Part II Mindset
When considering personal safety or self defence it is easy to immediately think about physical skills, perhaps conjuring up images of fight scenes from the movies. But what about your mindset? Is it important in situations where your personal safety is threatened?
Without a doubt your mindset is absolutely vital to your personal safety, and here is why:
Mindset and emotions affect our physical appearance. A weak mentality transfers across to weak body language. However with a confident and strong mindset you are more likely to move with confident body posture, meaning you are less likely to be targeted. Aggressors will be on the look out for someone they believe will not fight back.
The correct mindset enables you to avoid unnecessary aggressive encounters. Physically fighting back should always be a last resort. Engaging the right mindset allows you to avoid being drawn into senseless fights that have the potential to result in physical harm and legal ramifications.
Mindset is something that you can control. In potentially dangerous situations there will be many factors that are under the control of the attacker. Your mindset is not one of them! Should you be in a position whereby you have no other choice but to fight back physically, then developing 'fighting spirit' is essential. There needs to be an emotional shift from 'victim' to 'victor'. In essence this fighting spirit will enable you to fight more aggressively and ensure you never give up.
The right mindset allows you to get the most out of your training. The purpose of personal safety training is to develop skills that will ultimately allow you to at the end of the day, 'go home safely'. For those that understand this, will not get drawn into a battle of egos when training or trying to be best in the class.
Not having the proper mindset erodes the effectiveness of physical skills. Even the most highly skilled martial artists have been known to freeze or give up during an assault. The reality of what a physical assault involves needs to be understood and accepted, otherwise the likely reaction when confronted with such a scenario is to freeze. With the right mindset fear can be overcome and turned into a positive force for survival.
“If your mind tells your body you can't do it, you will quit. If your body is giving up, but you think you can carry on, you will naturally keep putting one foot in front of the other.”
Ant Middleton, former British soldier, adventurer and TV presenter.
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