In this article I discuss 3 everyday items that are great for self-defense.

Before we proceed, I just want to share that in reality, almost any item can be used for self-defense. All you need is a little imagination and improvisation.

The first item that I chose is a pen.

There are purpose made self-defense pens for sale on the internet. They are quite popular as an EDC item (every day carry) in the preparedness community. Often these EDC pen’s have other functions built into them, such as flashlights and glass breakers, but I am not a fan of them. Mainly because of the way they look. You can tell it’s not a normal pen and I bet they wouldn’t get through security in a lot of places.

Also, some of them are so chunky there is no way I’d actually write with them let alone carry one around every time I go out.

Instead, I carry a normal stainless steel ballpoint pen. It’s great to write with and is refillable too. It’s called an F.403 and it is available for under $10 off Amazon, which is cheaper than the official EDC pens also.

Get one here if you’re interested.

But any stainless steel pen will work. It is best to get one that you enjoy writing with, that is refillable, and has a little clip on it so you can clip it onto your pocket when you go out.

Lots of things can be improvised and used in the same way. Basically anything that you can grip in your hand and is hard.

There are specific techniques you can use, but basically you just want to dig it in somewhere on your opponent. If you know pressure points that's great, but just rubbing it on a bony surface is effective, such as the back of a hand when someone gets you in a bear hug.

The good thing about the pen is that there is very little danger of you getting in legal trouble. You're not going to kill someone by stabbing them with a pen (unless you are aiming for and are accurate enough to get them in the eye or bust a vein in the neck… highly unlikely) but hopefully it’ll be enough for them to let you go.

For my second item, I chose deodorant, but it must be spray deodorant. Actually, any type of spray will work, e.g., hair spray.

The idea is to use it like pepper spray, which is illegal in a lot of places. If you live somewhere that pepper spray is legal, you should get one of these keyring ones.

Deodorant may not be as effective as pepper spray, but you can spray someone in the eyes to blur their vision for a moment and then get away.

For my third item, I chose a water bottle.

Anyone can carry a water bottle around into almost any building without security taking it away.

You can use it similar to a pen by applying pressure with the cap end.

A full water bottle can also be used as a club, or you could just squirt the water into your opponent’s face and then kick him/her in the groin and/or run away.

So that's it for my three everyday items that are great for self-defense.

I specifically chose these three items because there is nothing out of the ordinary for you to carry them almost anywhere you go.

It is also common to see them lying around, especially a pen.

I remember reading a book as a child about ninjas. It said that a ninja should be able to walk into any room and immediately identify 10 ways to kill someone.

We don’t want to kill anyone, but it is a good concept. From now on, whenever you walk into a room, scan it to find at least 3 items that you can use as improvised weapons should you need to.

If you want to learn more about improvised weapons and self defense, check out ‘The Self-Defense Handbook’ here: www.survivalfitnessplan.com/self-defense-handbook.

Safe training!

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