Situational Awareness Tips: How to Be Vigilant

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Having good situational awareness can be the difference between life and death. Knowing what’s going on in your environment is a key part of staying safe, no matter where you are. All preppers need good awareness of the surrounding area to make sure you can survive in difficult times — especially in an area that is dynamic and constantly changing. Learning situational awareness tips will help you manage a changing environment and stay safe at night, during the day, and when you are in an unfamiliar environment.

Situational Awareness: Learn to Identify Surrounding Elements

At its basic level, situational awareness involves always being aware of what is around you. You should start by taking stock of surrounding items, trees, people, and other things in your area. Notice any threats or potential threats, as well as large objects from which someone might emerge. This will help to boost your awareness to elements that are non-threatening as well. You should take stock of actions, conditions, and locations of the elements in your surrounding area. You already use many of these skills daily, so while it may sound a bit tough to manage, simply taking stock of your surroundings is an important element in the list of situational awareness tips.

Monitor Overload

Your cognitive ability declines the more things you are trying to do while you are outside. An attacker can easily take advantage of you if you are distracted, on a phone, or otherwise not paying attention to your surroundings. In addition, your cognitive overload will quickly reach capacity if you are trying to text and talk or do too many things at once.

Remain Vigilant

You should have the mindset that you are in control, vigilant of your surroundings, and always aware of what’s going on. This will help you maintain the right kind of posture to ward off attackers just through your body language and the way you carry yourself.

Tips for Women to Stay Safe at Night

Women in particular need to maintain extra caution when traveling on foot at night or simply walking around in crowded urban areas. Attackers target women as they are physically smaller and considered premium targets for a mugging, rape, or kidnapping. Women also have smaller amounts of physical strength than men, which is a major factor in boosting your attractiveness to a criminal.

For this reason, single women need to take extra care to stay safe at night. One thing you can do is to carry a tactical pen with you. Tactical pens include a flashlight which will highlight the surrounding area and alert you to anything out of the ordinary. They also usually function as weapons so that if you are attacked, you can fight off a criminal. Maintaining good situational awareness while carrying a tactical pen is a great way to make sure that you are able to actively ward off threats and stay prepared.

Prevent Fatigue

It is important to ward off fatigue to make sure you are at peak alertness and energy while traveling outside. Make sure your sleep schedule and work routine allows you to maintain maximum alertness while traveling along the road. You should get 8 or 9 hours of sleep per night. This will help keep you in the most alert state possible while outdoors walking. If you feel too fatigued to maintain good alertness, call a friend for a ride or see if you can find a companion to walk with you so you can maintain high safety levels.

Evaluate Situations

Staying situationally aware requires understanding the patterns, processes, and elements in your environment. You should always be looking around, taking stock of what you hear and see. This information should then be processed within your cerebral cortex to help you make a case as to how safe you are, and what steps yo uphold take next. This step will also help you in gaining a stronger hold on situational awareness and building a strong picture of your surroundings.

Conclusion

Situational awareness tips are important to learn for preppers and anyone who is serious about survival. Staying safe in crowded urban, rural, or forest environments can only be done when one is in the right mindset. Carrying a tactical pen, maintaining a good stock of your surrounding environment, and reducing fatigue and distractions are all important parts of maintaining situational awareness. For single women especially, being aware of what is happening around you is very important.