The Passive Guard Practice

We all know this stance or defensive posture.  It's your hands up to protect your personal space when you feel someone is encroaching on it.  Now, you can stand there with your hands up making it look like a strong barrier, or you can be more subtle and relax your hands and move them as you talk, all the while still being able to protect yourself or launch a pre-emptive strike.  This is a real skill, and one that needs a lot of practice to pull off.  Start by whenever speaking with someone involving your hands in the conversation.  Use them as a barrier but be subtle and don't let the person you are talking with know that's what is happening.  You can every, so often if you see fit, gently touch the person as you chat. Sounds weird but if you chat and joke with someone maybe you touch their arm for example. This could be you monitoring that limb in a self defence situation or trapping it before launching a pre-emptive strike.  Now remember who you are chatting with.  Easier to start with your friends and then work colleagues.  Once you are good at it you can do it with everyone and they won't even know its happening.  You must me able to talk while doing it and be subtle like I said.