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Training in martial arts and Krav Maga is not just a physical endeavor; it can also elicit intense emotions, especially for those who have experienced trauma before joining a martial arts gym. Oftentimes, students tell us about being overwhelmed after a class when they’re on their own, in the car on the way home, or even hours after taking a class with us.
First, we want you to know that your feelings and emotions are valid. Self-defense techniques and situations can absolutely trigger you, no matter where you are in your healing journey - we know that from personal experience.
We also want to make sure that you and other students have the skills to handle and move through these emotions on your own, whenever they may happen. We’ve taken skills from Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Somatic Therapy, and other forms of mindfulness that we’ve found most helpful when it comes to working through post-training situations.
First and foremost, are distress tolerance skills from dialectical behavioral therapy: when your body is in fight or flight, some of these tools and techniques may not work as easily. So the first step, as much as we can, is to tell our body that we are not in immediate danger and there is no reason to fear. Here are the distress tolerance skills that have worked for us and other students:
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy Techniques
Calm Your Vagus Nerve
Using cold to calm your body is a distress tolerance skill from dialectical behavioral therapy, which is one of our most used techniques on and off the mat. The vagus nerve is the longest nerve in our body and part of the parasympathetic nervous system. Your parasympathetic nervous system controls “rest and digest” functions. It’s the opposite of your sympathetic nervous system’s “fight or flight” response. Our goal is to help the vagus nerve reset and we do that using cold or ice.
When a person is panicking or feeling overwhelmed, we offer them an ice pack and have them put the pack on the back of their neck or their wrists. If you’re at home after a day of training and feel overstimulated or overwhelmed, you can either splash cold water on your face, but especially along your jaw line, submerge your face in ice water, or take an ice pack from the fridge and place it on the back of your neck, your wrists, or against the side of your jaw.
The cold helps your nervous system reset and it can be a great help if you feel like you’re disassocating or unable to control your emotions.
Use Your Five Senses To Soothe
There are a number of distress tolerance skills that you can use here, many of them involve identifying items in your space, such as the 5-4-3-2-1 technique. If you haven’t used it, it’s a great way to re-ground yourself if you find yourself getting swept away by emotion. The technique involves using all five senses to notice your surroundings: name 5 things you can see; name (or touch) four things you can touch; name three things you can hear; two things you can smell; and one thing you can taste (or the taste of your mouth).
We’ve used this technique in classes before when we can see a person’s anxiety start to take over. This technique can be helpful by yourself, but may be even more helpful if you’re with someone who loves and cares about you and can help walk you through it.
These next few skills are super helpful, but won’t be helpful if you’re too activated or anxious. These skills are great if you catch it early or if you use one of the above skills first.
Mindfulness
Practicing mindfulness helps you become aware of your emotional state without judgment. After training, take a moment to sit quietly, focus on your breath, and observe your emotions.
Half Smile, Willing Hands
Half smile, willing hands is a dialectical behavioral therapy tool that I thought was absolute bullshit when I heard it. I use it in moments of anger, when I need to let things go, and when I need to give love to myself or others. In self-defense, I’ve seen students get so angry at themselves for their body’s natural reaction. Try this technique to give yourself some love and care after an intense session.
Here’s an explanation of half smile, willing hands from the DBT Center of Orange County:
“Half-Smile, often referred to as the “Mona Lisa smile,” involves upturning our lips just a bit. It is not a big, fake, or “joker” smile, rather moving the corners of our mouth upward ever so slightly. Softening and relaxing our jaw helps us get to a Half-Smile. Another way that may be helpful to accomplish this is to put a straw or maybe a piece of licorice across the mouth held by our teeth.
Willing Hands is about opening up our body posture. Even something as simple as uncrossing our arms or unclasping our hands can communicate to our brain that we are in a safe place, since an open posture is the opposite of a “defensive” stance. To take it a step further we can flip our palms open. This may look like resting our hands on our legs or knees and having the palms face up while sitting, resting our arms on the ground or a bed with our palms up while lying down, or having our arms at our side with palms facing front while standing up. Marsha Linehan, creator of DBT, has noted how impactful Willing Hands can be in reducing anger and frustration.”
Emotional Regulation
Acknowledge what you’re feeling and allow yourself to experience it without trying to change it. For me, this is incredibly hard. If I can feel my emotions in the moment, I’m able to pass through them more quickly. If you want to continue to work through the emotions that come up through training, try to identify specific emotions that arise and develop a plan to address them. For instance, if you often feel frustrated, create a list of positive affirmations or coping statements to counter negative thoughts. Remind yourself that growth comes from challenges and that it’s okay to feel frustrated as part of the learning process.
Somatic Techniques
Somatic practices focus on the mind-body connection, allowing you to release pent-up emotions physically:
Breath Work
Deep breathing exercises can help calm your nervous system. Over time, I’ve found exercises that work or don’t work for me. For example, one of the techniques I will suggest below, box breathing, will actually cause me to hyperventilate. Sometimes, when I am overly activated, breathing techniques don’t help me as much as other items mentioned. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t work! Try out any of these techniques and see if there’s anything that can work for you.
Alternate nostril breathing:
I personally love alternate nostril breathing. Outside of Dirga Pranayama breathing (mentioned below), it is my favorite breathing technique. It aims to calm the nervous system and promote relaxation. To perform it, sit comfortably, close your right nostril with your right thumb, inhale through the left, then close the left with your ring finger, release the thumb, and exhale through the right. Inhale through the right, close it, release the ring finger, and exhale through the left, completing one round.
Breathing through a straw:
This technique was taught to me by a speech-language pathologist as a way of bringing down your heart rate. I use this one especially when I’m working out or using cardio. Breathe in through your nose for as long as you can (when I’m working out, I can often breathe in for a count of 4). Hold for a moment and then blow out as if blowing through a straw for twice as long as you counted in. If you breathe in for 4, breathe out for 8.
Box breathing:
Also known as square breathing, is a well-known way to bring calmness to your body. Typically, I use counts of 4: breathe in for 4, hold for 4, breathe out for 4, hold for 4.
Dirga Pranayama breath:
Taught by our yoga instructor, this has been a great way to calm myself and others during panic. If possible, this is done lying down, but I have done it sitting in a chair and standing as well.
On each inhale, fill your belly with air first, expanding your stomach like a balloon. Once your stomach is full, then include a little more breath and let that air expand your rib cage, then your upper chest. Hold for a moment and then exhale by sighing through your mouth. Eventually, if you can, make that sigh loudly.
Grounding
Oftentimes, during intense emotional experiences, students feel as if they’re leaving their body, making it hard to connect their emotional experience with their body and move through whatever they might need to. For me, grounding techniques help me reconnect to where I’m at and who I am. I often think of my feet being planted on the floor and roots shooting into the ground. From there, I breathe deeply to bring energy up from the ground and fill my body. I then release it back into the ground.
Other techniques mentioned above, such as the 5-4-3-2-1 technique, are also grounding techniques.
Body Scan Meditation
A body scan involves lying down comfortably and mentally scanning your body from head to toe. Pay attention to any areas of tension and consciously relax those muscles. This practice can help you reconnect with your body and release lingering stress.
Other Coping Strategies
In addition to DBT and somatic techniques, consider these strategies:
Reflecting Inward:
Journaling
After an intense training session, you might experience a mix of emotions like excitement, frustration, or fatigue. Writing down these feelings can help you process and release them. Putting thoughts on paper can reduce anxiety and stress, providing a mental reset that you might need after an intense training session.
Coloring
I love coloring as a way to breathe and meditate in my own space. I also love repetitive motion when I’m feeling overstimulated or overwhelmed by emotion. It can be a great way to
Gratitude
Studies have shown that gratitude can change your life. I know that I try and think about at least three things I’m grateful for every day. How are you grateful for everything that happened during training? Can you be grateful for things that were hard during class? How can you flip the things from class and make them positive?
Reaching Out:
Talk To An Instructor
We believe that your feelings are valid and we can tell you times we’ve felt this way, give you tips on how to work through your emotions, or show you resources (such as this post!) to help you work through your feelings.
Connect with Other Students
Many of our students feel the same way you do! You’ll find that you aren’t alone and that feeling can bring comfort. If you aren’t sure what student to reach out to, talk to an instructor and we can help you connect.
Talk To Your Therapist
Especially when students come to us with a history of trauma or want to work through a traumatic experience, we ask that students connect with their therapist and make sure that their medical professional believes that they are ready for a more physical working through of their trauma. The last thing that we want or other martial art studios should want is to retraumatize a person instead of helping them through their symptoms.
We hope that you can find something that you can use if you’re feeling activated after time in a martial arts space or after taking part in Krav Maga or self-defense. If you have any other ideas or things that work for you, we’d love to hear from you! Post below or send us an email at info@valleyselfdefense.com
Over time, we've found a handful of tips to can help people cope with panic during class. You can use them with self-defense or in any part of your life where you experience panic attacks and anxiety.
Trauma-informed care is an incredibly important and rapidly growing industry in the United States, especially after the pandemic. With that in mind, what is trauma-informed self-defense?
Krav Maga near me? There is! If you're looking for a Krav Maga class near you, Valley Self-Defense is a proud member of the International Krav Maga Federation with schools located across the United States. To find a school near you, visit the IKMF USA website.
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