Being extremely observant can seem like a superpower, but anyone can do it if they know how to practice situational awareness. Situational awareness is being aware of your surroundings and understanding what is happening within your environment.

If you only focus on what is within your bubble, you won’t be aware of what is happening around you. You might miss dangerous cues that a threat is about to occur.

Why You Should Learn How to Practice Situational Awareness

Situational awareness applies to multiple levels.

It applies everywhere, from the room you’re in to the planet we live on.

So, while you need to be aware of your immediate surroundings, you need to be mindful of others areas too. You also should know what is going on in the world at large. For example, if you are a person of a certain nationality, you may need to know some places could be currently unsafe to visit.

In other words, know before you go. Don’t go to unfamiliar areas without understanding at least a little bit about them.

Passive Awareness

Passive awareness is being “kind of aware.”  In other words, someone who is passively aware has a general idea that people are around. People who are passively aware, while knowing people are around, aren’t necessarily focusing on the details.

Therefore, the passively aware person may not be aware enough to identify threats.

Active Awareness

People who are actively aware notice who and what is around them and what is happening in their environment. They can understand the demeanor, intent, etc., of potential threats.

Increased Awareness Helps You Recognize Threats More Quickly

Over time, as you gain experience, you will learn to switch between active and passive awareness.

This will lead to an improved ability to increase your awareness and dial it back down, as needed.  In so doing, you’ll be able to identify and categorize threats more quickly.

In the end, the ability to identify and categorize threats more quickly should be the goal of every preparedness-minded person.

If successful, this will provide you with faster response times, improved capability, and resiliency.

It Reduces Your Risk

By adding to your situational awareness, you become more difficult to target. In turn, this reduces your potential to be targeted by bad guys or impacted by natural events.

How to Practice Situational Awareness

The first step in how to practice situational awareness is evaluating potential threats. When deciding whether a person is a threat or not, you want to examine their:

Demeanor – Does the way someone is behaving or carrying themselves give you the feeling they are up to no good?

Hands – Are their hands out and relaxed? Are they holding something? Are they hidden, clenched tight, etc. Do they present in anything other than a relaxed way to you?

Eyes – Are their eyes focused on you? Perhaps they seem to be intentionally shifted away from you? Do they look like the eyes of an average person going about their day?

Hyper-vigilance

Hyper-vigilance is when you expect something to happen, so you are on high alert waiting for it to happen.  An example of this is military personnel who know an attack is coming.

True hypervigilance is exhausting and not sustainable for long periods of time. While awareness is an integral part of your safety and security, hypervigilance is not necessarily so.

Threats Everywhere!

One early but soon-to-fade effect during the evolution of personal situational awareness is the over-identification of threats. The over-identification of potential threats happens because you are still learning to differentiate between threats and non-threats.

As you improve, your over-identification will stop, and you’ll become efficient and effective with your situational awareness.