Came across this post about Situational Awareness on Stratfor.
If the examples given in the article help you understand the concept better, or allow you to explain them to loved ones, it is well worth the re-posting.
Self-protection is not just fists, feet and conditioning the body. Mindset plays a very important part.
As an added benefit, if you are more aware, you will discover more wonderful things about the world around that you may have been missing.
