Explore2Learn

 Of the many kinds of personal freedoms that exist, I am thinking mostly here of freedom to get along peacefully with others and yourself, and the freedom of personal safety without unreasonable fear.

 
 The book The Four Agreements has many things in it that changed how I see the way I talk to myself, and how I talk to other people, and when others criticize me I don't have to internalize their fears.

 The book The Gift of Fear is about personal safety and how listening to your gut feelings, your intuition, your discomfort about a person or situation can save your live or at least get you out of bad situations early enough to avoid trouble. Too often we ignore the feelings about a person or situation because we don't want to be rude. Bad guys know that and use it to their advantage, so follow your instincts and try not to rationalize away your fears, they can save you.

 He also wrote a great book about keeping children and teens safe called Protecting the Gift

Is Fear distracting you?

Are fears about the economy keeping you from changing careers? What Color is your Parachute is a very extensive fun book about finding what you are great at and how to get the best job doing it.

Are the fears about terrorism distracting you from protecting your constitutional rights? What happened recently to Habeas Corpus? What even is Habeas Corpus?

Is fear of socialism keeping you from having Universal Health Care like Canada, and every other major western government? Who has the most to gain here from Universal Health Care, and who has the most to lose? Check out both sides of the issue, but consider the source and who has the money to fight for or aginst it. The poor and middle class who have no medical care and no money, or the huge drug and health insurance companies who have alot of our money. I don't know the best plan for Universal Health Care, but I do know that the voters need ot get involved in finding a solution that protects all of us rich and poor, without making obscene profits from denying people the medical care they need.

Google for More Ideas

There are many self defense and personal safety websites and classes out there, from full contact to Aikido. I am not able to recommend any personally, but they are interesting to check out for yourself.

Google ideas:

• Wikipedia article on Self Defense
  
• Aikido- google to find a teacher in your area
• KidPower.org
• Impact Personal Safety
  

Sometimes people underestimate that often the best defense is to run away, or to learn to pay close attention to your feelings to avoid bad situations before they endanger you.