Consider our natural instincts when threatened with harm. Prompted by fear and/or anger when threatened, our instinctive self-defense reaction is fight or flight. These instinctive reactions are further conditioned by media violence and reinforced by teaching our children to fight back or submit when confronted with aggression. When our fear or anger is sufficiently aroused, aggressive instincts overtake rational responses, prompting fight and flight reactions, which usually escalate the cycle of violence. Counteracting this destructive cycle, our training helps us face threat with awareness, courage and self-control. Skills from physical self-defense give us confidence in the face of threat. This confidence offsets the rise of fear and anger that prompt fight or flight, creating an opportunity for nonviolent alternatives. With this confidence we can then employ nonviolent methods to transform the conflict. The mind that is not held by fear or anger with their flight or flight reaction is able to consider constructive responses for resolving a threatening situation and stop violence before it starts. In other words, because we cannot think clearly when our fists are clenched, our training teaches us to calm down, gain control, and open our hands so we can use our heads in response to threat. This alone often has a disarming effect on hostile threat. If mental self-defense fails to defuse the threat and physical action is necessary, we teach physical self-defense techniques to counteract basic threats. Such training is controlled by a code of conduct that has as its guiding principle the use minimum effective force to restrain violence and promote peace in keeping with our pledge and code of conduct.

As an example, take a common situation school children face: responding to a physical threat. Left to their instinctive devices, youth react to bullying with fight or flight, which usually leads to more violence. By integrating both conflict and self-defense skills together, we provide a more holistic approach than aggression or submission in responding to violence. We seek to help young people understand the behavior of those who bully, those who are victimized, and those who are bystanders. We want to help those who bully learn appropriate ways of relating to others. We want victims to learn how to assert and defend themselves. We also want bystanders to learn how to intervene in situations of bullying. In such situations when our training enables youth to stop violence and transform conflict, we have accomplished our purpose as Peacemakers.