Our sympathies go to the victims of the Paris terror attacks yesterday and their families. Like all terrorism incidents, we are all affected.<\/p>\n
How were the attacks coordinated? Who bears the responsibility? We don\u2019t know at present, and it\u2019s not important to today\u2019s post. The question is: what you would do if a terrorist attack happened to you?<\/p>\n
What we\u2019ll be talking about today can be upsetting, especially if you have been in a hostage situation, but the mental and emotional work of preparing yourself is an essential survival skill.<\/p>\n
Imagination can be a powerful weapon. You needn\u2019t put yourself into a dangerous situation to practice survival skills. All you need is to take some time to seriously consider what actions are realistic and will lead to better outcomes in a hypothetical situation. The \u201cbetter outcomes\u201d we\u2019re aiming for are fewer deaths and injuries (especially yours).<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re scientifically-minded, take your time to imagine your situation with every counter hypothesis. Your assessment should be a step-by-step flowchart that has contingencies in case each move fails.<\/p>\n
If you have a vivid imagination, populate your scenario with as many details as you can. You can do this while waiting in line or to liven-up your dinner conversation. Use your current location as the site of an imaginary scenario. If you\u2019re going to an event and you have a few minutes beforehand, consider what you\u2019d do if that night you needed to save your life.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve taken a first-aid course, you should be familiar with these scenarios. Your instructor will say for example: \u201cYou arrive at the scene, there\u2019s a car with a crumpled hood against a tree, and one person laying motionless on the ground. What do you do first?\u201d As you describe your actions, they\u2019ll give you answers to your questions. \u201cI check for hazards like dangling electrical wires, glass or petrol on the ground.\u201d And they\u2019ll reply, \u201cThere are no hazards.\u201d And so on.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve never taken a first-aid course, I highly recommend it. You could save someone\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
Every situation will require different strategies. Some things to consider in any scenario:<\/p>\n
Like the first-aid scenario, ask and answer. Can you get to the door? If yes, run out. If not, what\u2019s preventing you? Fire. Etc.<\/p>\n
Doing the exercise itself and imagining it vividly will help keep you calm enough to repeat the exercise with growing comfort. Practice that becomes routine lessens your emotional reactions.<\/p>\n
When you\u2019re comfortable with this by yourself, try it as a game with a friend. You may recognize this as a role-playing game: you are playing yourself but in the imaginary situation, and your friend is describing the world and the threats. It\u2019s not a contest, just a way to involve another creative mind in your process so you might be surprised. They can also put some time-pressure on you. In a crisis situation, you\u2019ll need to make decisions quickly and not freeze.<\/p>\n
The great thing about the human imagination is that mental practice actually transfers skills to the real world. This is true of physical skills (psychologists proved that mental rehearsal of basketball free-throws increased performance of actual free-throws), and doubly true of mental skills. Remaining calm and making good decisions in a catastrophe can be practiced.<\/p>\n
Self-defence training will not\u00a0solve the problem of random terror attacks. Some of the victims on Friday may indeed have had a high-level of training and been unable to escape regardless. However, preparation will certainly improve your odds of survival, especially when you have to make fast decisions without panicking.<\/p>\n
It is important to recognize that the people of Paris had no forewarning, nor were they engaged in behaviour that might be construed as a provocation. Many of the casualties were attending a music concert. Others were having dinner at a restaurant. They were ordinary people going about their lives. Like you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Our sympathies go to the victims of the Paris terror attacks yesterday and their families. Like all terrorism incidents, we are all affected. How were the attacks coordinated? Who bears the responsibility? We don\u2019t know at present, and it\u2019s not important to today\u2019s post. The question is: what you would do if a terrorist attack […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5041,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bartitsu-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/playfighting.ca\/fight-like-a-gentleman\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/blog-it-cant-happen-here.jpg?fit=470%2C260","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4vfin-1jh","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/playfighting.ca\/fight-like-a-gentleman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/playfighting.ca\/fight-like-a-gentleman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/playfighting.ca\/fight-like-a-gentleman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/playfighting.ca\/fight-like-a-gentleman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/playfighting.ca\/fight-like-a-gentleman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5039"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/playfighting.ca\/fight-like-a-gentleman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5040,"href":"http:\/\/playfighting.ca\/fight-like-a-gentleman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5039\/revisions\/5040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/playfighting.ca\/fight-like-a-gentleman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/playfighting.ca\/fight-like-a-gentleman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/playfighting.ca\/fight-like-a-gentleman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/playfighting.ca\/fight-like-a-gentleman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}