As the Art of Personal Safety practitioner, I make it a point to practice the 3A’s (aware, alert, and attentive) within my surroundings. Despite the fact, there’s this thought that scares me, and haunts me the most is, the thought of, “It Will Never Happen to Me.” This is the most dangerous and damaging thought we can place in our minds. When we occupy this thought we are not being aware, alert, and attentive to our surroundings. We give up the ability to accomplish preventative action. We are taking ourselves for granted. We are giving our “powers” away. The power of “Personal Self Control.”
I am positive that the victims of a violent attack had the same thought. This thinking produces carelessness and takes us away from living in consciousness. Our mental and emotional drifts off into another world while leaving our physical body behind. This causes a mental, emotional, and physical disconnect. This disconnect is dangerous. We are not as aware, alert, or attentive as we would like to be when all three are connected.
“It will never happen to me” thinking, takes us away from the present moment. The present is where everything is happening. There are times when we get into our car, turn on our music and start driving towards our destination. The next thing we know, we have reached our destination. We say to ourselves, “Oh, I’m here already!” We just remember getting into our car and then arriving at our destination.
We were on “auto-pilot.” We only remember the beginning and the end. There was a whole middle section that was deleted. Without being aware, alert, and attentive we were like zombies going through the motions (we are already zombies in many ways). Then the unexpected happens, then we say, “I cannot believe this happened to me!”
It is unfortunate that we choose to delete the middle scene because the middle scene is where Life happens. I will say it again, in the middle scene is where Life happens. A lot of Life events happen in the middle scene, but we were not aware of them to enjoy them.
This is dangerous and damaging because attackers know who their victims will be. They know it is not going to be a female/male who walks with purpose, is full of confidence, and is aware, alert, and attentive with every movement. Attackers know it will be very difficult for them to attack a person who is so full of life and energy.
They scan for victims who are weaker than they are in the areas of mental, emotional, and physical. Someone they can overtake without too much effort. Someone they can overpower. Someone who lacks confidence, and is not aware, alert, or attentive to their surroundings.
The thought, “It will never happen to me” produces an easy target that turns us into potential victims.
The “It will never happen to me” thought is re-active thinking. When something “bad” happens to us, all we can do is re-act. Re-action is a delayed response. It is too late. What was done, was done. It is too late! Crying and whining do not help. Playing the victim is all that is left to do because what we had has been taken away from us. Our self-respect, our confidence, our worth, our dignity have all been forcefully taken and violated.
There is no one to blame but ourselves!
When we practice the Art of Personal Safety, we learn to practice preventative action. Avoidance is our first defense. We learn not to put ourselves in dangerous situations. We also have the confidence and the self-respect to say “NO!” to ourselves and others without feeling guilty or bad for saying it.
WE are worth defending because WE are worth it!
The Art of Personal Safety is NOT about FAIRNESS, it is about SURVIVAL.
“LIVE IN AWARENESS, NEVER IN FEAR.”
