Self-Defense from the Self part 2: Defining

Our individual selves are complex networks of ideas, thoughts, habits, patterns, and more. Stewing in a pot of emotion that we may not even realize until after it boils over.

We can't trust every single thing that runs through our minds. So, to continue the previous article, if the thought:

1. puts you down
2. puts someone else down
3. wants to harm anyone in any way

...then that thought and the impulse it comes from is not reliable, and is not to be acted on. It does not come from your center. It comes almost certainly from a part of you that was wounded long ago.

And if you act from this part of you, you will be off center. You will needlessly harm others, and in the process will also harm yourself. Furthermore, and also important: it's a crappy way to live.

Devil's advocates - me included - say, "What if an impulse is right, and you actually need to harm someone else to defend yourself?"

In mental self-defense, such thought is **never** right. Mentally defending yourself **never** requires attacking someone else's self-esteem or social position. Never ever ever.

In physical self-defense, of course, this is not necessarily true. But when someone is physically trying to attack you,you won't have to wonder about it. You will know. And, like any other animal that's physically attacked, your response will be fight or flight. Which is how it should be - in a physical fight, if you are thinking you are not responding in the moment, your opponent will be much faster and you are much more likely to lose.

Now, if any of us humans are ever in any kind of a situation that is **not** directly physically threatening and thoughts occur which suggest physical harm - we should get out of there and then seek help. Something's up with the hardware, the software, or both - and its our responsibility to tend to it. Its important to recognize in this case, it's not the hearing of the thoughts that's the problem - it's doing what they tell you.

Grim and unsettling things to think about - but I want this Mind Fu to be a comprehensive system. I can't just skip the tough parts...