Understanding and Contrasting Awareness and Hyper-vigilance

Hyper-vigilance is a survival tool employed by many who live and work in threat rich environments. As a tool it does work on a temporary basis, but it comes with many problems. Hyper-vigilance is not sustainable, strain and fatigue of maintaining high levels of arousal wreak havoc on our bodies, our relationships and will eventually degrade skill sets to a point where we are not able to work competently.

Awareness on the other hand is a symptom a profoundly healthy psyche and body. Awareness lends itself to empathy, insights into individual threats as well as an overall situational and contextual awareness. While hyper-vigilance isolates and creates tunnel vision, awareness includes and enlarges response options. The question is, How do we train to be deeply, profoundly connected and aware of our environment and our situation?

Masters such as Vladimir and Konstantin perceive the world differently than we do. They are able to tune in or out of the rythms and frequencies of their surroundings and see, experience a richer dimension than most of us. I believe from my own experiences that we can train to move towards this greater connection physiologically, through our bodies. Three events culminated in my coming to this position.

Three fifteen minute massages from Big Sergei, working with the breath hold and recovery while walking, rolling and moving and hearing that Russian agents tasked with capturing Nazi's could be trained in as little as six weeks. I saw for myself that our ability to perceive, to truly see, could be GREATLY enhanced by lowering our baseline level of tension. Admittedly, this is an excruciatingly painful process, if done at an intensity level that provokes dramatic results. Still, this awareness is healthier for us as humans than hyper-vigilance and makes threat detection laughably easy. These points lead me to believe that it is also possible to manipulate other people's awareness of us so that we can move and operate in the way that is most beneficial to ourselves and our loved ones

Konstantin Komarov with his experience commanding and training deep reconnaissance operatives as well as law enforcement special purpose groups, and his PhD. in psychology seems perfectly suited to set us on the right track regarding studying these issues. He will be in Austin March 10 and 11 doing just that.

On a personal note. Awareness may not seem a sexy topic. Our egos cling to fists feet and tough as nails to get us through. But any true professional, any true student of Systema must acknowledge that awareness is absolutely key to survival and growth.

In the richness that is Systema, to dismiss "health practices" as not fundamental to our development or survival is a mistake. With less tension in our bodies we SEE. And when you SEE anything is possible.

Gene Smithson
Certified Systema Instructor