Chapter 44: A Totality of Awareness

Why give awareness its own chapter? Simply because it is a very complex and complicated term to explain, understand and apply toward self-protection. After exhaustive research into the writings of violence professionals and expert martial artists I came up with a collection of what I perceive as the awareness (es) that a teacher of self-protection and the practitioner of self-protection should understand in order to better apply awareness for many things including defense-protection awareness’s. If I quote someone here and have failed to give due credit, I am very sorry and would gladly edit the book if you would let me know what the quote is and your name, etc. Here is what I theorize in defining awareness:

“Awareness:if the person doesn't pay attention or doesn't recognize a problem, no skill in the world will help. They need to learn how to be watchful and what they are watching for, which will cover a lot of crime/violence patterns.”- Marc MacYoung

There are a variety of models used to describe “awareness.” This post is an attempt, by me, to provide as many models of awareness with short descriptions as I can for the martial artists and/or the self-defense student. It is very easy to learn one or two aspects of awareness and then decide that is the whole of the large topic of awareness. To do so would be a disservice to the self, to the dojo and to those who have a need for self-protection. 

In martial arts awareness is often describe in very narrow ways and it is important to know and understand that the totality of awareness, if it is to be used in combative, fighting or defensive situations, one should at least be aware of all the models.

In the martial arts they teach a limited term toward explanation of awareness, they call it, “Zanshin,” meaning the state when the mind is fully vigilant and aware of its surroundings; when the mind remains still without being attached to anything and is totally present during every moment and action in the here and now. 

As you can determine from this short descriptive terminology the martial artist that does not seek out additional knowledge on the subject may limit their ability to defend in a conflict and/or violent situation. The next grouping of terms with definitions provide a somewhat comprehensive listing of awareness subjects that should inspire further research and study toward another larger and complex concept the self-defense community uses in study, training and practices of self-defense.

Awarenessof our own body: Understanding those sub-principles of physiokinetic’s along with anatomical weapons and weaknesses - anatomy, physiology, and kinesthetic’s - your own posture, structure, movement patterns, rhythms and tendencies. (Physical Awareness?)

Awarenessof the adversary’s body: All the same things apply. Both trained through touch and sight senses to know what the body, both yours and his, is doing now but what it can and will do. Sensing actions an adversary is about to make, i.e., sensing the tells with touch/tactile and sight, such as by slight contact/tactile, by sensing shifts in balance and rotation around the spine. (Physical Awareness?)

Awarenessof the situation: To perceive and use our environment to your advantage. (Situational Awareness?)

Awarenessof the dynamics: The recognition of the pre-assault indicators so you can prevent/counter the situation. Dealing with the situation dependent on social or asocial situations, i.e., the monkey dance vs. predatorily attacks. Development of a ruthless dedication dealing with the situation in the moment as it is and not responding to imagined fears or wishful thinking. Lean about the predictability of violence. Lean how you contribute to or create the potential for violence. Know when physical skills are necessary and when they are not. (Dynamic Awareness?)

Awarenessof duty, beliefs, and your place in life: Develop your “go” buttons. Gaining an internal, deep, understanding as to what it is you are going to fight for, die for, or kill for along with what you can or cannot do. To consider your capability vs. your capacity in conflict and violence let alone in ever day life - distinguishing the differences, etc. Know the difference between learning a thing vs. actually applying a thing especially in regard to violence. You need to be aware of your capacity to do things before you have to do them. Know what must be done, give yourself permission to do what must be done and the do it. No hesitation, no wind-up/tells, no telegraphing, just act when it is time to act with being aware of what needs to be done. Decide up front, ahead of any situation, what you feel is worth fighting for, dying for, or killing for then act decisively when the line is crossed - your go button. Commit to never making half-assed decisions. In defensive situations be aware, know what needs to be done - Do IT! Train to switch from friendly/social to fighting - IN AN INSTANT. (Ideological Awareness?)

Criminal Awareness: Lean how the criminal element thinks and acts especially when it comes to how they attack. Lean the differences between criminal use of both social and asocial types of violence. Understand the criminal has more experience dealing with you, more than you have dealing with criminals. Lean to set aside your social friendly side and allow your fighting/survival/animal side rise up to deal with the criminal decisively be it through verbal or physical means as appropriate to each situation. 

Danger Awareness: Performing a personal threat assessment for yourself, your family, your home, your work place, your neighborhood and those places you go to or travel through in daily life. Lean to see when things change and what the circumstances are that cause the changes. Lean how criminals fill their different needs. Lean how criminals choose their targets and how they attack in different ways. Lean that their goal drives every aspect of the attack. Lean to analyze danger signals by telling what is social vs. asocial vs. predator resource processes. Lean to recognize the signs of adrenal flooding, i.e., such as how to tell experienced the adversary is when adrenalized. 

Environmental Awareness: Lean, know and avoid places where bad stuff happens - know the qualities, the difference between social and asocial, both are predictable. Lean about social, group and alcohol monkey stuff vs. asocial resource predator goals. For asocial predators how they use isolation to achieve goals, i.e., learn about staying in area’s where isolation is preventable and escape avenues are available and accessible. Lean to quickly and easily see the differences between safe environments and unsafe environments. Lean to read terrain. Recognize the social scripts vs. the absence of normal social cues. Lean about proxemics, orientation between humans and foot placement, i.e., normal social interactions vs. attack stances, etc. 

Mindful Awareness: Awareness is being mindful. Mindful is an inclination to be aware or having awareness. It is a certain vigilance in observing what one experiences. To have "Mindful Awareness" one is to be aware of awareness. This implies that one is aware of self and has a capacity to reflect. This experience is not limited to conflict of fighting yet it must be taught and practiced by individuals so they remain aware of all the present moment experiences that may or may not include any form of conflict. Remain aware of the self to control our actions and reactions as we experience life and what it offers us at each and every unique moment, not past or future but the now of the moment as fleeting as it is or may be. 

Self Awareness: Becoming conscious of one’s own character, personality, feelings, motives, and desires. Creating a capacity for self-perception thus becoming self-conscious. It is becoming a person with the ability and capacity for introspection. To recognize oneself but most important to achieve a level of emotional intelligence so as to recognize one’s feelings and emotions with emphasis on emotions.

The result is a knowledge and intelligence toward over very feelings. Feelings that govern our thoughts and reactions. To know if our thoughts and emotions are ruling a decision rather than the human mind, i.e. the monkey is driving the bus. It is about seeing deep within so that one can see the consequences of allowing the monkey to dance so that alternative human mind choices can be made and then apply them to create decisions about handling such things as conflict, anger and violence, etc. 

Self-awareness is about recognizing and acknowledging both strengths and weaknesses; seeing within yourself a self that is positive and realistic so as to avoid the more common pitfalls that come from the effects of allowing the monkey free reign in conflicts. 

Managing the monkey means managing your emotions and to do that you have to have that emotional intelligence so as to identify, name and address such emotional effects. You need to realize what is behind such emotions such as when some perceived hurt triggers anger when that hurt is more emotional than actual or real.

SA is about taking responsibility for the self, i.e. the human, the monkey and the lizard, so all your decisions and actions are right, correct and acceptable to society as a whole. 

It is about the ability to see reality so that you can distinguish between what someone says or does so that your own judgment and reaction is appropriate to the situation at any given moment. It is about being assertive over being angry or fearful. It is about creating the ability to provide conflict resolutions to yourself and thereby to others as conflicts arise. 

Look at it as Aristotle did so long ago, it is about developing a higher level of emotional intelligence or as he said, “Emotional Skillfulness.”

Situational Awareness: Having the ability to read the environment and the process of accurately assessing particular situations within an environment. Primarily to monitor when things are normal for that environment and therefore safe.

“A cumulative alertness to threat and the environment. Enabling you to notice pre-incident indicators, odd movements or anomalies given the situation. Cumulatively, pre-incident indicators create a visual unlikely circumstance consistent with either a contrived situation or predatorial behavior." - Kelly McCann

"Awareness without knowledge is paranoia." ~ Marc MacYoung

If you don't know what normal is for a situation, there is no way you can tell when something is abnormal, much less dangerous. Situational awareness is more than just receiving information (looking around and being 'aware'). It's having a working knowledge to process that incoming data, shift through, file and pick out anomalies -- especially ones commonly associated with trouble, unacceptable behavior and danger.

Situational awareness, but one of it's foundations, environmental knowledge. What is environmental knowledge (EK)? Well, it's kind of like a blend between cultural anthropology, psychology, data collection and reading. But most of all it's knowing that you can know this stuff and apply it.

Anywhere you go, there are certain elements that must be addressed when humans live together. Knowing that is the first step in understanding EK.

Among the many issues that must be worked out among the locals is acceptable distances between different people, personal space and tone of voice appropriate to the situation. These change according to the relationship and the task. There are also scripted behaviors and patterns on how you 'handle' different situations.

When you deal with the person there are differences in attitudes, values and beliefs. What are they? That is environmental knowledge. You cannot assume every one of the same skin colors thinks and behaves the same way.

What are the cultural norms? What are the socio-economic differences between places? What behavior is acceptable among the locals and for that situation?

Why? How can you tell when something is abnormal, if you can't identify what is normal? Without the baseline of environmental knowledge, your situational awareness is meaningless.

The people, the places, what they do and the time they do them, that's environmental knowledge. Fictional or not, that's a good starting point.

“You're smart, so if you don't understand something, it's not because you're incapable. It's because you're missing information. You need to start asking questions to fill in that missing information instead of making assumptions about what fills in the gap.”~ Marc MacYoung

Kind of hard to have situational awareness without having a clue about what the components are. What the process is. How you apply it. What are you looking for and why? Most of all, what's involved in developing it?

“ … start working at replacing your assumptions with verifiable knowledge of the environment.”~ Marc MacYoung

SSgt Grizzly Bear has a saying, "Ignorance is not a sustainable paradigm in violence professions."

Self Defense - It is a legal standard your behavior must meet given the circumstances and the level of danger.

Someone asks me to teach them situational awareness I can immediately rattle off three questions

1) For what kind of environment?

2) For what kind of circumstances?

3) How deep do you want to go?

The answers to those three questions will determine the details and the depth of situational awareness. Three, the triad toward SA, is environmental knowledge, rule knowledge, and domain knowledge as explained:

1. Environmental Knowledge (EK) is understanding the general makeup of a location/area/place/environment. For example, what the people do, when they do it, who they do it with, why they do it, where they do it, and how they do it. Having EK means you see the environment, as it truly exists, not as how you believe it to be. EK requires understanding basic human nature as well as social norms and cultural motivations. And how these desires and attitudes affect the inhabitant’s rules and behaviors. (See Marc MacYoung for the original deeper description of this concept) 

2. Rule Knowledge (RK) is understanding “how things work” in the specified Environment. The Environment creates the Rules. All human societies, groups, organizations, tribes, families, etc have some form of Rules of Behavior. These rules are specific to the Environment, but underlying them are universal principles and concepts (that are not so hard to understand). It is not enough to know the environment, you also need to know how the rules guide behaviors, allow people to function/work, and to reward and punish behaviors. You need to know who implements/enforces the rules, what are the rules, how the rules are communicated, how the rules are enforced, how compliance/respect for the rules is shown. Understanding the “rules” of criminal behavior is essential to RK. 

3. Domain Knowledge (DK) is having the knowledge and skills to deal with/operate in the specific Environment and to be capable of protecting yourself and others (within reason). It is here that understanding criminal behavior is critical. A major portion of DK is having both EK and RK. It takes EK to derive RK. It takes RK to develop the competency of DK. DK is what most people think of as “how to do self-defense”. What they don’t “see” is the underlying knowledge of when to do something, what to do, why to do it, where to do it, and against whom, or not against whom, and when it works, when it doesn’t, and what to do next.

Situation awareness is the perception of environmental elements with respect to time and/or space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their status after some variable has changed, such as time, or some other variable, such as a predetermined event.

Situation awareness (SA) involves being aware of what is happening in the vicinity, in order to understand how information, events, and one's own actions will impact goals and objectives, both immediately and in the near future. One with an adept sense of situation awareness generally has a high degree of knowledge with respect to inputs and outputs of a system, i.e. an innate "feel" for situations, people, and events that play out due to variables the subject can control.

AND

The ability to see problems looming on the horizon. It is about “being aware,” but the important part of this formula is, “aware of what?” If you are not savvy and know what to be aware of then your situational awareness is just another sound bite and you are going to pay the price for that one. 

What you need to know for a fundamentally sound ability of “situational awareness” can be found, at least as a start, in the book titled, “In The Name of Self-Defense,” by Marc MacYoung. Marc states in the book concerning SA, “Awareness without knowledge is paranoia.” 

An important statement he goes on to provide is, “In our modern world, personal safety is as much about quality of life as it is about self-defense. How do you synch being safe with the rest of your life - without becoming a paranoid survivalist nutcase?” One final note regarding that knowledge, it must be “accurate knowledge.” 

SI is about scaling it up or down according to your location and situation. Think of it as a muscle. Like any muscle you need to exercise it by tightening and relaxing it, called a work out. The purpose here is not about the exercise. It is so you can do other things with those stronger muscles. You build endurance so you can last longer. You use SI so you know when it is safe to relax or when to buy yourself “time” when you need to shift mental gears. Mr. MacYoung provides an exercise or practice that will strengthen your SI muscle, i.e. it is about using both the negative and positive. When you are relaxing that muscle, i.e. exercising it but without the negative drain, you become aware of something beautiful, cool, interesting, or something similar. This positive use of SI counter balances the negative you need when you “need it.” Learn to apply SA to all situations and circumstances. Not focusing on the negative or the bad is the counter to burning out trying to be tactically aware of danger all the time. 

As can be seen here this information is not considered complete nor comprehensive but does present some of the complexities that can lead to misunderstanding when training martial arts especially for self-defense (even combative’s and fighting). 

One last form of awareness is as follows (although this explanation may belong under other categories of awareness I split it apart because of, my perception, its level of importance.):

Comparative Awareness: A full awareness of the distinctions between such categories of conflict and violence such as between the sports oriented, combative oriented, fighting oriented applications of the psychological and physical methodologies. The ability to distinguish between the different disciplines so that confusion, misunderstandings and misconceptions don’t hinder the application of any or all of said disciplines. There shall be an emphasis toward self-defense because the majority of martial arts in today’s modern society must deal with the social impediments governing the use of conflict and violence to resolve conflict and violence. 

In the end, any martial artist who studies, trains and practices this discipline must embrace the full spectrum of the system studied because not have a totality of awareness of such principles leaves holes an adversary can drive a fist or foot though.