Awareness alert

 Are you aware and alert?

My husband and I have been travelling and teaching self-defence around the world. When I started my martial arts journey, I learned at the very beginning that I could not really hit a person, not even for practice and with control. I am telling you this because if things get really ugly and you might need to defend yourself, you may not be able to. I learned to punch and I am sure you can too. But before things go that far wrong there are many things we can do to prevent any harm. Better safe than sorry, right?  That is why I ask are you aware and alert?

Sense of security

Do you pay attention to your surroundings and notice if someone behaves oddly? Do you avoid dark alleys and corners? Do you actually look around when you are walking or jogging? Or are you one of those whose sense of security is so high that they jog during any hours of the day with their hooded sweatshirts listening to music with headphones that are designed to quiet out all background noise? I admit that the place where we are born and raised as children plays a huge role in the sense of security. The more secure you felt with your surroundings as a child the more secure you probably feel as an adult. Luckily we all can reason and use our knowledge of human behaviour when we enter different surroundings and scenarios. You might hear warnings and pay attention to those. 

Protect yourself

You can never tell for sure what is going on in peoples minds. But you can protect yourself and your loved ones with precaution. It does not mean that you give in to fear or that you are fragile. Hell no. It means that you are smart and can use your mind to foresee unfortunate events that might occur and decide to avoid them. Sometimes the bad things happen when we get comfortable and are doing things like habits. We just go about our business and pay no attention whatsoever to anything around us. We might text and cross a busy road leaving our own wellbeing to someone else to protect. We trust that someone else will stop and we can just go and mind only our own business. That is scary. When I was a kid I was told to look out for cars. If one of those was to drive over me I would die. No one said that there were circumstances when I would be right and the driver wrong. They only told me that if something that much bigger than me hit me with speed I would be the one hurt. And I never felt the need to test that theory. We should not trust so blindly on others. They might have a bad day. 

Sensory overload

If we in this hectic world add to our stress level and never learn to slow down, we add to our load every day. Noises, lights, sounds, smells, people and things surround us. To stay safe, we need our senses. If we are under stress, tired and try to hide behind our smartphone, we are calling for trouble. Sometimes it is pure chance that we survive. We should learn to look for the safest path. Keep quiet enough to hear alarming sounds. And calm our mind to face any situations. If we burden ourselves with all else, there is no time and space for awareness of any kind.