5 Steps of Protecting ‘self’
Our Fuel funding allows us to come across a whole range of people but there is none quite like Arizona Brodie. She is the second woman in Scottish history to receive a black belt in Brazilian jujitsu.
Yes, you read right, she’s a black belt in Jiu Jitsu.
She is also the owner of the ‘Self-Defense Project’. Her story is so incredible and got a chance to sit down with her and talk about her Fuel project and best of all the journey to healing herself. After experiencing some traumatic events she was left feeling like anyone else would, powerless.
We’ve all felt like that before and Arizona used that experience to help others. After her self-defense sessions, she’s had numerous people come up to telling her how her program has helped them. Not only feel safe and stronger but understand the mental healing and processing that must be done as a survivor.
With the funding, Arizona delivered the project in 21 days. The five week online course itself is about self-defense and empowering people to be confident to deal with, potentially traumatic situations. Her passion to support people to be more confident. The self-defense course is not just physical but also mental, covering topics around controlling your panic response, self-talk in extreme situations, and recognising manipulation.
Arizona and Beatfreeks are bringing you five ways you can protect your‘self’, all the aspects of ‘self’.
Self-worth:
“The journey to true self-worth, not overcompensation or arrogance, but a grounded, immovable fortress of inner strength, identity, security, and contentment begins with understanding yourself”.
Having an understanding of who you are the value that you bring comes from rejecting the beliefs that caused a lack of confidence and confused your identity. For so many that can come in the form of bullies, things parents or teachers have said about you, or even what society tells us to be. Positive self-talk is key in rearranging the false beliefs that you are of no or little value. Arizona’s project spoke to the very core of positive self-talk.
“The best thing about finding true self-worth is that self-sabotaging can virtually disappear, enabling you to live fully, freely and authentically”.
If you want to learn more about this check out Lesson 4: Self Value in my online Self Defence Course which was fuelled by Beatfreeks Funding.
Self-love:
“Intrinsically connected to the roots of self-worth, self-love is about a culture of compassion towards your inner selves. Even when we mess up, it does us no benefit to let the inner critic run riot. We must treat our inner selves as we would treat our best friends – compassionate even when they make mistakes, encouraging them to move towards the right actions”,
Growing up we are taught to treat each other nicely and show compassion- but rarely do we get told as kids to treat ourselves with kindness. It was clear speaking to Arizona, the importance of seeing yourself as human, with flaws like any other person, we make mistakes. It doesn’t stop there – begin to be your own best friend and cheer yourself on.
Be your HYPE friend.
Self-esteem:
Whether it’s a stressful situation or a project that needs to get done but the nerves I piling up. Arizona’s technique which she used in her self-defence with great success, is to “Go inside your head and give yourself a pep talk. Be mindful of your tone. Speak as you would to a child or a best friend. Recognise the small things and blow them up. Spin the negatives into positives or even neutrals if you’re really struggling”.
She also added that “self-esteem ultimately is driven by the relationship you have with your inner selves. Other people can say things but what you internalize becomes most potent. The relationship you have with yourself is significantly influenced by the conversations that go on inside”. Remember you are powerful and if you can practice this every day you are closer to protecting your self-esteem. It is yours, own it.
Self-care:
“Move your body! Everybody needs to move. Exercise doesn’t have to be boring. You could dance to your favourite music, you could do a forward roll when you get into bed at night, you could jump down the last 3 steps of the stairs rather than walk. Let your body be free!”
We’ve heard it before how exercise releases endorphins that allow us to feel better and can put us in better moods. Taking care of ourselves isn’t a task but should be a lifestyle decision. Don’t let others dictate how much you do. This is a freedom of expression, use self-care as that. A way to set yourself free.
Self Defence:
“All of the above are important aspects of self-defense because as I learned, even with a lot of physical skills, if the mind is not aligned to keeping you safe, you might work against yourself and those situations can be very hard to recover from”. We’ve also got a great seld-defense move to show you that Arizona demonstrates as her first move to all her learners. So let end with a bang for the last time to protecting ‘self’.
This move requires no strength- it works because nobody can refrain from reacting to it no matter how well trained they are, and it doesn’t require significant accuracy or technical perfection. Better yet – it’s non-lethal and very legal. But I repeat – DAMN POWERFUL.
It works because it disorientates the attacker, makes their vision blurry, they HAVE to close their eyes buying you vital seconds to break free, run, or make the next move. Take both hands, make them into claw shapes, and scratch them in all different directions on the other person’s face. This move can be done in any position – try it with a friend and see for yourself!
To gain access to Arizona’s self-defense course head over to the link below.
https://onlinecourse.selfdefenceproject.org/quiz1597093752580