Today's Any Day | On Being Good For Life

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On Sunday I begin an intensive eight week self-defense course.  The program, IMPACT has been called the smartest self defense training in the U.S.  David's martial arts instructor recommended the class to me and David reminded, encouraged and then waited until I signed up, for this is not just a class. Any safety expert will say that the way that I was attacked many years ago is the hardest to escape alive. I teach people that self defense and awareness of your surroundings is critical. We live in a world where sadly we have to be on high alert.  When we say "trust your instincts" this kind of self defense becomes instinct. Yet there are times when there is no way to fight off or outsmart a perpetrator. Very few women take self defense classes and I have to ask why…why not in school?  Wouldn't that be the kind of tools we should have early in life?  But we don't, and we learn as much as we are taught by family or friends, and then when one becomes a victim of a crime, we blame. We blame ourselves. And criminals know this.
This is not a breezy topic. I can tell you what happened and how to help yourself, help others, statistics, education, volunteer opportunities. Ask me anything except why I am not thrilled to take this class with 14 other women.  I have done my job with the criminal system. I've been helping others for over a decade. This class is a commitment to myself to end the blame that anything could have been different. We - women - should know more.  But it is not our fault.  My any day extraordinary is doing something extraordinarily good even when I'd rather be having breakfast, on a photo shoot, at the beach, somewhere in nature, or getting a root canal.  And I am not going to this class for others. I am going for me. As we say to our younger friends and children, doing the right thing is not always easy. It is a process learning to do good things for yourself. But give it a try, a good that is hard to commit to, and then see where the good takes you. 

xoxo
Marnie