The workshop with Kyaw Thein was actually the second self-defense workshop I have attended, and I found it interesting that they both managed to be insightful in a lot of the same, but also some different ways.

Just like in the workshop I attended before, the one at Rose this weekend was in a room filled with women. There was one guy initially, and another guy came towards the end; but everyone else in the room was a woman. I suppose it is just always something to notice that all over the world (with Kyaw being from Myannmar), women are having to share the experience of investing in extra measures to ensure our safety.

We went over various moves and aspects of self defense as the workshop went on, however, it was the first thing that Kyaw mentioned that resonated with me the most. She said that the basics and core of self-defense is knowing your surroundings; your ears and eyes are really the strongest tools you could have. I thought this was so sound, because it made me think of how often I walk into new spaces and make a mental note of where everything is or where all the resources I may need are located. And, unfortunately, I do not this often enough. I don’t enter into new spaces and think ahead about what I may need, and this is something I am going to start doing as I learned today that it could make a life saving difference.