How to stay positive when disaster strikes

Seeing your home and all its memories destroyed in a catastrophe is a blow that hits you in the depths of your soul. Some never recover from the trauma, while others emerge stronger from the experience. Until disaster strikes, you may not know how you will respond. And when it does, staying positive can seem impossible, even unfair. However angry or sad you are, staying angry and sad is counterproductive. As with most things, attitudes often become self-fulfilling prophecies. Try to stay positive when disaster strikes and the consequences will be much easier to handle.

Steps to stay positive:

• Count your blessings. Your home may be a bunch of sticks, but if you and your family are alive and well, you have a lot to be thankful for.

• Realize that you are not alone. When a disaster hits a community, the entire community is affected. While your suffering may be great, others are suffering as well. Your neighbors are literally feeling your pain. Many disaster victims have found great comfort in comforting one another.

• Realize that help is available. As devastating as it can be, it’s doubtful that you’re all alone. Emergency aid from local, state, and federal agencies, as well as nonprofit organizations, will come in the short term, while help will be long-term, including disaster assistance, grants, loans, housing, and other programs. disaster relief, will continue. Be sure to go to the Disaster Recovery Centers established by disaster response agencies and personnel and learn about the help that is available to you. As you become more informed about what the future holds and the help that is available, you will feel less insecure, which makes it easier to stay positive.

• To take action. While it can be tempting to play the victim role and continue to grieve over your losses, taking action can have a healing effect. It propels you forward and shows that you have some control over your situation. Empower yourself by volunteering to help others worse off than you are, clearing up debris as soon as it is safe to do so, starting the insurance claims process, applying for help or loans, etc. If you see a need, do what you can to fill it. For example, instead of worrying about your kids missing months of school, host study groups for neighborhood kids to keep them focused and on a routine.

All of the above steps can help you move from a state of shock and grievance to a state of peace and action. But what if he is disabled or has lost family members as a result of the disaster? Staying positive in these situations is much more difficult when you feel like you have no blessing to count or are too hurt to do anything but stay in your hospital bed. Here are some tips that can help:

• Allow yourself to grieve. If you’ve lost loved ones, grieving is a natural process that you shouldn’t ignore, even if you have insurance documents to present and don’t have a place to call home. You may need to move quickly and feel like you don’t have time to fully grieve. When this happens, promise yourself that you will soon honor your lost loved ones. Give yourself permission to attend to your immediate emergency needs now so that you can grieve properly once you are in a safe place.

• Seek and accept help. Counseling, medical care and assistance programs are available after disasters, and people everywhere will want to help. Many disaster victims are hesitant to accept help or even resistant to receiving it, but you do need support. By allowing your neighbors, family, friends, or volunteers to help you, your eventual recovery will be much easier.

• Remind yourself that being positive doesn’t mean you have to be happy. In fact, you can be incredibly sad, but positive. Tomorrow is another day. You can survive.

Disasters, however terrible, often bring people and communities together. Many disaster victims discover that they are stronger than they thought and that, despite the bad luck that has befallen them, they are equipped to survive. You too are equipped to survive a disaster, and one of the most effective tools you have is your ability to stay positive.