by Erin Able

Created on: February 24, 2007

You're walking out to your car after some much-needed retail therapy at your favorite mall. You parked under a light to make sure that your car was visible and you weren't fumbling for your keys in the dark. In fact, you already have your keys out, ready to unlock your car as soon as you are close. Suddenly, you think that you see someone lingering in the parking lot would you know what to do?

"Mentally, every woman needs to realize that things can happen to them and they need to be observant of their surroundings at all times," emphasizes Christina Rondeau, a Professional Kickboxer, Professional Boxer and one of Cosmopolitan Magazine's "Fun, Fearless, Female" Award Winners.

Although we all wish the world was a place without crime, we are smart enough to know that that in fact is not the case. Every day women are victimized.

Rondeau advocates that there are three things every single woman needs to know. "Physically - a woman needs to know three things...poke the eyes, bite the nose and hit the throat! Knowing where to hit an attacker is VERY important!"

Rondeau explains "Any one of those 3 things will get the attacker to let you go just enough for you to escape and have a chance to get away."

"I am so passionate about keeping women safe," explains Rondeau. "In my professional experiences and opinion the most important tip I can offer women is that they should know how to punch and kick the proper way. Women need to know that it's okay to be violent if someone is attacking you, you are fighting for your life, after all!"

While those are seemingly simple physical ways to deal with a situation, you also have to know how to react verbally.

Never yell "help," "rape," "911," or "fire" according to Robert Siciliano, CEO of StreetSafeSecurity.com. He claims that those types of words are perceived as ways to get help to come to you, and you should never rely on someone else coming to save the day. Instead, Siciliano stresses that you should yell commands like "no" or "stop" which are directly conveying to your attacker what to do, which will cause them to stop in their tracks at least for a moment which is all it could take to get out of a bad situation and go for help.

But you still need to rely on common sense and some basic knowledge, in conjunction with the physical and verbal commands, which can help you to avoid a potentially bad situation, if need be. Siciliano offers the following tips to keep you out of harms way:

Cell phone for safety? Don't ever rely on your cell

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