Self defense basics - Part 2

Awareness is one of the most important tenets of self defense. When you are out and about in public you should be very cognizant of the people around you. It should not be possible for someone to come up from behind you and scare you.

Bad guys tend to pick on people who are unaware or who appear weak. It's like the cheetah surveying the herd of zebras and trying to figure out which one to attack - the one with it's head down feeding is a likely target.

Now I don't want you walking around in a paranoid frenzy constantly looking over your shoulder for the boogeyman. You should train yourself to employ a constant state of relaxed awareness. You should be looking for people or situations that don't seem right. Is someone paying too much attention to you? Has the car behind you been following you for awhile? Sometimes it's just your sixth sense that indicates something is wrong. If you get those feelings, listen to them! Don't worry about being called rude, crude, or worse - you'll need to exit the situation.

One of the recurring themes I hear all of the time whenever I interview someone who has been assaulted is something like this: "I knew I shouldn't have gone out with that guy", or "I knew we shouldn't have gone to that party". Learn to listen to those feelings and act accordingly.