I. Is For IDENTIFY

Do you know exactly Where to look, When to look, or What you’re even looking for when it comes to violent crime precursors?

We hear people say this all the time, “You need to be aware of your surroundings,” “Situational awareness is key,” or my personal favorite, “Keep your head on a swivel!”- Geesh, that makes being aware of your surroundings sound horrible!

I don’t want to spend my day cranking my neck and being anxiety-riddled. Who does?!

So what does it mean to be situationally aware so that we can live greater presence in the finer moments of life, and have true safety in the process?

It means knowing specifically Where to look, When to look, and to know, What it is we are looking for!

We do this through what we call the “5s and 25s,” and “The Southern Cross Safety Formula.”

To summarize them, remember this…

If you can hit someone with a stone, then you should be off of your cell phone and looking them in the face and eyes as you pass them by, and that by keeping Distance, you are creating Time for you to react more effectively, and that subsequently means you are going to be Safer…

and Always keep a minimum of 1.5x arms distance away from someone who is making you uncomfortable.

Preferably more, because the more distance you have from a Potentially Harmful Person, then the safer you will always be.

NEUTRALIZE/ NAVIGATE

Our brain has two main jobs. That’s it!

Is to conserve energy– this is where our subconscious mind also comes into focus because our brain burns more calories than any other part of our body, per gram of weight. when our brain puts information, or habits into our subconscious, it burns fewer calories because it is on “auto-pilot.”

Keep us alive and safe from harm- so anything that is likely to cause us harm or death is something we naturally want to avoid.

Why is this important to know for Neutralizing or Navigating unwanted interactions?

Because our brain’s only two jobs are programmed in the most primitive and automatically thinking part of our brain, the Basal Ganglia, the Basal Ganglia is the first area of our brain that receives information, not the neo-cortex or “logical” thinking part of our brain. In fact, “logical” part of the brain is what receives information, last!

So if we want to Neutralize unwanted interactions, we must resonate with the most primitive parts of criminals’ brains, the Basal Ganglia.

When we look people in the face and eyes as we pass them by we do several things that resonate with the Basal Ganglia.

• We take away their element of surprise.

• We humanize ourselves.

• We gain the ability to Identify from further away.

All 3 of these signal to a criminal’s mind that, “Because this person sees me, this target will require energy and is more likely to fight back since they will see me moving in to attack them.”

Since this will now require the use of extra energy and is likely to cause degradation to the quality of their life, either from being arrested, shot, or killed, then their Basal Ganglia will tell them not to attack you, and to wait for the next unsuspecting victim right around the corner.

However, what if the methods talked about here don’t happen to work? Life is dynamic after all, and sometimes things, people, and situations are just not that simple.

That is where we just know how to properly Navigate this interaction.

Navigation of unwanted encounters requires something called Mind/ Body Harmony. Its the alignment of you thoughts, actions, and sounds to create a vibrational frequency of belief.

We all know someone who is trying to act tough, or in control of a situation, yet the reality is that we can clearly see they are not comfortable or in control of anything. They overcompensate in various ways and seem to lack emotional intelligence, meaning they get emotionally aroused, or “hijacked” at various things thrown at them.

This is what we want to avoid… Lacking in Mind/ Body Harmony disempowers us, and empowers the person we do not want to engage with.

So, how do we create Mind/ Body Harmony? I like to tell people, Be the rabbit, and the chimp.”

MAKE IT BE KNOWN

Often times we find ourselves questioning our feelings and observations.

“Is this guy really doing this… or am I just being a little too sensitive and paranoid?”

So how do we know?

If it turns out this guy really IS doing what we think he is, then what do we do?

This is where we are Making It Be Known.

We are making known two things here.

• This person’s intentions

• Your intentions and desires as a human being

This can be the most frightening point of keeping ourselves safe from violent people… but that’s because it is the most crucial.

We want to believe other people are as good as us, but the reality is sometimes they’re not… the reasons why are important, but not here for this purpose. They are trying to possibly hurt us. We need to know whether or not this is true… and that is fearful!

Being confronted with someone who is intentionally trying to inflict harm on us, in fact, is the most frightening thing we as humans can endure! Think back to the Basal Ganglia and the brain’s only two jobs. This is one of them!

In order for the brain to carry out its goal of keeping us safe as best as possible, it has to initiate the fight or flight sympathetic nervous system response! This is where we lose control of our bodily actions.

So it’s totally natural to be scared at this moment, but what we need to focus on is how to remain calm and apply a couple of simple strategies to know whether or not this person is being harmful.

The other thing we want to consider is that we don’t want to disrupt our entire day off of a hunch!

So, how do we confirm or deny whether this person does intend to be harmful before they harm us, and what do we do about it!?

EGRESS/ ESCAPE (E&E)

Egress is the successful detachment of engagement from an unwanted encounter by using successful Neutralization techniques.

Escaping is having to use a Personal Safety Tool against a person who we thought was going to harm us.

Having clear exit strategy options throughout our day gives us simple and effective contingencies in case something does go wrong.

We don’t have to constantly “keep our head on a swivel” but instead just know where the local police stations, fire houses, or even corporate buildings with security guards are located along our daily routes.

These are Identified throughout our day by using “Reference Points.”

Reference Points are hardened physical structures that we can use to know there are safety resources nearby.

For example, the Dairy Queen on 8th street is one block over from the Police Station. The fact that we know this lets us know in times of crisis, if need be, we have a resource readily available to us, nearby.

Think of these Reference Points, like the Dairy Queen on 8th street, as Emergency Exit Signs, but instead of in a building, they’re out amongst our daily routines!