn constantly from their parents, picking up lessons from every action, word, and decision. The key to effective homeschooling is intentionality—making sure the lessons we teach align with the values, skills, and behaviors we want to instill in our children.

By taking an active role in our children’s education inside and outside the home, we can help them grow into thoughtful, capable, and responsible individuals. The lessons they learn from us today will shape the adults they become tomorrow. So, the next time you think about homeschooling, remember: you’re already doing it—make it count.