Blog
Empower & Arise
Self-defense is more than knowing a few kicks or punches, it involves one’s mind, body, and spirit. We’re here to share practical research, resources, and tips (plus, the occasional freebie) for anyone wanting to live a safe and confident life for themselves and their loved ones.
Using Your Intuition for Safety
In moments when something feels “off” or unsafe, your body often knows before your mind does. This internal alarm system goes by many names—intuition, proprioception, inner knowing, or even your body’s warning signals. Whatever you call it, learning to listen and trust this internal guidance can help you navigate tricky or uncertain situations with greater confidence. Here’s a simple, four-step process to help you tune into these signals and take action for your safety.
Assertive Communication: Why It Matters and 3 Ways to Teach It to Your Preteens
Assertive communication is speaking kindly and clearly, a skill that helps preteens grow in confidence, solve problems, and be understood. Here’s how parents and teachers alike can help teach them this skill and support their social-emotional competence and personal development. Read on to learn 3 ways you can help the preteens in your life and download an easy-to-use lesson plan.
The Silent Suffering
This article examines the link between loneliness and increased vulnerability to bullying among students, highlighting the resulting mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. It emphasizes the role of schools in providing mental health support and outlines strategies for identifying and supporting lonely and victimized students to create a healthier educational environment.
The Benefits of Be Your Own Hero
Be Your Own Hero is our weekly kids’ program where we aim to empower children to become confident, resilient, and self-assured individuals who can handle life's challenges with strength and determination.
Empowering Girls Through Self-Defense: Building Confidence and Safety from an Early Age
In today’s world, self-defense skills are more crucial than ever, especially for girls and women. According to a study by the National Institute of Justice, approximately one in five women will experience sexual assault during their lifetime. This alarming statistic underscores the need for early self-defense training. Empowerment Self-Defense (ESD) equips individuals with not only physical techniques but also essential life skills like boundary-setting and situational awareness.
Empowerment Self-Defense: Why We Need It In Schools
Empowerment Self Defense (ESD) is a holistic approach to personal safety that provides participants with tools to combat the whole spectrum of violence, from verbal harassment to sexual and physical violence. It is a violence prevention system that teaches individuals how to interrupt violence by listening to their intuition, assessing their options, asserting boundaries, and using de-escalation strategies.
How It Started: Arise Story Part One
Arise is a culmination of my education, experience, and passion for empowering children and youth. One could say the seeds were planted many years before it all began, but each came into being at the right time…
The Potential of Martial Arts in Education
We're excited to share an article written by Arise's founder, Jess Gordon, recently published in a peer-reviewed journal through the University of British Columbia (UBC). The article explores an area that's often overlooked in education but holds immense potential: the role of martial arts-based interventions in promoting social-emotional learning (SEL) and self-regulated learning (SRL).
How is Arise changing the game?
Learn how Arise is revolutionizing the social and emotional learning (SEL) field through its unique movement-based approach.
Martial Arts in Schools
As educators and/or parents, we all hope to raise healthy, happy, independent, and kind individuals. However, the value of these abstract concepts varies widely among cultures, communities, schools, families, and individuals, making it difficult to determine where responsibility for imbuing them lies. In recent years, an increasing number of schools have taken it upon themselves to introduce practices and curricula that address the development of competencies that have the potential to positively affect one's learning, relationships, mental health, and overall well-being.
What is Embodied-SEL?
Embodied-SEL is a relatively new term in the field of social-emotional learning (SEL). Embodied learning refers to pedagogical approaches that focus on the non-mental factors involved in learning, and that signal the importance of the body and feelings.
Radically Embodied Compassion
A look at radically embodied compassion in relation to martial arts.
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