Lessons from a Speed Awareness Course
A few Saturdays ago, I spent my afternoon at a London hotel attending a speed awareness course. To my surprise, I found it fun, interesting and useful. I learnt the streetlight rule (!) and I came away wondering why it is that after we pass our tests at 17 or 18 we have no further education as a driver.
One strategy for safer driving is ‘pointing and calling’. This is a practice developed in the Japanese railway system. Train conductors and drivers point at important safety indicators: signals, clear platforms, train instruments - and verbally call out their status. In his book ‘Atomic Habits’ James Clear explains that this method is ‘so effective because it raises the level of awareness from a non conscious habit to a more conscious level. Because the train operators must use their eyes, hands, mouth and ears they are more likely to notice problems before something goes wrong.’
This simple method seeks to disrupt what might otherwise become automatic behaviour. It heightens attention and awareness about what is going on in any situation and requests that we clearly observe what is happening around us rather than falling back on assumptions and habitual patterns. It also brings us directly into the present moment; it’s hard to daydream when you are pointing and calling.
Being in our bodies is a situation that breeds a great deal of familiarity and habit. Some of us - women especially perhaps - have many stories and assumptions about our bodies or parts of them. I’ve either felt myself or heard countless variations of the following: ‘I have the kind of body that can / can’t…’; ‘My body doesn’t move well’; ‘I am not flexible / too flexible’; ‘I am weak’; ‘I am too fat/ too thin’; ‘I am different to how I was’; ‘I am ashamed of / disappointed in this part of my body.’
But what if we apply this occupational safety practice to our own bodies?
Instead of stories let’s start with observable fact.
Here is my foot, my tummy, my shoulder, my arm. This is how they move. Here is my whole body which is composed of bone, muscle, ligament, water, organs and other tissue. It requires nourishment in the form of oxygen, food, water, rest and movement. It is also constantly changing, renewing itself. So, point and call, build attention and awareness and turn the volume down on judgment and criticism.