When your life is threatened, it's natural to feel fear, the author says. The challenge involves learning how to channel that feeling into action. (For illustrative purposes, Meredith Gold is shown.) PHOTO BY RICK HUSTEAD

I always crack up when someone says he never feels fear or, better yet, when a person is involved in a violent altercation and says he wasn't afraid. If anyone ever tells you that, he's either psychotic or lying. Since few true psychotics are running around, chances are he's lying.

All sane people feel fear. When faced with the threat of losing life or limb, they're afraid. Crazy people, however, can lack certain emotions, including fear. So if you've got a screw loose, this column isn't for you. It's for the rest of us, those who are willing to admit that we feel fear and, moreover, are willing to learn how to master it.

For brave souls, fear might represent nothing more than acute feelings of apprehension or dread. For others, it's a feeling of panic or terror. Because it's our companion for our entire lives, we'd better learn to accept and use it to our advantage. Otherwise, we'll always be a slave to it — or worse, a victim of it.

Feeling fear when confronted with an imminent threat to our safety or to those we care about is part of human nature. It's as natural and healthy as breathing. Fear is also a useful emotion because — like love, hate, jealousy and anger-it's a prime motivator. Yet for most people, fear is the enemy, a ferocious beast lurking within, ready to devour our ability to function the moment we lose control. This beast has the power to immobilize us at the very moment we need to take action. It can transform the average person into a paralyzed coward, unable to lift a hand in his defense.

Logical, reasonable fear isn't cowardice. It's a sign of intelligence. Fear is a smart emotion. If not for our fear of pain and death and for the gray matter we call a brain, our species would have become extinct long ago.

Comparatively, we're among the weakest of all animals, but our fear coupled with our brain allowed us to- become the most fearsome animal in the jungle. We're the only animal that can use intelligence to master fear.

So let's start by admitting the obvious: When threatened with violence, we're afraid. But the fact is, we're never more prepared to fight to survive than when we feel the rush of fear. Fear is the early warning signal that gives us the luxury of preparing for danger. It gives us a fighting chance by alerting us to potential threats and revving us up to respond in a flash.

We must ask our- selves how we feel about fear. Are we afraid to admit that it exists? Are we afraid what people will think? There's an old adage that says what the hero feels and what the coward feels are fundamentally the same; the only difference is, the hero focuses his fear, choosing to use it to thrust him into action regardless of the dangers, while the coward chooses inaction. Obviously, it's more complex than that, but the maxim is true. We must accept that fear is our ally, not our enemy. It's a powerful weapon we can use in a crisis. It can make us stronger, faster and more powerful than we are right now. But fear can cut both ways. When we're afraid, we trigger psychological and physiological changes within our bodies. Fear forces our glands to shoot massive quantities of adrenaline into our bloodstream, increasing our sensory awareness, doubling and sometimes tripling our normal levels of strength and speed. Fear decreases blood circulation in the event that we're cut or injured, making us oblivious to all but the most serious wounds. Our capillaries constrict, forcing our blood to where it's needed most: the brain and vital organs. This, coupled with the decreased blood flow to our extremities, is why we may feel sick or lightheaded moments before a conflict. The blood pooling in our stomachs can make us nauseous, while the blood leaving our limbs can make us feel cold and clammy. Basically, our bodies are going into a controlled state of shock, preparing us for fight or flight.

The essential point is that this is a natural process. However, if left unchecked, fear can paralyze us or induce a state of panic, making the possibility of taking valid action extremely small. Everyone feels it to varied degrees, and it's fundamental to our ability to survive. The trick is to train our minds to utilize the benefits of fear while diminishing the drawbacks.

The martial arts teach us to confront and deal with our fears. More than that, they give us a mechanism for self-reliance, self-discovery and self-control. But when stripped to the essence, the martial arts are still about fighting. They're about the ability to survive a violent assault. And no matter how technically good we are at the art of fighting, it's in the battle within the mind that we'll ultimately win or lose. In fact, it can be said that fear is our first foe in a fight.

Self-defense is fundamentally about learning how to make smart moves to avoid danger and how to deal with violence when forced to. It involves threat recognition and preventive strategies. It encompasses the attributes of knowledge, awareness and intuition, and it demands the development of techniques to use force if we have to. However, these components are fueled by a much more important ingredient: our instinct for self-preservation or, more specifically, our fear. Although there are many aspects to the psychology of violence and interpersonal combat, one stands out above the rest: We must learn to understand and master the incredible power of fear.

In the end, our bodies are just tools of our minds. Without our minds, our bodies are useless. Mastery of the mind and its emotional triggers is by far the most important factor in whether or not we can really fight. The physical side of combat has to do with mechanics, techniques, tactics and strategies, but the psychological side has more to do with behavior modification and developing "mind moves" we can use in a crisis.

About the author: Richard Ryan is the founder of Dynamic Combat and the creator of the Tactical Defense Training System. To contact him, call (800) 945-4387 or visit http://www.DynamicCombat.com.

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