Covert Attack & Emotional Robustness

Self Defence has many faces. There's the obvious aspect of needing to be able to defend yourself from physical violence - but there also many other aspects to defending ourselves that we should not ignore. We will all come across people in our lives who are overtly trying to do us harm ... this may be annoying/stressful/dangerous but at least we are fully aware of their intentions. A much more dangerous threat, in my view, are those kinds of people who are seeking to do us harm in covert ways. These kinds of people will smile to our our face but undermine us when we are not looking - often in ways that leave little or no evidence. It's difficult to defend ourselves from such attacks - because we are often ignorant of their existence. This sort of thing is rampant in the schoolyard ... subtle and covert bullying; it exists in business ... machiavellian power plays and 'positioning'; it happens on the mat in schools with bad culture ... locker room gossip ... and it's all bad. Whenever I see a hint of it ... I shut it down. I invite others to do the same. Physical attacks may be dangerous but at least they are obvious ... the other kinds of attacks, those covert ones that litter our path through life with obstacles, hurdles and emotional upheaval - these take skill and experience to recognise and emotional maturity to parry or deflect. Building a robust emotional immune system is an important part of self defence ... an important skill for living successfully and happily. JBW