Victims of crime commonly state after the fact, “If I had only known.” The irony of their statement is that overall few people will actually take the time to “know,” and learn how criminals operate and the methods they use to victimize others.

Awareness is the accumulation of everything we have learned up to this point to include awareness of ourselves. During your everyday activities, you never know when you might find yourself in a harmful situation. You need to be aware of what is going on around you as you are driving, walking, working, and even at home. If you see or hear something unusual, assess it immediately. Most of the time everything is fine, but if it is a possible threat, you now have foreknowledge, planning time, and a better chance of getting out of the situation without fighting.

The assailant knows what he is going to do or thinking about doing; often you can feel it and sense his intent beforehand. Awareness reduces his ability to surprise you. If you are aware you can start assessing your options sooner and simultaneously start planning and preparing for a possible assault.

It is impossible to prepare for all possible scenarios. The better conditioned you are mentally to identify potential danger, the more effective you will be able to:

1. Operate at an appropriate level of awareness relative to the degree of readiness needed.
2. Detect the early warning signs of a potential threat.
3. Move into a higher level of alertness and readiness whenever necessary.

A woman’s self-perception and how she feels about herself directly impacts how she may or may not fight to protect herself. Her self-esteem at any given moment can influence her response to the same threat on different days. A woman with a strong self-love and self-concept will fight harder to protect herself and her family than a woman who is concerned about hurting an assailant’s feelings or hurting him physically. Our emotions sway from exuberance to depression as we move through life’s journey. Our goal is to stabilize our mindset to a strong sense of self-preservation that can trigger fighting effectiveness no matter what our emotional state is at the time of an assault.

Just because you are taking a self-defense class does not make you invincible and cannot guarantee that you can be successful in every encounter. It is vitally important to understand your enemy, but it is also just as important to have self-awareness. You must have a realistic understanding of your personality traits, behavioral tendencies, physical limitations and capabilities, level of physical conditioning, and the value you place on your self-worth. Your personal capabilities or limitations, and your lifestyle can influence the options you choose to use in order to protect yourself. And as criminals improvise their methods, it is important to re-evaluate the emotional and physical relationship in criminal behavior.