The Significance of Emotions in Self Defense
Just as changing your attitude can change your day, it's important to realize that changing your attitude can save your life.
When physically threatened, most people want to de-escalate the confrontation. This is appropriate only when there is no physical violence. As soon as someone attempts to physically harm you, your attitude will be the difference between winning or losing, between going home that night or going to the hospital or possibly... the morgue.
Most people need to make small steps to get to an extreme attitude. In example; first you become mildly upset, then un-nerved, then to anger, then taking physical action. This is wrong when defending yourself. When physically attacked, assume an entirely different attitude and let your emotions take over. You must go from calm to anger with no steps in between. This is the natural response from our bodies.
This emotion is built into us for a reason. Scientifically, we call it the fight or flight response. Most people try to hold that back or override it because of social customs. You must fully understand that your are expected to defend yourself, your family, or your friends and to be angry while doing it. Anger is useful in this situation and you must be mentally prepared to show anger in public in order to defend yourself when needed.
The average citizen who is mentally prepared to defend herself will win over the lifelong martial artist who is unable to quickly change their attitude and therefore apply their extensive physical training. This is only because the mind controls the body and the body will never act without the mind able to maintain control.
To make it easy, think of it this way. When beginning to learn how to defend yourself, begin with mental training as well as physical training. There currently exists a large gap in the self defense industry whereby new students begin learning the physical moves but not the mental requirements to properly apply the physical training. You must train both your physical body and your mental response in order to prevail.
In most cases, the mental preparedness side of self defense training can be introduced and the basics taught in as little as 2 hours. If you were to learn nothing more than how to be mentally prepared for an attack, you would stand a far better chance of winning the struggle without any physical training whatsoever!
At Urban Safety Training, we teach how to prevent situations where attacks are likely as well as how to defend yourself as a last resort. We do this in personal settings that are safe and fun while using easy to understand concepts that allow you to quickly employ what you learned and feel confident using your new skills.
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We look forward to showing you how to feel safe again.