Awaring

With your head on a swivel

One of the most popular pieces of advice handed out in the self-defense community is to “be situationally aware!” or to “keep your head on a swivel!”

The idea is that if you pay enough attention to the world around you, you will be able to spot trouble headed your way and either avoid it completely or be prepared when it arrives. It’s an attractive idea, but one with a major flaw: it’s simply impossible to always be on alert to all things surrounding you, and keep people far enough away from you that you can react properly if they try to do you harm. At some point, human biology, let alone psychology, dictates that you must relax to at least some degree. At some point, you must enter places where personal space is merely a suggestion - at least unless you manage a complete hermit lifestyle forever and ever amen (easier now than ever before, but less so if you like any of your friends and family).

Another gap with that advice is what it actually means. What are supposed to aware? What does turning your head do for you except make you look like a weird children’s toy? Those of you who have watched tactical shooting videos have often seen the range dance where someone shoots a few rounds down range, then makes a big show of turning their head from side to side. What are they looking for? Do they even see anything at all, or are they just moving their head around? If you are aware, you are looking - what is it that you’re supposed to be paying attention to? There’s so much going on in the world that trying to take it all in and sift out what’s important can be overwhelming and confusing.

Here’s the thing, though, they’re good bits of advice based on a real and good practice, just perhaps a little oversimplified to be useful.

For one, accept now that you will miss things and that you will allow human beings closer to you than you can react to their bad acts. That’s life, especially a life worth living where you can become immersed in a movie or concert or art exhibit or conversation, and where you can go shopping, go to the library, go to a show, go walking in a park.

At the same time, commit yourself to noticing the world around you when you can, realizing it’s not all the time. Take your face out of your cell phone, turn off your music, and look, listen, and even smell and feel what it’s like where you are, right now and everywhere you go. This isn’t so that you can “aware” at all of those things and see, process, and remember every little detail. It’s just to get to know what’s going on in your environment, to know what it’s like every day, to get a feel for the normal atmosphere of where you’re at. It’s also practice for learning how to absorb the feel of a place quickly.

When you’ve done that, you can do what situational awareness really requires, which is to simply set the back of your brain to looking for what doesn’t belong. Does something suddenly smell funny? Do you hear a noise that doesn’t fit the normal mood of the crowd? Is that person over there dressed like they’re out of place? Did the wind pick up dramatically - and you’re indoors? Is someone in line behind you suddenly acting “weird”? That’s your clue to perk up and see what’s going on. And it takes a lot less effort than trying to stay alert at all times to all things.