Fear and Pain

Shinpai ([心配] worry, concern, anxiety, uneasiness, fear)

Emotion is defined as a conscious mental reaction subjectively experienced and directed towards a specific object, accompanied by physiological and behavioral changes in the body. Fear is definitely characterized by low valence (negative feeling) and high arousal. So is anger. What differentiates these two is the fact that in the case of anger, one dominates his feelings, whereas in the case of fear, the person loses control of his reactions, experiencing submission and passivism.

Fear starts in the presence of a stressful stimulus perceived by the sensory organs (eyes, ears, skin) and ends with the release of chemical substances generating bodily reactions such as high heart rate, fast breathing and muscular activation during the fight-or-flight response.

To a certain extent, fear is healthy. It has supported survival and evolution throughout centuries and is an everyday component of our lives.

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Primordial fears, also known as primal fears, are those that are deeply rooted in the human psyche, borne out of our ancestral need for survival. These fears include fear of darkness, heights, predators, death, and isolation. - Primordial Fears: An Exploration of Our Deep-Seated Anxieties

There are only five basic fears, out of which almost all of our other so-called fears are manufactured. These fears include extinction, mutilation, loss of autonomy, separation, and ego death. - The (Only) 5 Fears We All Share | Psychology Today

By dividing the ratings of valence/arousal/dominance emotion dimensions, we propose two paradigms for fear level estimation—the two-level (0—no fear and 1—fear) and the four-level (0—no fear, 1—low fear, 2—medium fear, 3—high fear) paradigms. - Fear Level Classification Based on Emotional Dimensions and Machine ...

fear is judged as rational and appropriate, or irrational and inappropriate (or unconscious). An irrational fear is called a phobia. Fear is closely related to the emotion anxiety, which occurs as the result of often future threats that are perceived to be uncontrollable or unavoidable. The fear response serves survival by engendering appropriate behavioral responses, so it has been preserved throughout evolution. - Fear - Wikipedia

Pain 

Kutsū [苦痛]

Martial disciplines, both kinds, are exposed to methods and skills that inflict damage, painful damage. Sometimes debilitating and may end in death.

Those who willingly participate in this discipline must know, understand and act according to the pain of involvement because it means survival.

The following is provided for your continued research, begin with the following:

There is physical pain and there is psychological pain, know them and understand them Benefits ones efforts in training and teaching.

Physical Pain: Pain is a signal in your nervous system that something may be wrong. It is an unpleasant feeling, such as a prick, tingle, sting, burn, or ache. Pain may be sharp or dull. It may come and go, or it may be constant. A localized or generalized unpleasant bodily sensation or complex of sensations that causes mild to severe physical discomfort and emotional distress and typically results from bodily disorder (such as injury or disease) acute shooting pains. also : the state marked by the presence of such sensations.

Psychological Pain: Psychological pain, mental pain, or emotional pain is an unpleasant feeling of a psychological, non-physical origin. Psychological-pain can manifest into physical pain because it affects one’s self-talk and thinking and the body follows the mind as the mind follows the body. Pain that is not explained by a specific medical condition or injury. Pain that is not associated with observable physical abnormalities or physiological changes. Pain that is inconsistent or doesn't follow a predictable pattern.

Pain Types: The two main types are pain caused by tissue damage (also called nociceptive pain) and pain caused by nerve damage (also called neuropathic pain). A third category is psychogenic pain, which is pain that is affected by psychological factors.

Acute pain usually comes on suddenly and lasts for a limited time. Some type of damage to tissue – such as bone, muscle, or organs – often causes it.

Chronic pain lasts longer than acute pain. It generally can somewhat resist medical treatment. Chronic pain can be the result of damaged tissue. But very often, nerve damage is behind it.  

Both acute and chronic pain can be overwhelming. And both can affect and be affected by a person's state of mind.

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Grit

Dokyō [度胸]

A critical traits in one who has to deal with conflict and violence. True grit 🤔describes a person of character, integrity and personality:

• Persists through all obstacles and barriers;
• Intestinal fortitude to rise up when circumstances cause one to fall;
• Tenacious in one’s efforts;
• Innovative problem solver;
• Optimistic to a fault;
• Seek not just knowledge but understanding too;
• Open-minded;
• Open to change;
• A collaborator;
• Positive and fun;
• Perseverance, integrity and courage in the face of great odds;

Instincts

Hon'nō [本能]

• a natural or intuitive way of acting or thinking.
• a natural propensity or skill of a specified kind.
• an inborn impulse or motivation to action typically performed in response to specific external stimuli.
• a way of behaving, thinking, or feeling that is not learned.
• a natural desire or tendency that makes you want to act in a particular way.
• drives or motivates one to act in ways beneficial to their survival.
• a feeling or reaction based on an instinctive emotional response rather than considered thought.

A sixth sense, hunch, or gut feeling: Whatever you choose to call it, the sudden flash of insight from deep within, dep down at the lizard brain.

Signs of a gut feeling

• a flash of clarity
• tension or tightness in your body
• goosebumps or prickling
• stomach “butterflies” or nausea
• a sinking sensation in the pit of your stomach
• sweaty palms or feet
• thoughts that keep returning to a specific person or situation
• feelings of peace, safety, or happiness (after making a decision)

Any behaviour is instinctive if it is performed without being based upon prior experience (that is, in the absence of learning), and is therefore an expression of innate biological factors. - https://tinyurl.com/yc4fpp53

Instinctual Behavior:

An adaptive response to a stimulus in one's environment. It is carried out by the nervous system as a result of genetics. This type of behavior is not a reflex, but rather a complex and species-specific pattern of activity. Instinctive behavior is also referred to as a stereotyped response. - https://tinyurl.com/yudfeanu

Instincts or gut feelings or instinctual behavior is not of an absence of learning but rather a unique creative action triggered without conscious thought derived from a combination of experiences, learnings and trainings and well as deliberate practices. 

Look at it as triggering some deep suppressed survival instinct encoded in one’s DNA or genetic repository, possibly modified due to experiences of the current time in which we live. 

Sensory Methods

Kankaku-teki hōhō [感覚的方法]

Learn to listen, to close your eyes and focus your mind on as many sounds as possible to train your hearing sensory system. Practice with dojo mates on hearing movements and to discern noises then find out what noises one might hear that are not “normal” in your environment so you can shift visual sensory toward such sounds in deciding their potential toward conflict or violence. 

Then, get a pair of safety ear plugs and a pair of safety ear headphones 🎧 and put in the plugs and cover your ears to muffle out as much sound as possible. Now feel that quiet and focus on the other sensory systems to detect anomalies in the environment, i.e., use direct and peripheral vision in conjunction with rotating the head to take in as much of your environment as possible. Take notice of how much you can miss when hearing is compromised. You want to sharpen all senses to achieve awareness of all senses in providing that ability to detect anomalies that indicate possible dangers to include those that warn you of potential conflicts and possible violence.

Now, use a blindfold to restrict vision and work the tactile senses and use your entire body, skin, to feel and to detect touch of others and remember to smell odors as well as people getting close may have odors that are abnormal in social closeness indicating someone you need to identify quickly.

As a person who has lost a good deal of my hearing i have come to realize how diminished hearing affects my ability to detect even normal environmental dangers such as approaching vehicles when crossing the street.

In addition, as i pass through more of my winter years (70+ years) my vision changes so i needed to enhance my visual methods to see, hear and feel (tactile by hands and skin, etc.) my environment. Add in more methods of physical practfor balance as well.

When some more dangerous folks try to sneak up on you, you may detect them by their body odor so paying an aware attention to such practices can heighten your sensory systems so you act to detect and orient in evaluating potential dangers.

It’s important to train and practice collective and individual senses (especially that 6th sense) to remain safe and secure in an ever changing world. Don’t assume your senses will do the trick automatically especially if you don’t live and/or work in more dangerous environments because surprise is a major tool of the more nefarious types of predators. 

Oh, side note here: learn to detect non-movement because one may remain motionless when scoping out possible targets and they tend to move when you are in a position where they can surprise you. Reverse the freeze and flight response concept because being motionless can help the nefarious hide from you as you pass through their territory or zone of attack. 

Understandable

Rikai dekiru [理解できる]

Knowledge comes from four sources (thank you Rory Miller):

1. Experience 
2. Reasoning
3. Traditions
4. Entertainment and Recreation 

Experiences in violence is rare unless one works in fields of expertise dealing with violence AND as Rory Miller puts it, “violence is extremely idiosyncratic!”

Read more here: https://tinyurl.com/yc6u5hua

Reasoning means you will search in familiar areas, for you, that you “feel” may work then teach that and it is said, “reasoning is weak.” You cannot know what you don’t know and what you don’t know you don’t know (I believe Marc MacYong said that last).

Reasonably you might ask first what is a surprise blitz attack and then look for what’s needed and find out how to get that.

Reason is theoretical while reality is …

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Traditions is historical and was recorded in concepts such as kata but as written by one more knowledgeable, “are the lessons taught by teachers with actual experiences, is the teacher several generations removed from the one with experiences is what’s being taught derivative of the entertainment and/or sportive industry? Because, each one has different principles and concepts that are not always appropriate to what you’re facing in that moment.”

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Entertainment and recreation AND self-help psycho concepts are not reality. I read an interview from one martial movie star who said what he does is for drama and camera angles, etc. and not the reality of violence. Yet a lot of modern martial defense concepts and methods are drawn from what a teacher saw, thought was cool and relevant, on the big or little screen.

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The comments above are mine and mine alone and if you read Mr. Miller’s article linked in this blog entry you can draw your own conclusions and that’s good.

The idea I have come to seriously consider, till more comes to my research efforts, that one must receive data, analyze it with other diverse viewpoints, then test it out and then “hope and pray” it works if you find you can’t avoid and/or deescalate … you know you don’t know and you can only discover what you don’t know you don’t know through hard work and a shit-ton of hard, honest and open-minded work.

Side Note: I remember in boot camp the day we went to the range for live grenade practice. In the training I understood completely the required steps to use a grenade. One story was don’t stand with your back against a thatched was and toss one in the hooch doorway because the shrapnel will make quick work of you as well as the occupants. Our live fire exercise was behind a three foot cement wall where we took the stance, pulled the pin, drew back behind the ear, let fly the IMMEDIATELY DROP completely on our stomach on the ground behind the wall, cover the neck with both hands and wait for the boom. (See, I still remember the process from training) 

Now, you know what comes next, what I did instead, right? I crouched down like in the TV show Combat, covered my head … until I felt the D.I. Throw me down on the found and laid beside me telling me kindly to “you fucking idiot, cover you neck …!” The boom happened and if he had not threw me down I would have had shrapnel hit the top of my head … 😬 

Have a G-Day mate!

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