Scan with a Plan arose from teaching hundreds of self defense classes over a 16 year period, and helps teach us how to be more aware. Here is a classic example:
When you go outside during the day or at night do you take the time to look around and assess your surroundings before you jump into your daily routine?
Be honest.
I can't tell y
ou how many girls I see leaving a store or their homes or even on a walk and they are texting or listing to their ipod. It happens ALL the time. That is never safe. Let me say that again... IT IS NEVER SAFE.Now there is a difference between being paranoid and Polly Anna. There is no need to walk around feeling scared, but there is a need to walk around being aware. So how exactly do you do that?
Well... here are some great tips:
1. When you go outside take your surroundings in "pie clicks". When you scan your surroundings you should be taking a slice of the environment and then moving to the next small slice. If you just go outside and look left to right and glance around, the only thing you'll notice is a BIG ELEPHANT! It's next to impossible to detect something subtle this way. So take your environment in pie clicks or slices. When analyzing your first slice start from left to right and then within that slice look high, look low, look near and look far. Then move on to the next slice. Once you've gone completely from left to right, start over again.
2. Look for things that don't belong. It sounds simple, but its not. It's a learned skill. For example, an attacker isn't most likely going to be standing outside with a big flashing sign that says I'm coming to attack you.... right? So why would we classify what we look for in that way? Instead of JUST looking for "full" people, we search in body parts as well. A sly attacker will try to hide himself (perhaps you'll see a shoe behind a tire, or a shadow, or a finger etc.) so be on the look out for the little stuff too!
3. Listen to your 2nd Brain! Yep you heard right... you have 2 brains! One that is very old and one that is fairly new. One is INSTINCT and the other is our ability to rationalize, communicate, educate and think. Your older brain feels more like a built in alarm system and IS NOT RATIONAL! For example: Have you ever felt the hair on the back of your neck stand up? Or felt your palms start to sweat? Or even felt nervous knots in your belly? That is your 2nd brain talking! When you are in an environment where you do not feel 100% safe, listen to this 2nd brain... ALWAYS, because we have a nasty habit of letting our cognitive brain talk us out of feeling the warning signs our instinct sends.
So when you feel your 2nd brain alarm blaring... what do you do? remove yourself IMMEDIATELY from the situation no matter what, even if you have to run... no negotiating and no rationalizing.
When we interview women who are attacked, 99% of them felt their 2nd Brain alarm go off, and they didn't listen to it.
You can find more information in the GirlSpire workbook, and the full program covers safety more in depth.
