In any conflict, internal or external, awareness and presence are the first tools you should implement. Here's a brief summary of both

1 Awareness is the first line of defence. If we are not aware that something is attacking us then we cannot apply any intelligence to protect ourselves from it. Awareness is twofold – we have awareness of the physical world around us, but also an awareness of what is going on inside ourselves, such as muscular tension, emotional agitation or internal conversation. By meditating we can bring the inner and outer aspects together into what the American Indians sometimes describe as a ‘seamless web of awareness’. This web functions as an early warning system so that we are not surprised by an attack; it is like radar, or a scout listening to the ground for the sound of approaching hooves. A certain degree of awareness will always be present in the body – many of our instinctive defence mechanisms are triggered by an almost unconscious awareness but this unconscious awareness only goes so far. In terms of what we need to study, we should try to understand the mechanics of awareness and to develop it's potential.

 2 Presence is really the aforementioned balance between the body, mind and spirit, for when these aspects of our being come into harmony and we are ‘present’, a tangible force emanates. Presence starts with the ability to hold some degree of attention in your body, not daydreaming or engaging in internal conversations but feeling your body at this moment in time. This is suggested in the very word ‘presence’: to be ‘present’, or ‘pre-sense’ (what comes before the senses). Thus, without attention in the body, in other words if the attention is not connected to the senses, you cannot ‘open’ to the present moment, which is the only place that the relationship between your body, mind and spirit can be forged and maintained.

Through the process of Meditation we aim to strengthen this heightened state of awareness and presence. We aim to bring the body, mind and spirit into a state of integration to act as a safeguard, because when we feel fearful, anxious or stressed the relationship between the body, mind and spirit has a tendency to disintegrate. An example of this occurred when I was younger and living in Oxford, England. One day I was sitting on a bus when it stopped outside Queen’s College and a then quite famous mathematician boarded. In those days it was imperative to have ready the exact price of the bus ticket, but the professor fumbled in his pocket for the change and took a little longer then the driver would have liked, and was informed of this in no uncertain terms. Immediately, the professor became visibly agitated, mumbling half apologies, turning bright red and sweating. He peered intensely into the hand that held his change and finally handed over the money to the bus driver. However, he had counted the money incorrectly, which further irritated the driver who, cursing, grabbed our poor professor's hand and counted the money out. Here was a bus driver counting for an Oxford professor of mathematics! The impression of this exchange struck me greatly and seemed to really illustrate the debilitating effects that fear can have on us. The poor professor became so disintegrated that he could not even perform the most basic of mathematical calculations. When he was verbally attacked by the bus driver he went into a mild state of shock that disturbed the balance between his body, mind and spirit and rendered his formidable intellect useless.