Maintaining Your Personal Safety

Personal safety is a key aspect of life, yet it is too often ignored. People often take life too granted. It is vital, though, that you look out for your own safety and that of others. Our safety should be one of our key priorities because it will reduce a lot of grief if we pay greater attention to it.

Watch if you are being followed.  Most people are probably aware or pay attention if they are being followed. If you are, it might be better to go to a safe place, or to walk along more crowded corridors. You may not want to go home. You may want to go somewhere else for a while, and then go home after you are not being followed any more.

Seek professional help where required.  Often, people are afraid to contact the police or other safety authority. However, if you feel uncomfortable about anything, do not be afraid to contact them. It is better to be safe than sorry.

Use your senses and intuition.  If anything does not smell, sound, or seem right, then there might be something wrong. Use all of your senses to help you decide if there is something wrong. On a similar note, do not plug up your senses. Some people wear walkmans or ipods while walking around on the street. How can they possibly hear if there is some car screeching past behind them? Better to make use of all your senses and not block them while functioning in daily life.

Daylight is a better time to be outside.  For some strange reason, some people enjoy going out in the darkness and at night. It is always safer to go out in the daylight and where there is lots of light. For your own safety, consider travelling outside in the daytime more often. This may requiring shifting your bedtime and biological rhythm somewhat, but it is likely worth it. Besides, sunshine and daylight usually make people happier and less depressed, so seeing more of it is also beneficial to your health.

Travel safely.  Probably the less reliance on human-created vehicles, the better. For example, if you take the elevators less, you would have a lower probability of getting trapped in it, which does happen. For example, what do you think would happen if there was a fire and you were trapped in an elevator? Probably a risk that you may not want to take even if the chances are remote. Planes are probably less dangerous than cars despite statistics that try to convince you otherwise. For example, in a crash, car crashes would probably allow you to survive more often than plane crashes, which would likely wipe out the whole plane. Similarly, walking is probably more safe than driving.

Engage in low-risk activities.  Some people purposely pursue high-risk activities for the pleasure that such activities bring to them. However, it would be wise to substitute such activities with more mild ones that would also give you great pleasure. Even though you may not think that you can find such activities, do give it a try to find them. You may be surprised the amount of pleasure that they can give you and the grief that can be avoided by avoiding the high-risk activity.

Study the past.  One excellent way to prepare for the future is to study accidents and disasters that have happened in the past in your line of work or in your area. Being prepared for such events is critical to ensuring your safety. This may take some time, but is well worth it. Especially take note of any unpleasant events that have happened to people as you progress through life and try to make sure that you don't make these same blunders.

Pay attention to ergonomics.  Ergonomics is working safely in an environment. This includes not causing any bodily injuries to yourself due to either short or prolonged exposure to a specific environment. Where and how you work affects greatly your health and safety, so pay attention if how and where you work is at all affecting any aspect of your health. If so, you should take precautions and steps to minimize any adverse aspects of that work on your health. Of course, not adverse situation can be avoided, but at least you can make an attempt to address it.

Try also to point out any safety concerns that you have about other people. Sure, they may brush it aside, but you should try to help them as much as possible.  In summary, to have a safe journey in life:

A. Watch if you are being followed.

B. Seek professional help where required.

C. Use your senses and intuition.

D. Daylight is a better time to be outside.

E. Travel safely.

F. Engage in low-risk activities.

G. Study the past.

H. Pay attention to ergonomics.

Life Skills > Healthy Lifestyle Skills > Your Personal Safety