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Your Personal Survival Myth Survey

Your Personal Survival Myth

Your Personal Survival Myth is what you think you need to physically survive in this world. It is the story you have written throughout your whole life.

In our survival myths there are some truths and some lies, some parts that can be changed and some that cannot.

Our power lies in our ability to rewrite those changeable parts by the choices we make.

Before you can change your life, you have to know what exactly makes up your Personal Survival Myth.

There are two types of stories that make up your Personal Survival Myth.

  • The individual stories we tell ourselves, the stories of our individual wants and needs.
  • The collective stories we tell as a culture, the stories of what society decides are wants and needs, fueled by our consumer culture.

You have created your Personal Survival Myth by your answers to the question, “Do I need this to survive physically?”

The stories that run your life are unconscious ones, pieced together over the whole of your life.

You need to understand the story you have already written and are living.

The place to start is where you are today, without judgment.

Answer these questions and you will see the Personal Survival Myth you are living.

How Do You Feel about Survival?

    1. What does survival mean to you?
    2. What feelings does the word “survival” conjure up?

How Stressed Are You?

    1. What is your level of stress about meeting your survival needs?
      1. Not stressed at all.
      2. Sometimes stressed.
      3. Always stressed.

How do You Handle Your Survival Needs Now?

    1. Do you meet the minimum survival needs of a human?
      1. Do you have 125 ounces of water to consume a day?
      2. Do you have 2,000 calories to consume a day?
      3. Do you have a roof over your head?
      4. Do you have one set of clothing and footwear to keep you warm and dry?
    2. What are your/your family needs in each of the following categories:
      1. Food and water
        1. What kind?
        2. How much?
      2. Shelter
        1. How big a place?
        2. In what neighborhood?
      3. Clothing
        1. How much?
      4. Health
        1. Preventative Care
        2. Disease/Catastrophic Care
      5. What are your/your family’s other needs? These include anything beyond health, food, shelter, and clothing. Examples are such things as a college education, retirement, a second home, and designer clothes. Write down needs that fall into these categories as well as your own categories.  Use Form 4
    3. Which is the most accurate statement about food and water in your life today?
      1. I always have enough food to eat and water to drink.
      2. I never have enough food to eat and water to drink.
      3. Sometimes I have enough food to eat and water to drink, and sometimes I do not.
    4. What statements are accurate about shelter in your life today? Pick all that apply.
      1. I am homeless.
      2. I have a house that is fully paid for.
      3. I am a renter.
      4. I am a homeowner with a mortgage.
      5. I need a bigger house.
      6. I have too much house for the size of my family.
      7. I have just the right size of house for my family.
      8. Other thoughts about how you feel about your home.
    5. What statement best describes your clothing in your home today?
      1. I can change clothes twice a day and still not get through my entire closet in a month.
      2. I have enough clothes only for the week and then have to wash.
      3. I have only the clothes on my back.
      4. I have enough clothes to fill a walk-in closet and then some.
    6. How do you feel about how you meet your survival needs of food, shelter and clothing in general?
      1. My needs are easily met. I do not have to worry about these needs at all.
      2. I am anxious about meeting these needs, but I am able to meet these needs on a regular basis.
      3. I am anxious about meeting these needs because I am not able to meet these needs on a regular basis.

What Do You Fear?

    1. Do you fear death?
    2. What are your specific fears about being destitute?
    3. Do you fear losing all your money?
    4. Do you fear losing your job?
    5. Do you fear losing your house?
    6. What else do you fear about your physical survival? Be specific.

How Do You Fight or Flee?

    1. When anything unexpected happens, do you activate the fight-or-flight response/survival response?
    2. What are your specific reactions when you are in the fight-or-flight response mode? Pick all that you recognize in yourself.
      1. Pupils dilate to see more clearly
      2. Heart rate increases
      3. Blood pressure rises
      4. Breathing quickens, becoming shallower
      5. Muscles tighten
      6. Release of sugar/rush of energy
      7. Stomach feels queasy
      8. Nausea/diarrhea
      9. Hair stands on end
      10. Sweating increases
      11. Dry mouth
      12. Blood drains from skin
      13. Other reactions
    3. In what situations do you experience these fight-or-flight response/survival response symptoms? List every situation, even seemingly minor situations. Use Form 2. Think of situations in these different categories of your life:
      1. On the job
      2. With your spouse or significant other
      3. With your children
      4. With other family
      5. With friends
      6. With other people you come in contact with
      7. In response to advertising on the radio or TV
      8. In response to something on sale in the mall
      9. In response to someone else’s attaining or obtaining something
      10. When you hear bad world financial news
      11. Other situations
    4. Do you consciously recognize when the fight-or-flight response/survival response is being activated?
    5. Have you felt the fight-or-flight response/survival response in any of these situations?
      1. When you fear you will be fired or laid off
      2. When you are afraid you cannot pay the mortgage or some other bill
      3. When there has been a more direct threat, such as when someone cuts you off in traffic almost causing an accident
    6. How often do you respond, on a daily basis, to situations with fear and the resulting survival response? Use Form 2 to chronicle your day.

Why Do You Work?

    1. Is your job based on passion?
    2. Would you do your job even if you did not need the money?
    3. Do you work only to make money, with money being the primary motivator to work instead of working at something you love?
    4. Do you feel dependent on the boss for your life as you know it?
    5. Do you feel the loss of control over your life in your dependency on a job?

How Do You Deal with Money?

    1. Do you feel you control your money?
    2. Do you feel money controls you?
    3. Do you feel there is never enough, no matter how much you make?
    4. Do you make deliberate choices about what to purchase?
    5. Do you regret purchases later?
    6. Do you know where your money goes?
    7. Do you think money’s purpose is to buy you physical things?
    8. Do you think money can buy you happiness?
    9. Do you think there is a purpose to money beyond material wealth?
    10. What is your sense of security? How would you define “security”?
    11. Do you think money is just a means of exchange of goods and services?
    12. What is the purpose of money in your life?
    13. When you think of money in general terms, do you activate the survival response? All the time? Some of the time? Never?
    14. Do you feel money is an end in and of itself?
    15. Do you feel that if you had “X” amount of money you would be happy?
    16. How much of your money do you need to meet your survival needs?
    17. How much of your money do you use for other needs?
      1. Community
      2. Purpose
      3. Other

How Does Society Control You?

    1. What are the differences between needs and wants to you?
    2. How do you distinguish between wants and needs?
    3. How do you define what you want that is not about physical survival?
    4. Do you ever think in terms of needs and wants? Do you ever say, “I would like that, but if I do not get it, I will survive?”
    5. How often each day do you use the word “survive”? In what context? Keep a journal. Use Form 3.
    6. How often each day do you hear others use the word “survive”? In what context? Keep a journal. Use Form 4.
    7. Have you ever felt that life would be perfect if only you got that (job, partner, thing) then later been surprised after you had gotten that thing or job or partner and did not feel any difference?
    8. What do you have right now? Write down everything you have and classify it as a want or a need. A need is something absolutely essential to sustaining your physical life. Judge it by whether you would live if that thing, person, or situation vanished. Use Form 5.
    9. Do you feel in a constant state of arousal (the fight-or-flight response) because of all the marketing messages you are bombarded with daily?
    10. Do you feel depressed when you cannot have all you “need”?
    11. Do you ever look at an ad for something new and think, “I did not even know that existed? I will go out and get one tomorrow or call now and get two for the price of one? I must have it now?”
    12. Do you distinguish between wanting another pair of shoes and needing another pair of shoes? If not regarding shoes, are there other contexts in which you make this distinction?
    13. Do you think you have elevated survival needs? Remember, an elevated survival need is any need above the minimum amount of food, water, shelter, clothing and health care required to sustain your body.
    14. Are you materialistic?
    15. To what extent do you ignore other needs in your life in pursuit of material wealth/possessions?
    16. When in your life have you had fewer of your survival needs than you have now? List all the different times in your life you have had less food, water, shelter, and clothing than you have now. Use Form 6.
    17. What is your definition of having enough stuff?
    18. What is your level of consumption?
    19. Are you attached to all your stuff?
    20. Do you feel the need to keep your stuff close?
    21. Is your house cluttered, but you cannot bear to throw anything away?
    22. Do you see your stuff with detachment: “Nice, but if there is a fire, oh well?”
    23. What do you feel you do not need to survive?
    24. Do you believe one of the purposes of money is to help you lead a life beyond survival needs?
    25. Do you feel you are only making a living, not a life?
    26. How do you respond to marketing messages?
      1. With the survival response
      2. With disinterest
      3. Somewhere in between

The previous questions were about your individual survival. We are also part of wider world of a family. The myth we create around our family’s survival is a part of our myth as well.

Are You afraid Your Family Won’t Survive?

    1. Do you have a big enough place to live for your immediate family?
    2. What do you define as the appropriate sized space per person? One bedroom for each person? A game room and a separate office for adults? A craft room? A walk-in closet? One bathroom per person? Write a list. Use Form 7.
    3. What do you need to give your children? Make a list. Use Form 8.
    4. What do you need to give to other people in your family besides your children? List the people and what you need to give them. Use Form 9.
    5. List causes that you feel you need to provide for and the way in which you need to provide for them. Use Form 10.

How Do You React to Society’s Marketing Messages?

You are also part of a consumer society, one that targets you based on your gender, age, occupation, family status, paycheck, and all the other parts of who you are in the wider world. Therefore, you need to analyze your current thoughts about your responses to society’s survival myth.

  1. How do you react to TV commercials when you see a new product?
  2. How do you react when someone else gets the newest gadget that you covet?
  3. When you hear a deal on an infomercial that says “limited time offer,” do you respond with the survival response?
  4. When you hear all the children in your daughter’s play group are going to an exclusive summer camp and you cannot afford it, do you feel you have failed your child?

Your answers from your Personal Survival Myth.

Now that you understand your Personal Survival Myth, how do you go about changing your automatic caveman responses?

In the book, I show you how to rewrite your Personal Survival Myth to handle caveman survival needs and wants in the 21st century.

Once past the caveman, you can choose any survival level you want.

There is no one right level of needs. Each of us determines what we call needs.

The book explains how to rewrite your Personal Survival Myth by using the Survival Analysis Questions.

By learning to work with these Survival Analysis Questions, you learn how to rewrite those pieces of your Personal Survival Myth that keep you in the caveman survival mode and no longer serve your higher self. You rewrite your understanding of the valid survival response. You rewrite a story that is true for you and no longer a myth. You rewrite your life.

 

Buy Now

If you have an Amazon Kindle, buy the book on the Kindle store at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008ESY7EU

If you have a Barnes & Noble Nook, buy the book at the Nook bookstore at: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/beyond-your-fears-barbara-hynak/1111794248?ean=2940014625975