What is the Colour Codes of Awareness?

The colour codes of awareness might seem like common sense for many people. For many self defence systems, they sweep awareness under the carpet as if to say, it's something you should just know. In the same way, many self defence programmes do not acknowledge there is a difference between self defences for women and men when evidently there is. For example, 98% of all violent attacks towards women are committed by a male who they know, versus 50% male to male violent attacks.

Self defence needs a rethink, a new look and modernised.

Heightened levels of awareness can only really work when we are emotionally disconnected from the person or persons we are under fret from. We have to think critically, and being emotionally connected with s fret conflicts with how we interpret what's happening before our own eyes.

This starts to point towards the greys of self defence

we will be doing a blog on this soon

So then, why do we need to identify the different levels of awareness?

When we are talking about awareness, we are talking about the build-up phase and not the event itself.

Just knowing the states of awareness will start to alter the way of which you may see a situation unfold, and knowing the following colour codes can help you formulate strategies to keep you, your friends and your family safer.

When people say things like, awareness is commonsense, it starts to look like a means of people undermining the above statement and the importance of having a strategy thats a little more comprehensive than just kicking someone in the bits and running away

Check out this blog on

7 Common Women’s Self Defence Myths & Women's Self-Protection Tips for Brighton and Hove

The colour codes of awareness can helps you identify levels of awareness and determines when you may be most at risk, and it can also help you formulate a strategy for just in case moments.

below will list the colour codes and offer tips to strategies for each level

The colour codes of awareness are consist of 5 levels

White
Yellow
Organs
Red
Black

So let's get to it!!

White

White is when we feel the safest, relaxed, and we are recharging. We are often in this state when we are at home, sunbathing, on holiday, simply in the scroll hole on Instagram or reading a good book in the park. Baicial in our own heads focused on one thing within our closes proximity and in a relaxed state.

Perceived risk

Low

We wouldn’t want to meditate, sunbathe or try to relax unless we felt safe. To be in this zone, it usually requires solitude, peace and familiarity.

Level of Risk

High

The level of risk is high. It's up there with being in the think of the action, the difference being is we would be unsuspecting. The possibility of being caught off guard is at its highest

Strategy

Having some sort of warning system to alert you in the event of someone approaching you in a relaxed state, such as a dog or alarms. You can get all sorts of apps and portable arm trigger devices for hotel rooms or hostels.

Yellow

Yellow is when we are chilled but doing something. Maybe we are walking down the road we know well, daydreaming, listening to music or driving the same route to work. Perhaps we are chilling with friends/partner or even in public reading a book in the park etc.

Perceived risk

Low

When walking around daydreaming, we are not present, a good example of this is the number of people walking along the seafront, and without looking step out into the cycle line or road etc. It's when we are on autopilot.

Level of Risk

High

The emphasis here is being in your own head. It can lead to issues such as walking out in front of a cyclist or moving a car. You may not know, but it is pretty easy to identify an individual in this zone, making anyone in this zone an easy target from strangers and people in your social groups.

Strategy

Similar to the white, utilising warning devices or being mindful of your current location would be a good starting point. however, the flipside of this is that over 98% of violent crimes against women are by someone you know

Learning self-defence can teach you how to control the process that someone might go through to filter out potential victims. This is where most self-defence systems fail. Learning how to manage 'friends' at different points of your relationship and the surroundings can end controlling or dominating behaviour before it starts. We talk about this in much more detail in your programme

Orange

You're now walking down a road you don't know. or you are in a busy bar with your friends (you're not drinking)at this point ;)

There's stuff going on around you that makes your attention flutter between conversations and people coming and going.

Perceived risk

Moderate to high

We perceived being out and around friends as moderate levels of risk, it's only outside or are groups do we start to perceive higher levels of risk

Level of Risk

Moderate

The level of risk in this zone is low to moderate, purely because you are more aware of unusual or aggressive behaviour. Your more receptive and able to react accordingly.

Strategy

In this stage, your senses are tuned in to what's going on around you, for someone to do something, they would have to be quick and possibly use distraction tactics. The likelihood is it would have to be someone within your trust group. The same strategy as yellow would be needed, plus the ability to maintaining and control spaces in case of personal harm.

Most people implement strategies like:
Staying in pairs
If I lose you, I'll meet you here
Buddy systems and sign language to communicate

However, none of there's strategies addresses the males within their groups. They only address strangers.

Red

Something has happened, someone has approached you, there's a loud bang, a fight has started, someone is following you, someone has started to raise their voice or become aggressive, or we are walking on our own down a dark road, and there's a group of boys up ahead.

It's possibly the moment before your adrenal response starts to kick in. The moment we start to think of a plan (if we have one), such as crossing the road and getting out the way or being ready to react.

Perceived risk

High

This is the moment something is happening. Whatever the situation is its beginning to unfold, and depending on the speed or its fruition, other triggers. At this point, it's fight or flight, it might be a few moments away, or it could be happening right now. It often takes people a few minutes to realise there potentially in danger. You may not have realised at this point. These moments can happen so quickly and fluently that it almost gives us no time to react.

Level of Risk

High

The level of risk is high. Your plan (if you have one) is what's going to determine the next few moments. It's time to be thinking about how you're going to get yourself/friends/family to safety.

Strategy

As mentioned above, things can happen so quickly. Someone can go from being in your space to grabbing you and throwing you to the floor. If you didn't already have a plan at this point, you are reliant on spontaneity or someone to step in to get you out.

Some of the typical things that people do in red

Come compliant. Some assailants (friend or foe) will create socially awkward situations to promote an outcome
People start to look at their phones, attempting to withdraw from the surroundings
Put on our earphones and drown out the noise
Ring someone or pretend to ring someone

The last 3 were all disconnecting from the environment. Bring your awareness levels back down the colour ladder within minutes.

Black

This is the action taking phase and putting your plan to action.

Based on one of the adrenal responses of freeze, flight, or fight, your 'plan' will start to unfold. In the black zone, your levels of awareness tend to be based on your adrenal response with can create more problems. There be a blog on this very soon. But for now, things like tunnel vision, auditory distortion and adrenaline dumping (the shakes) etc. can all create additional problems.

Having a strategy is a huge advantage. However, learning implementation is how to ensure safety, the ability to move between a variety of self defence tactics while working with your adrenal response and freely adapting all the strategies above.

Sometimes the unexpected happens.
Regardless of your reactions to the incident or the outcome, none of it is your thought.

It's not your thought what happens next. Any amount of what-ifs will not do you any good

An aspect of self defences that no one talks about is the aftermath.

People always talk about self defences as a preventive measure. However, sometimes things do not go the way you want them to. Self defence is as must about the aftermath as it is about the preventive measures.

Strategy

Who can you talk to first, where do you go and stay etc?

Where/how do you send for help

Where do you send your children

It's crucial to have these types of conversations with friends and family members, as scary as it all is.

Conclusion

Having some idea of your levels of awareness at a given time can be a crouse moment for the assailants. Some are more cunning than we want to think.

They know where, when and who.

Final take away:

98% of all violent attacks towards women are by a male who they know.

Learning self-defence is only a part of the story. Learning to build strategy and implement tactics, and have open conversions about systems and learn all its components.

non of this can work unless you take steps of preventing first