Your Personal Space

All of you have a natural sense of the space (distance) that you keep between yourselves called your personal space; your invisible circles. Your ‘safe’ perimeter. Your personal boundaries.

Particularly when you are among strangers, your situational awareness is at work (even unknowingly) while you constantly gauge and adjust your distance between yourself and others – while standing, while walking, and even while driving. This is a survival instinct that has been honed over approximately 70,000 years, so lets listen to it!

Here’s what you need to watch out for…

Next time that you get into an elevator with others, pay attention to what happens. Everyone mostly re-shuffles themselves to be furthest away from each-other or to ‘balance out’ the invisible circles between everyone so they are somewhat evenly distributed. It's natural and happens automatically without most people knowing that it is even happening.

Here’s the thing – what if you were the only one in the elevator when another person steps in and proceeds to ‘invade’ your personal space while standing awkwardly close to you? Even though this person is doing nothing wrong, it would ‘feel’ weird and uncomfortable to you, right? Your natural reaction will probably be to move further away to a more comfortable distance – whatever that is for you.

This is true anywhere. Whether you’re walking along or simply standing somewhere. If someone gets ‘too close’ and comes into your invisible circle, it suddenly gets uncomfortable.

When this happens (someone invading your personal space), there are a few additional things you might consider getting into the habit of doing.

1. Observe if that person is projecting aggressive body language. Do they seem ‘normal’?

2. Is the person talking (to you, someone else, or them-self) in any verbally aggressive tone?

3. Look at the person’s hands. Is there a weapon (hidden or otherwise)?

The simple point here regarding situational awareness during an invasion of your personal space (your invisible circles) is to go a step beyond simply ‘noticing’ and shifting your position. Train yourself to also observe the ‘invader’ and size up the situation as being a false alarm or a possible threat. This is not being paranoid, this is being safety aware.