I'm A Warrior Woman

This is actually a really good reminder that a lot of people advertise their lives on their car.....

Not a good idea.

An important safety reminder!

This is good advice. Uber's are not always the safest options.

Perspective,… Be safe out there!!

I love this one. My Dad was in the Defence Force so therefore I have an assumption that I know how to handle myself. I often wonder if women who say this have really thought it through?. And I mean no offense when I say that.

If my Dad was a neurosurgeon, would you hand me a scalpel and let me loose on your brain?

If my Brother was a Pilot would you expect me to crash land a Antonov An-225? (world’s biggest plane - trust me they are a monster of a plane).

Probably not. So how is this different? And why do women think that is enough training to get by? This always floors me.

As a soldier you get to carry a reasonably high powered weapon into a War Zone. You get to carry about 750 rounds and it is with you when you shower, sleep, or eat.

We are assuming here that your Dad (brother, Cousin etc) has seen active duty. Many soldiers go through their whole career and never set foot into a war zone. AND they are men - built entirely differently to a woman and if they taught you how to fight as in a fist fight - that should be used as a last resort. So the whole point is a bit mute.

My Dad fought in Korea but he never taught me how to fight. I think he had seen enough violence to last him a lifetime. He did speak about tactics to me. I am sure, looking back at my childhood that some tactics rubbed off, which is probably why when I went off soldiering I was really good at tactics.

Did you know that 96% of women will not do a Self Defence Course and the majority of those that do are under 30 OR have done the Course through work.

What do these 96% do? Well, for a lot of us we hope that we never come across a situation that needs us to think outside the square or offer up any kind of defence.

We live in pretty good neighbourhoods. Have an established routine, which is rarely disrupted so life looks nice and stable. Let’s face it - that is two of the major things that Humans crave - safety and stability.

The other problem with traditional Self Defence Courses is that you have to get in close to your assailant in order to fight him off and for many women that in itself is pretty scary. Who in their right mind wants to get in close to someone who scares you? You also tend to learn a “routine”. You move here, he moves there. If you watch some of these routines on YouTude it looks more like a dance than Self Defence. Problem with that is that in real life there are no rules and it can get kind of grubby.

Finally, all Self Defence Courses are put together by men. The clear and obvious problem with that is a Man has never worn a woman’s body. How the heck can they know what it feels like? Our centre of gravity is different for a start.

It will never happen to me

This is one of those cases of ‘I wish I had a dollar for every time I hear this”. I would own Fiji and the 300+ islands associated with it. We all think it won’t happen to us. I won’t get Cancer. I am a good driver - I won’t have an accident. But in fact we have very little control over what happens to us. You can be the best driver in the world and still have some idiot come around the corner too fast and hit you. You can’t control that.

I have said, for the last 15 years, you can not Google looking for advice on Self Preservation as a situation unfolds. You need to know what you need to know before a situation is on top of you. It’s the reason why soldiers spend a lot of their time running practice drills. Your reactions need to become instinctive.

If I can…. Many years ago my music teacher’s neighbour had a heart attack and luckily (for him) she had just finished a First Aid Course. She recalled the story by saying the neighbour's wife was running up and down the fenceline yelling for help (because she didn’t have a clue what to do).

So my neighbour (who was not a little woman) somehow went over the fence and found the neighbour not breathing and started CPR. She was pretty sure she didn’t get it exactly right but her actions saved a life. She had to tell the wife to ring for an Ambulance as the woman was not making sense. As my music teacher put it…. Having the knowledge of what to do gave her the confidence to do something.

The same goes for Self Preservation - once you are in the middle of something you need the information, well before you find yourself in the center of it.

I have anxiety - I’m an expert

I don’t say this often but OMG… My daughter sent me a woman on Tik Tok who has, to this date, had 29 100 hits. She is showing us her expert advice on what to do if you find someone in your bedroom.

I am sorry but I have never seen anything so full of ill advice. From where I am standing it was actually painful to watch. At one stage, she picks up a baseball bat from under the bed. Then she drops it.

She advises that you should ROLL into the bathroom. (this is the OMG part- ROLL) I am sorry but I am pretty sure that 99.8% of women could not roll anywhere without causing an injury. Let alone down a narrow corridor and on tiles AND it is not in any way the fastest way to travel. No one can roll at 20 miles an hour.

Remember: You have some strange guy in the house watching you roll. Maybe the tactic is that you will have him on the floor in fits of laughter.

Why in God’s name would you get on the ground and roll??? It gets better though.

When she is in the bathroom she admits that she has no way out as the window is a sealed unit.

Her advice is coming at you with no other reason than she has anxiety and she, in her wisdom, thinks that this is all good advice. And now, unfortunately, there could be a fair percentage of that 29 100 views that also agreed with her and all because they have no real education to see just how stupid and dangerous her advice is.

This rates as a high 9 on my “annoyance at the stupidity of others” scale. She has no real experience to share and her “advice” may end up getting someone killed.

It is the reason why I have spent years perfecting what I teach. There are always so many variables to what can happen and what can go wrong (and by the same token what can go right).

I only hope she is like most on Tik Tok and seen as a bit of a giggle instead of being taken seriously.

I’ll go in fighting.

I hear this one a lot and it is usually the reason for not wanting an education in Self Preservation. “Oh, if someone comes at me, they had better look out.” (or something like that).
I feel very sad for the Ladies that say this for three reasons. Firstly, I can guarantee that this individual has never been in a situation where they tested their confidence and therefore they have no idea if they can handle the discomfort of going into a physical fight.

Secondly, they are assuming that it will be a one on one encounter…. They have not thought about coming around the corner and finding 3 iffy guys or waking up to find 2 blokes ransacking the house.

Thirdly, the most dangerous thing is that in this encounter, if you are overpowered you have lost everything. You have gone in all guns blazing and now the ammunition bucket is empty. There is no coming back from that.

You have lost any advantage you could have had and now you are playing the role of victim.

I have a Taser

From an Aussies point of view where we don’t have access to a Taser, basically the only people with one is our Police Service… But my question to this is always, “Where do you keep this Taser?” And the answer is often a bit of a giggle….

Most often they are in a bedroom draw or in a handbag. Just how big is your handbag? If it is like most women's it could fit the Titantic in there. In a panic can you grab your Taser within 3 seconds or will it take you 3 years to remove all the lipsticks and tissues and bits of paper to get the thing out?

If it is in a drawer in your bedroom and you are confronted in a carpark. Not very helpful. If you are in your house having your only “weapon” in your bedroom, that may in fact, send you in the wrong direction in order to going and getting it.

I don’t have a Taser, as I say I don’t wear the right uniform to own one… But nor do I think that I only have one option of weaponry. In fact, there are things I can use as weapons laying all over my house and they are all normal everyday household things.
Going into a situation thinking "I have a Taser" and you see that as your only weapon leaves you wide open.

Having the dog outside.

I stumbled across a woman who is having trouble with kids from the neighborhood who are entering her property and damaging property. There was loads of advice (most of it not good advice) and most of it was that she should leave her dog outside to “sort it out”.

Honestly this is the worst advice EVER. A dog outside up against a gang of kids is a dead dog. Which in itself is very sad but it then leaves you in your house very exposed….

A dog inside the house is by far your best security system ever created. A dog inside will let you know where the kids are walking around the house. A dog inside is going to be standing under the window if someone is breaking in.

Interesting fact: Your little toy dog or that useless bouncy lunatic is only one gene away from a Wolf and sometimes they pull something out of the back door and become something that looks like a Wolf. Don’t dismiss that little yap yap.

My dogs sleep on my bed. I sleep pretty soundly but when they lift their heads up - I am awake. I would never have my best mobile security systems outside. Out there they are on their own But then....so am I.

I have 5 000 FB Followers - I must be an expert

At one stage I had a total of over 220,000 followers across a number pf pages. I am not saying this to impress more to say that if I can do it with my limited techy techy skills then anyone can come up with a following.

But I quite intentionally cut the numbers of my followers down to a more reasonable number.

In recent times I see a number of complete unknowns in my industry, who have a large FB following and who claim to be experts in keeping you safe.

We have fallen into the Social Media trap of looking to see how big the following is and thinking that follower numbers = quality of advice.

Don’t worry we have all done this. Hollywood checks out potential actors and their social media followings. Often those with a bigger audience get the job…

We are dealing with a subject that truly is life and death here so you want to be listening to someone who has walked the walk and knows the types of “Talk” that is needed for every possible variate of each scenario.

Anyone can buy a large following. Not everyone can give good advice.

I know I have been really quite in here and I am sorry about that. Just not enough hours in the day....

But I have a bit of a favour to ask you all....
I am steadily working on putting together the most amazing Courses because my aim is to improve the safety of women all around the world. And as such I am putting together a questionaire and it needs a Title.

Which of these grabs your attention the most:

The quick thinking, practical, confident women.

How to become a modern day Warrior Woman

Or

Refusing to be apprehensive.

Or if you have a suggestion please share. I would love to know your thoughts.
Thank you
Naomi Wilson

I'm A Warrior Woman updated their address.

Yesterday was "Town Day". We live a little way out and generally (due to Covid) have become quite used to just going into town, do all the things that need doing all in one day then come back out and isolate.

There really isn't much reason for it now but it has become a bit of a habit.

So when I pulled into the supermarket to get some dog food, the truck looked a bit like Steptoe & Son.

Miss 15 decided to sit in the Truck (with two big dogs) whilst I ran in. Now this is not going where you think it is. Firstly I wish any one luck at putting a hand on a door with my two dogs and secondly, Miss 15 has THE most spectacular scream.

But when I got back to the truck I noticed a young girl in a High School Uniform hanging around the back of the Truck.

Clearly she was waiting for someone. She was listening to music and pacing.
We do live in a really safe town, however due to Covid we have nearly doubled in size in the last 18 months and in that new population there are any number of unknowns.

I went up and asked if she was OK?

I think the fact that I was dressed in my farm gear, had a farm truck and a teenage daughter in the truck made me look trustworthy.

She answered that someone was coming.

I then asked "Do they know exactly where you are?"

She said yes and that they seemed to be running late.

Mothers (and fathers, of course) this is a classic example of how kids are picked up.

Complacency - I truly think this is the number reason why things go wrong. "Nothing will go wrong" and the big one "It won't happen to me."

If the parents of this girl lived in a war zone they would not leave her IN THE CARPARK. Think about it.....

There are two places that are easiest to grab a kid that is near the toilets or in the carpark, in a shopping centre.

And carpark is the easiest of the two. She has as little as five paces to fight, send up an alarm, hope someone is there to assist or will in fact step in.

Sure it is easier for you to just drive up and for her to get in. But you have left her standing there for minutes - exposed. It was clearly obvious that she was waiting and she is a kid.

To a pe*****le this is ripe fruit hanging low on the tree.

So the solution? At this shopping centre there are a good number of places she could have sat (or paced) right near the entrance doors to the supermarket.

This would give her assess to the front end or checkouts if someone started to hassle her or make her feel uneasy. She had a Mobile so it would just be a case of sending a text as you pull up to tell her you are there (as the parent).

But she has "rent a crowd" in the Courtyard (entrance) that she does not have in the carpark.

As it was, when we were pulling out she started to wonder around the carpark thinking she was in the wrong stop - which makes me think that the Rendezvous point was not all that clear.

Please don't ever do this with your kids.

Have a very clear pick up point. Make the kids wait in a very public place, they could even wonder around the supermarket. Talk about closest safe people. If you are running late ring them and discuss the options. Never leave them standing in the carpark - you may live to regret it.

Sometimes we tie ourselves up in knots, like some sort of a drunken sailor and waste a lot of energy doing so.

A little while ago I was asked to speak at a Women's night out and as we arrived at 6pm on a week night, there was a man sitting right out the front of the Bar that the night was being held at.

Now the Bar was not the reason for this man's state (it was a closed function) so he had done his drinking somewhere else and was "resting" here.

He was having a Wow of a time, singing to himself, laughing and obviously enjoying his own jokes.

But it was 6pm and there were plenty of other people around.

Honestly, I didn't take too much notice of him. He was in his own little world, he wasn't noticing anyone coming in.

But one of the other ladies was very affected by his presence and on top of my presentation about keeping yourself safe, she left very worked up.....

Now my talk is not all blood and guts - in fact I would like to think it is anything but. But she let her mind take over. As a footnote: the man left about 15 minutes after I walked in - so he was not even there to cause an issue.....

I have to say that I saw a lot of this serving in the Army..... Strangely not by the soldiers who were in the thick of it but often by those who worked on the fringe of the danger. They would have themselves in such a state just being in the Compound.

Your mind is just a part of the puzzle and if you let it take over you can find yourself in more trouble than at that initial moment when you spotted trouble because you are distracted by the "what iff" game.

Sometimes we need to put things into perspective. He was drunk, no doubt about it, but he was not a danger. He was just drunk.

Now I am not completely unsympathetic to a woman looking at a drunk man, I don't know her history. I don't know what she has and to deal with. Maybe she has just lived a life where no one close to her has fallen off a chair singing sailors songs...

My dad was a very heavy drinker before I was born until I was about 5 or 6. So I do know how disruptive a drunk can be.

But one thing Dad taught me was, jump the fences in front of you. Don't look at any of the fences off to the side. Don't make the fences bigger than they already are. Just jump those in front of you.

We as Humans often forget that we don't really need to go looking for more than is already in front of us. If there are no fences - Great. Smooth sailing for you!!!! Yay.

If the fences are small and inconsistent. Well, welcome to life - it is not bad, You've got this.

If there is one big fence in your way..... well "let's give this a crack" but never focus on the fences off to the side. You will fall flat on your face looking at stuff that does not concern you.

In one of my Courses I have a couple of sections about why you should know your neighbours.

And I know that for many women this is the one part of the Course that they either want to (or do) skip over. To that I shake my head.

I didn't add it into the Course as a filler or to fluff the Course out.

I added it, because it is important to know those who live around you.

Tonight was a prime example of that.

We are coming out of Summer and our days are started to get shorter. Tonight I was in the shower when my teenage daughter started making urgent noises from the front door (don't panic it was not us).

I got out of the shower to see the tail lights of a Ute parked in the neighbours driveway across the road trying to get the gate open and because I know my neighbours well I know he was not home, tonight and he doesn't own a Ute.

So we went into "the Mode". We grabbed our two high powered torches, I grabbed a dog, we split up, started to shine torches all over the place with glancing blows at the Ute parked in the driveway. The dog played her part by barking ferociously at them.

Needless to say they jumped back in the Ute and took off.

I am only assuming here but I would think that even the dumbest Thief is going to think twice about trying to knock off anyone down this end of our road. All because we look like a tight neighbourhood.

Ironically the neighbour came home only minutes later....... I rang him and let him know and to say that we would keep an eye out on his place. He lives alone and two blokes turning up is going to mean trouble.

In our conversation he mentioned that he too, checks who is coming in our driveway.

We will keep our eye out for the next little while...... for all our sakes.

It took very little effort to deter these guys. If they come back they are going to find us all looking at them...

This is just one example of why knowing your neighbours is a really good idea and why I strongly suggest getting to know those who live around you and who are your closest living souls in the middle of the night.

I was talking to a Travel Agent the other day and she mentioned (because she knows that I teach "This sort of stuff") that she was walking to her car in an underground carpark at 3pm. Minding her own business when she noticed (more heard) a guy.

He was smashing things and kicking cars, generally making a nuisance of himself. She stopped, more from the shock of what he was doing.

Then she made eye contact with him. Not meaning too but she was keeping an eye on him and he happened to look up.

To be honest I don't think it would have made much difference. He was clearly on something and even if she hadn't made eye contact he could have had the same reaction.

He started to run at her.

Trust me, for anyone this is scary. Even if you are a well trained machine. A drugged up stranger is an unknown.

So she did what she thought was the best thing.

She ran for her car........... She made it but not because she is a fitness freak (she is not). Not because he tripped over..He did not... The ONLY reason she made it to her car was because someone yelled out "Oi" and the drugged up "dude" started to chase him instead......

Take a minute to let that soak in..... That was the only reason that she didn't get attacked from an unknown drugged up stranger.

That is not a plan. But that was the problem. She didn't have a plan. She didn't have a clue what to do.

And if you knew the Town - that itself is insane. The town has a big drug problem, walk around in middle of the day and you will come across those affected by drugs, standing on the street trying to pick fights with either each other or anyone who happens to be walking past. One guy was yelling at the top of his voice "I am not marrying a Bloke".

And still she didn't have a plan.

Why?

Because she tossed between one of two thoughts (and try to tell me that you don't do the same)...

Firstly: It is not going to happen to her.

Secondly: If anything did happen she would be confident she could get herself out of it.

Well that day put both of those thoughts out the window.

We came up with a plan for the Next time it happened.

I am not a betting women but I would be willing to bet that working in this town she is going to come across another problem and this time I am pretty confident that she will handle the situation better and not have to rely on the luck of having someone willing to stick their neck out and yell "oi" .

If you think my information is good and worthwhile then you should Like and Follow I'm A Warrior Woman. There are some big things coming. Loads of hard work and late nights but it is coming and if you feel you would like to have a Plan for all sorts of situations then you need to be here.

Thank you and as always Stay Safe.

This is a Training that we are putting together. If it sounds like something that you would be interested in, please leave a comment or message me and I'll add you to the list for when it is available.

https://www.loom.com/share/e18f32cdc2fc449c91343c5b8ad99fdfe

Thank you for watching.

Stay safe.

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