The overall goal of the Art of Personal Safety is to achieve “personal” self-control and one of the core disciplines to help in achieving this goal is Mindful Breathing. With the goal of attaining personal self-control comes the challenge of learning how to Be Where We Are. While practicing Mindful Breathing we learn not only how to breathe fully and properly, but how to embrace the here and now.
We cannot provide a safe environment for ourselves without knowing and understanding how to be where we are. It is the state where we enjoy the events that are happening “for” us at the moment. The life experience that happens for us and only us.
When we are aware of the experience we begin to embrace the moment. Arriving at this level of awareness provides a feeling of control over our environment. We see, hear, and feel what is around us. We become part of our environment and are adaptive and receptive to what is happening “for” us.
This feeling of control brings about a sense of personal safety. It becomes a challenge for unexpected events to occur because we are connected to and with our surroundings. It is like a bicyclist who has been riding his bike for a long time. He becomes a part of the bike and the bike becomes a part of him. They are inseparable. The biker knows when his bike is not working properly and is adaptive and receptive to his bike’s overall performance.
When we are where we are and we immersed ourselves in it we can sense the things happening around us, and we can respond accordingly. It might be considered intuition, a gut feeling, or a sixth sense. When we walk down a street we can tell there are people around and even behind us by using our peripherals and the spatial sounds that echo around us. This is possible when our minds are not wandering around the universe looking for things to entertain themselves.
Learning to be where we are will greatly help us in our personal safety practices. The Art of Personal Safety is about avoidance. It is the art of fighting without fighting. A lot of battles have been fought and won without lifting a finger.
Those who know how to fight, do not fight, and those who do not know how to fight, fight. They fight because they do not know how to.
When we are where we are, we become relaxed and calm because of the knowledge that comes with knowing where we are. The relaxed and calm feelings connect us to our surroundings which allows the mind to easily come up with solutions to challenges that may otherwise end in a physical encounter.
Being where we are is a lot safer than not knowing where we are at all. We cannot allow our minds to be filled with thoughts of past experiences and future expectations. These are distractions. Our thoughts can be our greatest ally, but can also be our worst enemy. Being where we are is a practice of bringing ourselves back into the here and now. We must never be distracted by what has happened in the past and what will happen in the future. The past is gone and we cannot do anything about it except to accept it, learn and grow from it. The future is and will be dictated by what we do in the here and now.
We have to learn to develop our senses so we can enjoy what is happening “for” us in the present moment. It is our moment and our experience that is for us and only us. These moments are happening all the time. There is always something going on and when we miss them they are gone forever.
Let us Be where we are and enjoy the experience that is happening for us.
AS ALWAYS, “LIVE IN AWARENESS, NEVER IN FEAR.”
