I learned a new term tonight…personal safety. It refers to the ability to keep one’s person safe. What a concept! It goes against everything I was taught growing up.

IMPACT Bay Area (http://www.impactbayarea.org/) is a non-profit organization which has been teaching personal safety, primarily to women, for 30 years. I attended their 1-hour free workshop tonight. Casey, our instructor, gave us practical tools to use in everyday life. She briefly covered internal tools such as intuition and awareness, then taught us physical tools like heel palm! It felt fantastic to strike upwards at a pad (this would land in the soft part of the upper throat on an actual attacker) and yell a hearty NO!

Self-defense is something I have had on my To Do List as something to learn for many years. This free workshop was a beginning. It’s safe, fun, and builds confidence. They have more extensive classes which allow students to fight off padded attackers (instructors) to have a real-life felt sense of what it is like, making it more likely to remember how to do it if you ever need to. If you are in the Bay Area, please check out IMPACT Bay Area. They have scholarship programs, and no one is ever turned away for lack of funds. They are also in need of volunteers and contributions!