More psychology

NOTE: I'm not a psychologist, and I don't play one on TV. These are my opinions after being in the world for a few years, and not scientific fact: I've met more than a few people who are gravely concerned about peak oil. And rightfully so. For someone who has just discovered peak oil, the shock of the information can be pretty overwhelming and the emotional response can be strong to the point of bordering on the physical (tightness of the chest etc).

I'm not a trained anything, but for me the most important thing in that kind of situation is to allow your body and your mind to act and react. Now that sounds strange and maybe a little obvious I know -- but the immediate danger is that a person in a state of panic doesn't allow themselves to move beyond the panic. They keep rehashing the facts in their mind, and as a result keep themselves in a state of perpetual shock.

You don't need a Ph.D. to realize that this mind-state is extremely unhealthy. We need to let the information affect our minds and our bodies without trying to relive that experience. This is not always easy, especially with stressful abstractions like peak oil: we are problem-solvers, and if the problem cannot be easily solved we are in danger of fatigue.

After the initial shock of the new, there is a shaking off, and a period of calm that can be had if we have enough awareness to let the more 'animal' part of our brain take over. The reptilian brain is reactive, effective and totally illogical -- that being said, it allows animals to do what humans have a very difficult time doing: moving on. And thats what we need to allow ourselves to do - to move on!

Again, this sounds like easy, obvious advice, and thats the point. We tend to make things more complicated than they are. For example: many people talk about 'running to the hills' to 'escape' peak oil and its various affects. For most people this is a radical change of lifestyle, and personally I think that it doesn't matter.

We need to stop thinking in terms of things we are going to do to our life, and start realizing that we are living our survival each and every day. For instance today someone found out about peak oil, and now they are worried, panicked and unsettled...all normal reactions. But is that person going to allow themselves to cling to an old paradigm, to deny, or worse yet to try and change everything around them so they themselves don't have to change? What we need to realize is that our reaction to stress and worry IS our survival. If the very thought of peak oil traumatizes a person into inaction, then how will long lines at gas stations affect them? Even if they have moved into the country and stockpiled food, if their psychology is not prepared to roll with the punches, then that person is in just as much trouble as anyone else.

What need to is not NECESSARILY food rations -- what we need more than anything, right now, in this moment, is the ability to roll with the punches, to change. Not unfeeling, but to evaluate the situation as it presents itself, and realize that we need to adapt to that world, and only that world which presents itself. So feel that panic, that worry, that helplessness, but be aware; its only a reaction. And then get on with it.