There is a great book by...I think it's Tim Larkin? called "When Violence Is The Answer". It talks about not being emotionally involved when you need to defend yourself or others. He gives several real examples of people that have been to his seminars in the book. He himself is ex special forces, etc. A very capable individual, and he will just walk away from any situation he is able to, instead of escalating. Why should he care if people call him names or say dumb stuff? He's got a family at home to go to. It's a good read.

@Joanne Hunter shopping carts also! I remember I was doing that at the store yesterday.

I love this post Joanne! I could go on for hours about this, because there are so many facets. I'm coming up on ten years in Nami Ryu, and I feel like I could be an Olympic level rider with the amount of times I've ridden these horses. This goes back to my "we're all human" speech where we all make mistakes. Do we want to avoid these things? Absolutely. But part of the learning process is learning to recognize when we're doing one of those things, and then learning to let it go and finally correcting it in the moment. Judgement is a big one, especially for us perfectionists with imposter syndrome. "Oh no, I assumed his attack would be different, and I moved wrong and now I'm stuck. Gosh that was a stupid mistake." In class, you can often just stop and start over when the judgement stops you. It prevents you from adapting. In advanced training or in reality, you're going to get hit or worse. The more you properly train, the quicker you can let that go and adapt accordingly. Randy Sensei often talks about our operating system, and how we are intentionally rewiring our brains so not only our default actions, but also our default thoughts fall in line with our principles. You automatically let your assumption go and adapt before judgement happens. For me, this is still inconsistent, but I try my best to not judge myself for it. Life happens, and we find ourselves dealing with a lot of stimuli and stressors. I do my best to let it go when I'm training, but sometimes, in the back of my mind, those thoughts are still grinding away, and it comes through in what I'm doing. Sometimes I can adapt around those thoughts, sometimes I incorrectly power through, and others I just fail. You can't learn without making mistakes, and failure is a big part of our learning process. All we can do is strive to be present in the moment, and let everything else go until the problem is resolved.

Those are great things to start with. We don't get that kind of weather here in central California, but the mountains nearby get plenty of snow. I keep tire chains, a collapsible shovel, and a flashlight as well. It also wouldn't hurt to keep some crayons or candles as well as a fire starter of some kind, and dryer lint, which works really well as tinder. Some non perishable or long shelf life snacks--granola bars, MRE s, etc are also a good idea if there's a chance you could be stuck for awhile.

It's the day after that class now, and I've never been so sore from doing so little. 😂