Most of us have heard the same personal safety advice at some point.
“Trust your gut.”
I say it too.
If something feels wrong, I want you to pay attention to that feeling.
But your gut can only work with what your brain is picking up in the first place.
And most of us are probably paying far less attention to what is happening around us than we think we are.
We walk to the car thinking about what we need to do when we get home. We leave the office replying to a message. We stop at the petrol station while mentally running through tomorrow’s to-do list. We go for a run thinking about work, the kids, dinner or the meeting we need to prepare for.
Our eyes are open, but our attention can be somewhere else entirely.
That means we may not register that someone has been standing nearby for quite a while, that a vehicle has taken the same few turns we have, or that somebody seems far more interested in what we are doing than the situation calls for.
So when we tell people to “trust your gut,” there is a piece missing.
We also need to give our gut something to work with.
What is your gut actually picking up?
Your brain is constantly looking for patterns.
It learns what is normal in different environments. It becomes familiar with how people generally behave, what you normally see on a particular route and what you would expect to be happening around you.
When something falls outside that pattern, your brain can sometimes register it before you consciously work out what caught your attention.
That is why you can suddenly feel uneasy without being able to explain why.
You may not consciously have thought, “That person has changed direction twice when I have.”
You may simply have a feeling that something is off.
Then you look again and start to see what your brain may have picked up in the background.
The important part is that your brain needs information before any of that can happen.
You do not need to walk around monitoring every person, car and doorway. Nobody can sustain that.
But if you are completely absorbed in your phone or lost in your own thoughts, you can miss information that might otherwise have caught your attention.
You need to be present enough for your brain to register what is happening around you.
Then, if you get that uncomfortable feeling, give it your attention.
Look around properly.
Has anything changed?
Is somebody paying more attention to you than would make sense in that situation?
Has someone changed direction when you did?
Is somebody getting closer without an obvious reason?
Does their behaviour make sense for where you are and what is happening around you?
You might work out exactly what bothered you.
You might not.
You can still make a safer decision.
You do not need proof before you move
A Cape Town student who had attended my self-defence training experienced this while she was out jogging one evening.
The light was starting to fade.
She noticed two men some distance away and felt they seemed to be paying attention to her.
She kept running, but she also kept an eye on what was happening.
A little further on, she noticed another two men on the opposite side who appeared to be moving towards her.
She wondered whether the two groups might be connected.
She had absolutely no way of knowing.
She also did not need to stay there and find out.
She changed direction and ran somewhere she felt safer.
We will never know whether any of those men posed a threat to her.
What matters is that she noticed something, continued paying attention and made a decision when she became uncomfortable with what she was seeing.
This is where people often get stuck.
They feel uncomfortable and immediately start talking themselves out of it.
“Maybe I’m imagining it.”
“I don’t want to be rude.”
“I’m probably overreacting.”
“It’s probably completely innocent.”
Maybe it is.
You can still cross the road or go back into the shop instead of walking towards your car.
You can move towards other people, change direction, phone someone or leave.
You are not accusing anyone of anything by doing that.
You are giving yourself more space while you work out what is going on.
I would rather somebody move unnecessarily than stay because they thought they needed proof that the situation was dangerous.
Self-defense starts much earlier than most people think
When people hear “self-defense,” they often picture the physical part.
Someone grabs you and now you need to know how to get away.
Physical skills are important. I teach them.
But I also want people to have as many opportunities as possible to avoid reaching that point.
The student in Cape Town did not know whether she was in danger. She changed direction anyway.
Someone who suspects they are being followed does not have to drive home to confirm it.
Someone who notices a person repeatedly ignoring their boundaries does not have to wait for the behaviour to get worse.
Sometimes the safest outcome is very uneventful.
You noticed something, made a decision, went somewhere else and never found out whether you were right.
That is okay.
You do not need to correctly identify a threat before you are allowed to make a safer choice.
You just need to notice enough, early enough, to still have choices.
That is a big part of what I teach in my Threat Recognition & Personal Safety workshop.
The 60-minute session helps people understand how attention, intuition and pattern recognition work together, how to recognise behaviour that may deserve more attention, and what they can do before a situation becomes harder to manage.
It is available online for teams across South Africa and internationally, and in person for organisations, conferences and workplace Wellness Days.
If you are responsible for your team’s safety or wellbeing and would like them to have more to rely on than “trust your gut,” contact Ann on ann@flagacademy.co.za or 078 458 5338 for the session details.
In your corner
Ann
A
nn du Plessis is a human safety specialist and the founder of FLAG Academy. She works with organisations, schools and individuals to build practical skills for physical, emotional and psychological safety.
A large part of her work focuses on personal safety, threat recognition and self-defense. She helps people understand how to notice early warning signs, recognise concerning behaviour, respond to changes in their environment and make safer decisions before a situation becomes harder to manage.
Through FLAG Academy, Ann delivers Threat Recognition & Personal Safety workshops, practical self-defense training, GBV prevention programmes, anti-bullying workshops and psychological safety training.
Her approach to personal safety goes beyond teaching people how to respond once something becomes physical. She focuses heavily on prevention, awareness, pattern recognition, boundaries and the decisions people can make earlier, while they still have more options available to them.
Ann holds a black belt in Goju Ryu Karate and has a background in trauma-informed coaching. Her work combines practical safety skills, human behaviour and lived experience to help people feel more confident recognising risk and knowing what to do when something does not feel right.