Self-defense is more than just how hard you can hit. It is the full spectrum of tools that you can use to protect yourself every single day. We utilize skills from self-defense in our decision-making processes, such as when we communicate with people, when we drive or do activities, and more! Self-defense is really so expansive that we thought we would give you a better idea of what to expect when you take a self-defense class with IMPACT by breaking it down for you ABC-style. The ABC’s of Empowerment Self-Defense is being launched as our new blog series and will introduce you to a new letter and concept each post with insight from the experts on why it matters to your personal protection.
A- Awareness
“Awareness precedes choices, choice precedes results.” (Robin S. Sharma)
Awareness exists on several levels: What’s going on with me? What’s going on with the people around me? And, what’s going on with my environment? Having active awareness means being able to answer and analyze these different questions in order to determine how to move through a situation. This process of being aware of ourselves, other people, and our surroundings can help us anticipate a potential situation and speed up our decision making time regarding our personal safety. When we are better aware, we can decide how we feel in situations and what actions, if any, need to be taken.
In order to build up our awareness, we need to practice. A quick way to build up your awareness is by playing the game “What’s new in my house?”:
Pick a room in your house
Stand in the middle of the room, close your eyes
Take three steps in any direction and open your eyes. Count to 5 as you look around and notice, from memory, 5 distinct things in your environment that you can physically sense. These can be things you see, sounds you hear, tastes on the wind, a breeze on the skin.
Close your eyes and take three more steps in any direction, stop, and repeat the previous process. Do not repeat anything that you have previously noticed.
Practice this for 5 minutes
Cataloguing what is going on around you can help you start to recognize a situation before it starts.