By Cecilio Andrade

The alert color code of previous blogs helps us to define where the mind is at any time, but it will not help much once put “on the job” to save our lives or that of third parties.

What mental fitness do we apply then? A simple, clear and concise natural and instinctive rule, Mother Nature implanted it in each and every one of the genes of its living beings, “you attack me – I attack you”.

Unfortunately the human being is the only animal that tends to obstruct this natural law, that of survival and self-defense, although, being sincere, in the end Nature always ends up wining, in one way or another.

Once in the misfortune of having to fight for our own life, and of others, there must only be one now and one here. There is no place for superfluous thoughts; the problem of discussion with the boss will not help us. Nor will ethical or legal problems. We are being attacked, or the defenders from the aggressors, we do not force the aggressor to act, if he withdraws in his action we will lower our level of response, from lethal to neutralizing or incapacitating, and this to control, but the level of response already Is not in our hands, no longer depends on us but on the aggressors.

The focus will be on accurately materializing our response, since we are the ones who “respond”, not the ones who start. If you act you will be focused on neutralizing the danger, and remember that neutralizing is still not synonymous of killing, I insist. If we fail we do not blame ourselves for it, there will be time for that later if we want to do it and we only continue focused on solving this situation that we neither wanted nor looked for.

We will not evaluate what we have done until that moment nor what we should do in the future, we would only be able to lose focus of ourselves and lose the here and now. That shot that comes out of his gun, that punch, that kick right now is what matters, not what follows, not what preceded it. Just this act right now. The evaluations are done quietly in front of a café and between colleagues, never against adversaries.

The human being can only focus on one thing at a time, and in stressful situations this approach is magnified to extreme degrees. If we assume and use it correctly, this approach will help us control panic and consequent fear.

Remember one last detail, we only end when the aggression is neutralized, remember and always think of this word, neutralize, not when we stop acting for whatever reason. It only ends when there is no aggression and the threat is either neutralized or has disappeared.