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Health & Wellness: The Female Self-Defense Connection
Copyright 2007 Richard Andrew King



Health and Wellness are two important ingredients in living a happy life, but how does self-defense training, especially women's self defense, correlate into being healthy and well? Answer: perhaps more than is presently known,  considered or appreciated.

Health and Wellness equate to wholeness. The greater our wholeness, the greater our health and wellness. The less our wholeness, the less our health and wellness. The two are inextricably connected. Being healthy and whole means being well. Being unhealthy and incomplete means being ill to some degree.

Self-preservation is our most primal instinct. When we inherently possess the skill to defend and secure our own preservation, we are more whole, more healthy and well than we would be otherwise. We live with confidence and peace, going through our days in a more relaxed fashion because we know our survival, and that of our children and loved ones who rely on our strength and capability to protect them and their innocence from harm, is not easily threatened.

However, not having the ability to protect ourselves, to preserve our life, places us in a less-than-whole, a less-than-well position to which many people, especially females, can attest - at least the ones who have survived an attack. The ones who could not survive an attack most likely would love to have the chance to have a "do-over." Unfortunately, in the game of life, there are often no "do-overs," no second chances. As the saying goes, "You never get a second chance to make a first impression." Likewise, you may never get a second chance to save your life, which is why self-defense training is an absolute requisite for those who wish to have a healthy, happy and harmonious existence. If we're not willing to protect our life, how serious can we be about living our life? Furthermore, and more poignantly, if we're not willing to do what is necessary to protect our children and loved ones, how serious are we then in discharging our responsibilities to protect, care for and nurture them? Isn't this an integral part of our inherent duty as parents? Animals in the wild, especially mothers, protect their young with a vengeance. Why should human mothers sometimes not take as passionate or aggressive a position?

Another aspect of living a happy life is being free. Yet, how can we be free if we're enslaved to someone else's diabolical intent and pernicious power? We can't. Because of the predatory nature of this world, wisdom dictates that we possess the personal power and physical prowess to defend ourselves from the predacious designs of others. To deny our own power, to do nothing to preserve our own life, including learning some basic self-defense skills to protect that life, is the epitome of absurdity. How can we cry foul if our life is damaged or taken from us when we have neglected the responsibility of defending it? As Daniel Webster declares: "God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it." The American poet, Ezra Pound, reflects: "A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him." Contrarily, a free man is one who never waits on others but takes charge of his own life, who realizes it is his life and, therefore, its well-keeping is his responsibility, not someone else's.
 
Every day in this world females are being assaulted, raped and murdered. Do we think such heinous acts could never happen to us? What would those women say who have been assaulted, raped and murdered (if this last group could speak)? Would they say they thought such egregious horrors could never happen to them? Most likely. The famous American author, activist and lecturer, Helen Keller, said: "Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all--the apathy of human beings." If some people, including women, remain apathetic to their own survival and do nothing to insure it, they run the risk of becoming victims of their own neglect, guaranteeing an unhappy, unwell and possibly torturous life. Therefore, it becomes obvious that self-defense training, especially for women and females,  is directly connected to one's health, wellness and happiness. So . . . get some self-defense training! It may save your life, and it will definitely make you more whole, more healthy and more well.


Kind regards,

Richard Andrew King: Grandmaster, Kiado-Ryu Karate