How we talk

I'm reading Eddie Bravo's Mastering the Rubber Guard. His discussion got me thinking. We have so many women self-defense classes and we tend to characterize things as attacks or defenses. Movements become passive or aggressive. By thinking in terms of attacking and defending, it influences our actions, but negatively. When we label a movement, we get into a certin thought process and all our actions move toward that label. So if we're in a fight if we call something an attack, we tend to remain in an agressive mode and not react well if your opponent takes a lucky shot. On the other hand, when you are in a defensive mode it's a lot harder to gain the advantage in a fght. We need to move to a neutral thought stance in combat and not worry about if we're pushing the fight or reacting.