EMOTIONAL SELF-DEFENSE - PART 1

What is Emotional Self-Defense? Why is it so important? Emotional Self-Defense is the training of certain skills, like Prediction, Recognition, Observation and Intuition (PROI).  These are skills that we all possess and are interchangeable.  It is part of our human make-up and falls under the umbrella of ‘Awareness’. It is about listening to and paying attention to your emotions.  Skills that we all possess! Yet we fail to use them and even forget that they exist when it comes to personal safety.

PREDICTION

Let’s think about Prediction first.  People make predictions every day about something.  Our Meteorologists are able to use applications to predict the weather and climate changes.  Not always accurately, but they often get fairly close.  How many of us watch Reality TV shows like ‘American Idol, or ‘America’s Got Talent’ and make predictions at the Top 12 Stage as to who will win? We make these predictions based on previous performances and previous comments from the judges.  What about Futures Brokers who invest in future markets, whether it be Oil, Wheat or Gold? These Futures Brokers are trading in predictions of future increases or decreases in commodity prices. So why is it a problem for the majority of people to be able to predict certain situations that may threaten their personal safety? It is because denial, complacency and technology have impaired these crucial skills that are essential to our wellbeing.

I’m going to start now with a couple of scenarios that may change our predictions based on its context. Let’s suppose we see a photo of a guy standing outside a fitness center, wearing sweat pants, sweat shirt, tennis shoes and a type of sports bag.  Most people would predict that he is either going into the fitness center to work out or that he has finished working out and is heading to his car, with no threat to anyone. Now if we look at another photo of the same guy, wearing the same clothing and sports bag, standing outside of a children’s playground in the park, will our predictions on what may occur change from something innocent to something potentially threatening? They probably will.  Your attention was drawn to these two scenarios in this case, but sadly people do not pay attention to what could possibly be dangerous situations.

As mentioned, these Emotional Self-Defense skills are interchangeable and so Recognition is closely linked to Prediction.

RECOGNITION

So let’s take a look at the Recognition of potentially harmful behavior. A couple of the ‘Red Flags’ that we should be aware of.  The most universally significant warning sign of all is ignoring the word ‘NO’. ‘NO’ is the beginning and ending of a sentence.  There are no negotiations. Discounting the word ‘NO’ is a sign of someone trying to control you.

Another ‘Red Flag’ is when someone tries to ‘label’ you.  By this I mean being labeled in a critical way in the hope that the other person will want to prove that the labeling is incorrect.  For example, ‘Wow! You’re way out of my league for me to expect you to talk to me’.  Or ‘You don’t have to be such a snob.  I was just offering to help’! Imagine if a perfect stranger said this to you.  How would you react?  Chances are you would likely respond to this comment. You are now engaged in a conversation with a stranger!

A perpetrator is skilled, in fact, a perpetrator is an expert at keeping his potential victim from identifying the danger signs, or ‘red flags’.  That is why it is crucial to know about and to recognize the signals that could be a threat to your personal safety.

Learning Emotional Self-Defense skills is extremely important to survival.  Emotional Self-Defense

training is a key component and foundation of the Powerhouse Self-Defense Program.

Jennifer Riis-Poulsen is the Founder & CEO and also a 2nd degree black belt, who formed Powerhouse Self-Defense as a response to the ever-increasing statistics on emotional and physical attacks on females each year. She made reducing these statistics a mission and personal goal and has set out to develop a comprehensive, HOLISTIC personal safety and empowerment program focused on awareness and powerful techniques to build courage and confidence. For more information visit Powerhouseselfdefense.com.