How to Be Safe in an Unsafe World: The Only Guide to Inner Peace and Outer Security

by Harold H. Bloomfield

The National Crime Survey reports that you have an 80 percent chance of experiencing at least one physical attack in your lifetime. The Figgie Report indicates that four out of five Americans "are afraid of being assaulted, robbed, raped, or murdered" and, in a 1995 survey, more than one out of three Americans reported feeling "truly desperate about rising violence." If you are afraid, you are already a victim of violent crime. In How To Be Safe In An Unsafe World, best-selling author and eminent psychiatrist Harold H. Bloomfield, M.D., and Robert K. Cooper, Ph.D., reveal smart, accessible, and statistically proven ways to ensure personal safety in a variety of vulnerable circumstances.

Based on the latest scientific research, How To Be Safe In An Unsafe World offers the key to mastering safety intelligence, and shows you how to convert the anxiety you experience when feeling threatened into a perpetual state of heightened awareness, calm energy, and power. This invaluable book shows you how to best exploit a split-second pause at the beginning of every confrontation; how to transform nervous energy into strength; and how to execute two or more de-escalating vocal or physical responses that will free you from predatory harm. How To Be Safe In An Unsafe World demonstrates that it only takes seven seconds for an attacker to size up a potential victim, and that by even changing the way you walk can deter the likelihood of being assaulted.

Supported by the latest crime survey findings, Dr. Bloomfield reveals surprising "do's and don'ts" of personal safety that can help steer you clear of harm's way. For instance, statistics show that yelling "Help!" when confronted with danger actually discourages assistance. However, yelling words like "Fire!" will not only distract a mugger or rapist, but will attract the aid of bystanders. How To Be Safe In An Unsafe World also shows you how to ask de-escalating questions (that begin with "when," not "why" or "what") that will help lower the volatility of a conflict rather than raise it. Whether you are engaged with an angry spouse, offensive coworker, mugger, or rapist, this long-overdue book provides proven safety measures to take in the most common harmful scenarios.

How To Be Safe In An Unsafe World teaches you why the need to feel safe is even more important than the need to love and be loved. In addition, the book discusses why a constant inner sense of fear, or the resulting chronic hostility, may damage the heart, immune system, or brain, and actually end your life sooner than an assailant's bullet, bomb, or blade. With forewords by Deepak Chopra and John Gray that describe the impact of violence on themselves and their families, How To Be Safe In An Unsafe World prescribes a proven and practical formula for safety that you and your family can use to increase your sense of inner security and external safety from self-defeating cycles of fear and insecurity. How To Be Safe In An Unsafe World is a necessary book for everyone who fears for their safety in a world of increasing peril, unpredictability, and numbing incivility.
                  

Genres: Nonfiction

282 pages, Hardcover

First published April 29, 1997

About the author

Bloomfield was born on October 8, 1944, in New York, NY to an accountant and housewife. He grew up in New York City and showed interest in becoming a psychiatrist at age seven.

Bloomfield graduated cum laude with a B.S. from the University of Pittsburgh and from the SUNY Downstate Medical Center with an M.D. with honors.

He worked at the Kaiser Foundation's hospital in San Francisco as an intern from 1969 to 1970. He did his psychiatric residency at Yale University School of Medicine from 1970 to 1973.

He received the David Berger Award in 1978 and the Golden Apple Award in 1982. He worked at the Institute of Psychophysiological Medicine in El Cajon, CA from 1970 to 1973 and became its director of psychiatry in 1974. He became a professor of psychiatry at Maharishi International University in 1974. He was adjunct professor of psychiatry at Union Graduate School and director of his own practice called Age of Enlightenment Center for Holistic Health in San Diego, California from 1972 to 1973.

Bloomfield has authored or co-authored 20 books and was a founder of the American Holistic Medical Association. He is the author of Making Peace with your Parents, Making Peace with Yourself, Making Peace with Your Step-Parents, Making Peace with Your Past, Hypericum (St. John's Wort) & Depression, How to Heal Depression, and the bestsellers How to Survive the Loss of a Love and TM: Discovering Inner Energy and Overcoming Stress. According to his publisher his books have sold more than seven million copies and have been translated into over 30 languages.

According to a 1986 survey published in the American Journal of Psychotherapy Bloomfield's book, How to Survive the Loss of a Love, was one of the top ten self-help books recommended by the 123 American psychologists in the survey. Bloomfield received the Theodor Geisel Book Award in 1999.

Bloomfield was influenced by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and traveled with the Maharishi in India. He was a candidate for Governor of California in 1998 on the Natural Law Party ticket and received 27,000 votes.

He has appeared in numerous TV shows including Larry King Live, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The View, CNN, Good Morning America and 20/20. His work has also been reported in Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Health, Prevention, Cosmopolitan and Forbes.

Bloomfield's book Making Peace with God was published in October 2003.

Bloomfield has received the Medical Self-Care Book of the Year Award and the American Holistic Health Association Lifetime Achievement Award.