Defending Yourself With Words Without Getting Physical

Protecting yourself without getting physical is the optimal way to avoid a potentially dangerous situation. When you are strong verbally and can use your definitive voice in a confrontational situation, this can help you escape and diffuse the situation. How can this be possible? For the most part, a criminal will not just arbitrarily grab any woman off the street to assault or rape her. They will scope out a situation or even stalk someone so that they feel comfortable with the situation and the likelihood they can escape. If it is too difficult of a situation, they will avoid it.

Criminals target those females who are timid, weak and don't project the image of confidence. Therefore, if they see a woman with these characteristics and the opportunity presents itself, they will grab it. However, if you walk as if you own that sidewalk or street, with your head held high, you are projecting an image of strength. A criminal is not going to want to overtly exert themselves to subdue you because it is too much trouble.

What you want to do is keep your eyes at the ready at all times. Always be on the lookout for someone suspicious or even someone harmless looking who may be approaching you. Look people in the eye and make sure they see you taking stock of their appearance. This tells assailants that you could identify them and are therefore are not worth the trouble to grab. Also, being verbally strong, telling someone to step back or stop will also be a deterrent. Your actions tell the criminal that you are not afraid and are willing to defend yourself.

Setting boundaries with a look or words should be your first line of self defense. Many women who practice this after learning about it in a self defense class are amazed that it actually does work. Will it work all the time? No one knows what will happen, but you can definitely do your part in protecting yourself by trying it. To reinforce your verbal and visual boundaries, carrying pepper spray can be an additional deterrent. While many people have never experienced the pain of the burning and stinging, they would not likely want to chance it either. Of course, when you make your verbal stand, you need to have the pepper spray in hand so the criminal can see it.

If you want to rely on a self defense tool like pepper spray with your verbal and visual boundaries, you need to know how to use it. Some ladies will buy it and put in on their keychain and forget about it. Then when they are in a dire situation and need it, they are fumbling in the purse for it or trying to operate it. Learning how to operate the pepper spray before hand is essential. You want to be able to whip it out and use it as if it were something you do every day. In fact, this scenario applies to any self defense tool whether it is a stun gun or taser too.

Practice makes perfect when protecting you from the criminal element. If necessary, take self defense classes which will teach you how to properly use your tools in specific situations, especially if you are in the visual and verbal defense stages. In addition, you need training so you know how you will react in an extreme situation (i.e. fight or flight). Getting past the stun stage is important and you could lose precious escape time if you are frozen to the spot. Therefore, it is important to practice scenarios, especially what to say at the beginning of a tense situation that could turn deadly. All the self defense preparation will provide a sense of empowerment as well as confidence that you can protect yourself.