Stay Calm Tips During a Violent Encounter
Hi, I’m retired Navy Seal, Chris Sajnog, the author of Navy SEAL Shooting, and one of the top 20 most frequently asked questions I get is, “How do I learn to stay calm during a violent encounter?”. I just want to give you these stay calm tips that you can do to help remain calm in any violent encounter. The great thing is that not only are they going to help keep you calm, but they’re going to keep you in control.
Meditation
The number one thing that you can do is practice meditation. Meditation is teaching you to be present in the present moment. During a violent encounter, you’re thinking about what could happen in the future, rather than thinking about things that you can control at that very moment in time.
The way to get your body and your mind into understanding that and being present is through meditation. I do it every single day. I think you should do the same thing.
Visualization
Number two is visualization. Visualizing is so important because there are so many situations out there. Just saying violent encounter is pretty generic. We need to actually be able to practice the specific events. Visualization is one of the easiest ways that you can do that.
Practice
Alright next in these stay calm tips is to practice. Just simply practicing is going to make you more confident. That is going to allow you to react better to any violent encounter.
There is something called the competence-confidence loop. This means your firearms training is getting better, which means you are more confident in your training, which makes your training continue to build on itself.
Awareness
Number four is to practice awareness. A great way to do that is to go running on trails, or just even be outside and in the wilderness and learn to be aware of what’s around you. Another way that you can do that is just by knowing that you can build your awareness.
So practice those two things. Get out of your mobile device and start seeing what you can see in your peripheral vision. Start opening up your focus, and that’s going to help you feel more confident when you do get into a violent encounter.
Flow
Alright, so number five, when you are in a violent encounter, you need to flow through that. I’m sure you’ve heard of the fight, flight, or freeze response to stress. The reason we have those reactions is it depends on our training or understanding of the situation that’s happening.
Those are the three that you most commonly hear about. What I want you to learn is what I call the fourth reaction, and that is flow. This means being able to flow through any violent encounter or stressful situation. You learn it through meditation and visualization. That way you don’t have to run away and you don’t have to fight.
Alright, that’s it for today’s stay calm tips. Practice these five ways to stay calm during a violent encounter. Please check out my other 19 five and under-five FAQ posts and videos to continue paving your path to perfection.
