Cliche of Awareness
Kelly MuirDescription
“Awareness” is a constant theme in self-defense training, but it can sometimes be presented as something rigid that doesn’t take into account the way your attention to your surroundings fluctuates during the day. In this video, Kelly Muir describes the three states of awareness that most people move between throughout the day: Relaxed, Familiar, Unfamiliar. Your behavior in these states will vary, as will how much mental energy you are actually putting into being aware of the details of your surroundings. By paying more attention to your surroundings when you are in a more vulnerable situation, it will be easier to manage your personal defense efforts.
In the personal defense world the term "Awareness" has almost become a cliche. I have worked with women that have told me they've been taught that in order to stay safe, they need to walk around in a constantly heightened state of awareness. Well, that's not even practical and most of the time, honestly, what I find is that it confuses the women because they feel as if they're not doing everything that they can in order to stay safe, or in order to ensure their safety. So what I'd like to do is break down the word "Awareness" just a little bit, and let's see if we can make some sense out of that word and put it into a situation that is more practical. Let's start with what I call "Home Awareness". Now home awareness is the most comfortable that anybody will be at any point in their day, it's when they're in their home. Now I assure you that if I'm in my home cooking dinner I am not really that concerned about turning the corner and finding some unexpected threat. Now, could it happen? Of course it could happen and somebody could knock the door in but that's an entirely different topic. And the likelihood of it happening is very minimal. So the only important point here is that home based awareness is simply relaxed. Now, when it changes, when you leave your house. The second level of awareness is what I refer to as "Familiar State". Now familiar state of awareness means that you're going somewhere or you're at a building or a place, a location that you're very familiar with. It could be your children's school. It could be your local coffee shop. It could be somewhere that you are not only familiar with the building, but you're also familiar with the individuals that are there. At my local coffee shop, I know just about everybody. And at the school that my children go to, I guarantee you that I expect to see the same faces almost every time I'm there. Now the awareness level begins to change, if I identify somebody that I feel doesn't belong if you're at your child's school or if you're at your place of business, or if you're at the local coffee shop in your town and somebody walks in that you're not familiar with, well that should be an indicator that you need to be a little bit more aware of what's going on. You don't have to engage the person but you should pay a little bit more attention than you would otherwise, or to anybody else that you are familiar with. Still very basic awareness, but it can change according to the individuals that come or go in the location. Now, the third state of awareness is the one that's really very, very important. This is what we call "Unfamiliar State". Now don't be confused. Unfamiliar doesn't mean that you're necessarily going somewhere that you're not familiar with the building or the location. That might be true, but it doesn't have to be. The unfamiliar part of it are the individuals that are coming and going as well. For example, if you're at the grocery store you're familiar with the building, you know, the aisles you know where the groceries are but you're not going to know single person that comes in and out of that door, you probably not gonna know very many of them at all. In a case like that, you should go into the store with a heightened sense of awareness, pay more attention to your belongings, bring your family a little bit closer make sure that everything in your 360 degree radius is being paid attention to. Now is it possible that constantly going through the grocery store you can pay attention to the entire area around you? Of course it's not. But when it can be very handy, is for example, if you're leaving the grocery store and you're unloading the groceries into your car. I can't tell you how many times I have gone through a parking lot and I'll see a female, typically with her back toward the parking lot completely unaware of anything that's going on behind her. That's a prime example, a very linear awareness or really not paying much attention at all. And it's a great opportunity for somebody to come up and catch her at a vulnerable moment. So when you're in an unfamiliar situation and again meaning, people that you're not familiar with. Just give it an extra minute look around, if you're unloading groceries turn your body laterally toward the vehicle. So you can keep an eye on the vehicle the groceries and the parking lot. And that's just one example. But in any situation where you're not familiar with people that are there, the people that are surrounding you it's going to be to your benefit, to walk around paying a little bit more attention than you would in the familiar state. And certainly more attention than you would pay if you were at your home and you were comfortable.
Excellent video. I know that I did this naturally, possibly because of being a therapist and working with troubled children in a group home and psychiatric hospital type settings for many years. But since I have been carrying a concealed weapon I have realized I should have been even more aware than I was all those years.
Excellent articles. Thank you
Thank you for addressing this topic. The term I use is Contextual Awareness. Simple and helps new students more quickly than trying to interpret, apply and remember Cooper's color codes.
Thank you for your advice and for looking out for the responsible citizens who choose to protect themselves. Having a concealed carry permit involves much more than just strapping on a firearm. Please continue to educate the privileged citizens who refuse to be victims.
Home awareness I strongly disagree with the comments made in regards to there being a low probability of a bad situation occurring at home. FBI statistics on aggravated assaults list the home as #1 with over ¾ of a million instances in 2013 and the majority occurred during the day.
Good info for all, just presented in a different way than the color codes or OODA.  Whatever it takes to get the info across
The same as the color codes, white,yellow, orange, red,etc. Level of awareness goes up with perceived threat level.
I'm a former non commisioned officer in the US armed forces. We have a simple, all-inclusive term for this. We call it Situational Awareness. Simply, be aware of your suroundings at all time. And never fall in complacency.
This is good advice for everyone - not just women. And, trust your instincts: it something doesn't feel right, it probably isn't right. You're not being silly, you're being safe. And, I'd rather feel foolish about be too careful than for being too careless