Improve Your Situational Awareness Skills

How to Improve Your Awareness of Your Surroundings

Don’t beat yourself up if you realize that you have been lacking situational awareness for years. This is something that was probably only briefly mentioned to you a few times by your parents when you were a teenager, but it’s not a skill that is drilled into our heads in school.

Luckily, this is a skill that you can cultivate on your own, so let’s look at some of the various things you can do to help you and your family learn it…

While you may think situational awareness is all based on eyesight or sound, it’s much deeper than that. It is a brain-based capability where you have to use your cognitive assessment to quickly scan and analyze the scene unfolding in front of you and make a determination of how you should proceed.

Yes, your senses will take in the information, but it’s your brain and your emotional intelligence that will process the information and help you make a decision that is not only rooted in facts, but also your intuition.

You have to understand certain techniques to help you learn how to observe better. This is something you can practice when out in public. Focus on specific details about the location and people you’re around, both up close and farther away.

Practice listening in on conversations and making a mental note of behaviors and emotions other people are exhibiting. Are they agitated? Nervous? Angry or happy? You can do the same with animals to determine if they’re docile or in predator mode.

As you observe, make a mental map of your surroundings. Pay attention to major things like buildings or landmarks, but also exits and pathways. Anytime you are in an unfamiliar location, the first thing you want to do is make note of your surroundings.

Another thing that will be helpful is to practice spotting any type of patterns. This might be something to do with crowd behavior, for example. If you are at a fun event, pay attention to the normal flow of the crowd so that you’ll know which escape path is going to be less busy in the event of an emergency.

Cooper Color Code of Awareness

You can also learn the Cooper Color Code System, where you start categorizing different levels of alertness. This is something you can share with your loved ones so that they know what level they need to be on in different situations.

They should never be in a white code, where they are fully unaware or tuned out of what’s going on. Instead, you want them to be in a yellow zone where they are relaxed but aware of everything taking place.

This can also be escalated into an orange, red, or black code if something were to arise. With an orange code, they are aware of potential threats and ready to act if necessary. A red code has them taking action on high alert and actively engaged to respond.

You also don’t want them at the other end of the spectrum, which is a black code where they are fully frozen or panicked and in a state of shock because they are caught off guard and cannot respond mentally or physically to the threat.

Situationally Awareness Tools

There are some instinctive and technology based tools you can use to help you with learning how to be more situationally aware. Technology is fine, and can be very helpful, but it may not always be available to you.

You want to practice with and without it. The type of technology that can come in handy might include radio gadgets where you can communicate with others, GPS devices that can help you navigate away from any type of danger, and even things like night vision goggles that help you in situations where your visual sense is compromised.

It’s important that you practice being situationally aware without technology, too. This might mean simply observing your surroundings and making note of landmarks or natural water formations.

It can also include keeping track of where the sun is rising and setting or is located during the day. You can even use the stars at night for navigational directions. Make sure that if you are using technology, such as a GPS device, that you also have a backup gadget like a compass or map to help you navigate a situation in the event that your technology fails.