November 22, 2021 by Lazer Brody
Many offer flowery advice for staying calm under pressure, but unfortunately, not much of the textbook and magazine ideas hold up when the bullets are flying, as they say in the military.
During the last 10 years, our neighbors on the other side of the border have fired many thousands of deadly rockets at us here in the south of Israel where I live. Frequently, families have been back and forth between the bomb shelters and living quarters. We’re forced to cope with overflows of adrenaline every time the Red Alert siren wails and the rockets and/or rocket-interceptor missiles explode. There’re threats from Iran daily. Just yesterday, one of our finest young men, Eliahu David Kay, may Hashem avenge his holy martyred blood, was murdered while walking to the Kotel, the Western Wall remnant of our Holy Temple in Old Jerusalem. What’s more, the government has adopted appeasement policies to maintain a fragile coalition that’s dependent on those who support terror. It’s not pleasant, to say the least.
Over the years, I’ve put together a few simple guidelines to coping and staying calm in the scenarios of threats and threatening situations, which have proved effective. If these ploys work under rocket attacks and terror threats, they certainly won’t let you down in coping with day-to-day stress.
By now, the coast is probably clear. Every time you implement the above steps, in part or in whole, under fire, you develop more inner strength. These five ploys won’t let you down. Without them, I for one could not cope.