It was me vs a level 40 Bruiser who had level 85 in Persuasion (Manipulation and Force based)
It started in Nepal at a party in celebration of the Hindu god of Wisdom(Saraswati) when a guy came up and tried to drag me out (I summed him up at around 220-230 pounds, but unskilled as I easily disengaged his first grab. He then asked me to come with him, I figure okay, might be a culture thing (in some cultures it’s normal to touch a lot more) so I went to the edge of the event, but stopped there because I felt something was off. He then proceeded to grab at me 4 or 5 more times while talking... I passively disengaged him each time. During/between his grabs his communication was forceful, trying persuade me to leave, and trying to stir me up emotionally with words and things. That too I easily disengaged, but my adrenaline was starting to pump as I knew he was up to something and while I didn't want to escalate by being obviously defensive, I didn't want to get clocked with a sucker punch either, but then a few people at the party noticed what was going on and kicked him out. They told me that they thought he was drunk, and that he had issues.
Interesting that this happened at a celebration of wisdom.
Perhaps even more interesting is that I can account for at least a couple of individual lessons that contributed to a peaceful end to a situation that could have been bad:
- Martial Arts training (of course), one such from Bujinkan that Jim showed me, a version of the Kihon Happo that intercepts a grab before the grab gets hold, when I read about grabbing drills in Konstantin's Systema book then implemented grab drills when I had the opportunity to teach teach while stationed at Izmir, and the many drills Thomas worked with me on. Thank you all.
2.Control the mind (I am not my thoughts, I am not my emotions)... A story in it’s self. I was with my friend Poole and I had just recorded his speech, what an incredibly inspiring message it was, but my phone erred out. I knew my phone had issues and the memory was unmanageable at 99%. I had issues with the video recording errors in the past… I was surprised that the video saved, but it had. so I tried to safeguard it using my backup apps (the ones that automatically work, but had recently been kind of finicky) . My backup apps didn’t seem to be working so I tired sending via email and then by Whatsapp, but the file was too large for both. To make what could be a longer story short, both my primary and alternate apps failed to backup my video, then the video was gone. Crushed. It really hurts me to disappoint someone because I know the pain all to well, and I felt like the most disappointing person ever for being a technology expert who lost a video. My mind started to go into panic mode, like it’s done so many times, to the point of a serve emotional collapse, anxiety starts to kick in, depression knocking at the door, but this time I see it coming, and I choose to change my mind, to disengage. I confront reality with somber calmness.
Thank you Poole for being so understanding and having a great memory, remembering the core points and recording the message on paper.
In life we do have many choices, and starting with seemingly small things, especially those within the mind/spirit can have a great impact.
I have to thank, many teachers of Yoga, Martial Arts, Plant Medicine (ganja and muchrooms), and Teachers of Life Lessons. Namaste
