Using Your Intuition & Situational Awareness Saves Lives – For centuries the term “Women’s Intuition” has been used to describe the natural ability of women to foresee future events or discern information about a person instantaneously. Remember the first time you introduced your date to Mom?
Are women more “intuitive” than men? Not necessarily, but intuition is an emotional skill and traditionally women are better at accepting and processing emotions, while men have been taught to suppress emotions. However, when the term intuition is changed to “instinct,” suddenly this ability becomes quite manly. Tough guy characters portrayed by actors like Harrison Ford, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and Chris Pratt operate on instinct.
“Situational Awareness,” is perceiving what is happening around you in all directions at any given moment. This skill is used by first responders, and military personnel no matter their gender, to make snap judgments in emergency situations. Combining intuition with situational awareness is a powerful tool which can save lives.
This is a two-step process anyone can develop:
First: Trust your intuition/gut instinct about a person, place or situation. This involves the immediate sensation you receive and has nothing to do with prejudice or preconceived notions about someone or their appearance. The more you practice, you’ll understand the difference.
Second: Situational Awareness. Put down the cell phone, observe your surroundings in all directions. In a building, scan the room and the people there and locate all exits. If you’re the custodian of someone, like a child or senior, know where that person is every second. Eventually you’ll discover combining intuition and situational awareness is not just an observational skill, but when put into action can save lives.
My Business Manager Rocky naturally combines intuition and situational awareness and knows it is more than just an observational skill. Rocky works closely with me and accompanies me on my speaking tours including the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) National Conference in Salt Lake City.
After the conference, we decided to visit a national park for a picnic lunch.
But something odd happened. The GPS on both our phones continually directed us to a suburban public park instead. My psychic sense indicated this was no technological anomaly.
“Rocky, I feel we’re supposed to be here.” “
I do too she said, so let’s enjoy our lunch,” she said and pointed to a picnic table shaded by some trees.
The beautiful community park was over twice the size of a football field with picnic areas, trees, baseball and soccer fields, and a playground area with sprinklers where children were playing and running through the water.
Our picnic table was near the parking lot about 150 feet from the public restrooms. They looked like the typical cinder block structure public restrooms you’d find in a park anywhere in the world. However, the restrooms’ entrance faced the parking lot instead of the playground area which was a good 200 feet away. So, if you were at the playground, you wouldn’t be able to see the entrance to the restrooms. Given the location of the cinder block structure and the obscured view from the playground, the restrooms may have been public, but their entrance was quite isolated.
As we were eating lunch, a van pulled up and parked near the restrooms. Its sole occupant was a middle-aged male.
Suddenly, a little girl, maybe four-years old came around the corner to the front of the restrooms. She was wet and wearing a bathing suit with a ballet tutu. She looked like she’d just been playing with other kids in the sprinklers. She was dancing and twirling in a puddle of water which was in front of the restrooms.
“Something’s wrong,” Rocky whispered. My solar plexus tightened, like Rocky I felt something was seriously wrong here.
We both scanned the area and zeroed in on the man parked in the van who was staring at the little girl. Then he quietly emerged from the van and headed toward her. His movements were stealthy and deliberate like a predator stalking its prey.
Rocky sprang into action and sprinted toward the restrooms. I followed in hot pursuit. Rocky came to a halt and positioned herself between the man and the little girl. Rocky is petite and children aren’t threatened by her. She asked gently, “Do you know this man?”
The little girl shook her head and said, “no, I don’t.”
Rocky may be petite, but I’m over 6-foot tall and when the man saw me his face filled with rage, he turned and ran to his van and sped off before I could pull my cell phone from my pocket to snap a photo of his license plate.
Rocky asked the girl, “Where is your mommy?” S
he replied, “At home”
“Who has taken you to this park?”
“My nana.”
“Where’s your nana?” Rocky asked. The girl walked to the back of the restrooms and pointed to a woman about 200 feet away sitting on a bench next to the playground area. From where “nana” was sitting, there was no way she ever could have seen what was happening at the restroom entrance or inside of them.
Rocky said, “Will you walk with me to see your nana?”
We approached a woman about sixty-years old who was seated on bench and reading a book. Even our approach didn’t cause her to look up until Rocky said, “Excuse me—are you with this little girl?”
“Yes, I’m her grandmother, why?” nana looked concerned.
Rocky explained what had just happened. Nana stared horrified as the realization of what might have happened sank in. She hugged her little granddaughter and burst into tears. “Thank you so much, I’ll never take my eyes off her again—thank you.”
While most people are good natured, many are not. The reality is that predators exist. I served as a prosecuting attorney and I’ve seen the horrors of what can happen when a child is not supervised or protected.
Synchronicity is a chain of events which leads you to a certain place at a certain time. I believe Rocky and I were supposed to be there that day. Why did both our GPS keep directing us to that spot? Why did we choose a picnic table within view of the restroom entrance which was obscured to everyone else in the park that day?
Perhaps that man didn’t have nefarious intent, then again why was he lurking in an isolated spot near public restrooms? When Rocky and I approached, why did he suddenly flee? On the other hand, we may have intervened, but he got away unidentified. Where did he go? What will he do next?
While we may not be able to change the world, we can change how we react to it, and this begins with the simple two-step process of combining intuition and situational awareness.
If you were in that situation, who would you rather be, Nana or Rocky?
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