To be or not to be. Do or Do not.

Warrior is a word I am not especially fond of. It gets used way too often for everything from surviving a hangnail to getting through the work week and making it to Friday. There are those who truly are warriors, we know them. There are also many great words of wisdom and sentiment about warriorship. This is one of those and I thought I'd expound on it. 

No one is born a warrior • I do believe though, that one is born with traits that enable one to have what it takes to become a warrior. But life also can have a way of shaping one into a warrior, if necessary, depending on various factors including resolve, tenacity and grit.

You choose to be one when you refuse to stay seated • Sit down! Don't cause problems. Just do what you're told. Sometimes it is easier to just comply. Sometimes not, depending. Once when I was a few years into my present employment, I was asked to cover a class. I am not qualified to sub so I declined. The admin strongly urged me to do it but I maintained steadfast that I would not. He had no other choice but to figure out another option for his dilemma. With the discussion done, I started down the hall back to my work area. The secretary chased me down and insisted that I should not even think of telling an admin no. "Don't make waves" she said. It really made her uneasy. Oh well. 
To have the chutzpah to stand when they all want you to remain seated may be warrior-like somehow, I guess. My thought process at the time was not to be put in a position that I was not certified to do. If anything happed I would be up shit creek. Legally he could not make me do this and we both knew it. Knowledge can really be a great equalizer. The more you know the more you can back your stand. 

You choose to be one when you refuse to back down • Again, backing down depends on many factors. Is it worth it? How significant is it for you to come out on top? Fighting over which movie to go to... is it really that important? Or do you just give in and watch the movie your buddy want to see because it is about spending time together and not really the movie? 
So, another story. I was waiting alone at Sears one November to pick up family photos (this was like 30 years ago, Sears use to do photos). A big, rough, mean-looking dude was threatening to beat one of his girlfriend's very young kids. There were 4 really small ones, from toddler to about age 5 or so. He stood up and took off his belt. I spoke up and the only thing I could think of to say was, "Sir, I'm not going to just stand here and let you use that belt on those kids." Of course the adults didn't not like my interference and let me know in no uncertain terms. Now, I had no plan and no idea what I would do, but still I could not back down. The kids were just being little kids, singing and climbing off and on their chairs. Nothing so horrendous that constituted a beating from this guy with a belt, not that anything would. But confronting him was the one of the scariest things I've ever done. This put me in a position to watch my back for several years afterward. 
The actions and reactions we choose to take will always have results. Even if that result puts us in a position to keep our guard up for a long time after. Or the result can cause us to loose friendships or family.

Standing up after getting knocked down •  With this one there isn't a 'depends' option. There is no other option than to get back up. It may take time. It will hurt like hell, like your guts have been ripped out. Like there could never be sunshine and happiness ever again. More tears and sorrow than you ever thought possible, but you have to get up and get through. 

Every. Single. Time. 

No matter what. 

Not all scars are visible. 

That. Is. A. True. Warrior. 

Using the terminology 'warrior' means different things to everyone. I chose the word to use in the name of my business, Subtle Warrior. Even though it is overused for irrelevant shit, it still has meaning. I wrote about why I chose the name Subtle Warrior. You can read about it here.

People are born but some are endowed with something... character, disposition, nature...whatever- that places them in an unusual position to be kinda elite in many ways. 

Or just maybe all those traits aren't part of it at all. Maybe, just maybe, they just do what they do because it's the right thing to do.

For whatever reason. 

White Yellow Orange Red Black

In the self defense field, many people talk about or use the ‘Cooper’s Color Code’ method of classifying stages of awareness. I have had conversations with people who advocate it and there were a few that had their own color codes of sorts to teach awareness with their self defense course. 

With that, many years ago I once had someone from a completely different area code call me. He drilled me about the self defense I taught, as in what style and if I employed Cooper’s color code in my instruction. I said no I didn’t. He of course reprimanded me for not doing so. The self defense I taught what not complete nor correct without the color code. Now this guy didn’t know anything about me. I am sure he got my number off the website. However, he was not even located anywhere near the region I live or teach. I don’t know why he felt it so important to make sure I was teaching Women's self defense the way he thought I should. 

Basically the color codes give an illustration of the level of awareness one would be in at different times. White illustrated being in an oblivious state, like spacing out or daydreaming. Not paying attention to anything at all. 

Yellow is where you’d be relaxed but aware, generally paying attention.

Orange is when something specific has been noticed and now you're on alert. If it turns out to be nothing, then you go back down to yellow. If it’s more serious, then you go to condition- -

Red. High alert. Shit’s going down, it's the so called ‘fight or flight’ stage. 

Black is all out panic, nothing productive happening because of the panic. You never want to be in this state.

Neither do you want to be in condition red constantly either. Some people are. 

One instructor I met had a different method. Simply green, yellow or red as way for him to illustrate the various levels of awareness. Which seemed a bit more logical for his particular program. As for me, that wasn’t the direction my program went. 

To live your best life you can’t live at one extreme or the other. Life is not binary, either/or. If we become more knowledgable about what to see and how to recognize things developing, then hopefully we can make some choices before it's too late. 

More than Cooper’s color codes, learning where violence comes from, spotting what kind it may be and understanding the factors involved, will help much more than having a colorful way of discerning where your awareness level lies or should be. Now, just because the color codes aren’t my thing, doesn’t mean they don’t have value. If you’re interested, you research it, there is lots of stuff out there about it. 

My allure is toward knowledge and comprehension. Disguising such levels with rainbows  doesn’t do much. Explaining how come the prism creates the colors provides one with the understanding of why. As an example, if your level is Orange there is quite a bit background as to why something put you on alert. Who, what, why, when, how did it all get your attention and how do you articulate it? 

The who, what, why, when, and how is a big part of self defense and a bit part of what women experience. Something sets off our spidey senses for some reason, the ‘I don’t know what’s wrong, but somethings not right’ feeling. The skill set sometimes referred to as alpha skills, which involve awareness, avoidance E/E and communications and the delta skills, which are a transitioning point with behavior clusters and boundary setting help us prepare in case things go physical. 

The color code I most prefer is this one: