Situational awareness has played a big factor in my career as an EMT, and for many public service jobs, it is a necessity. As Jedi, being fully aware of what's going on around you is often essential to finding solutions to problems that present themselves. Knowing your surroundings, how they're being manipulated, and who's doing the manipulating, is especially important when working in a high-risk position (such as a police officer, EMT, firefighter, or a military person in a combat situation). Lives have been saved and lost based on situational awareness alone. In the original Star Wars movie (A New Hope, Episode 4), we see Obi-Wan and Luke on the Millennium Falcon, with Luke practicing with a light saber and a blaster drone. Luke focuses so much on what he can see, that he fails to realize his other senses, and thus continually fails to stop himself from getting hit with a laser blast. Obi-Wan then makes him put on a blast helmet, with the blast shield down, thus effectively obscuring Luke's vision, and requiring him to use his other senses (the Force included). After finally realizing that he needs to rely on something other than his eyes, he manages to deflect the bolts with moderate success. We won't teach you how to deflect bolts, so to speak, here, but situational awareness is something we can all expand on.
There are five concrete senses in the lives of human beings: Sight, Smell, Touch, Sound and Taste.
Of these senses, the order in which we most use these senses is: Sight, Sound, Touch, Smell, Taste.
Out of these, the one we rely most on is sight. However, what happens if we take that away? Many times in the past, it's been seen that the blind will compensate and live regular lives based on their acute sense of sound. Even further than that, they rely more on their sense of touch to feel the tangible. Taste tests are often a sight on TV or out in the open, and science points to scents being the biggest reason behind our choices in mates.
A simple task for you to try:
Find a safe open area, such as a park, a mall, or a public restaurant. Close your eyes, and just listen, for roughly 10 minutes (set a cell phone alarm or a watch). Take the time to allow your brain to adjust to the loss of the sense of sight, and see how well you can suddenly hear. Conversations that were distant very well may become completely understandable as though you were standing between the two people talking. Do this for a few times, for one week. Then, expand upon this exercise in the weeks following by allowing yourself a half hour to an hour, and start off those 10 minutes by entering into a meditation, focusing on expanding your awareness. Bring something with you that has a seemingly smooth surface, and find out what your fingers can say about this seemingly smooth surface (cracks, pores, slight indentations). You may very well find that your eyes have been fooling you all along.
Throughout time, there's been the statement of wolves in sheeps' clothing. It's referenced even in the bible. As Light Jedi, part of our mission should be to act the part of the shepherd when necessary. It is not our place to act permanently as one, but only in times of need, so more like a sheep dog, so to speak. For us to remain focused on using our eyes, we won't notice the softer foot pad of the wolf, or the different scent that he or she exudes. We won't taste the cunning fear that eminates from their emotions as they get ready for that pounce. We won't feel that shift in the wind that tells us to pay more attention to what passes by our nostrils. By using these wonderful things we have, our eyes, we are discounting our other senses, very well towards our own detriment (not to mention the detriment to others).
Eventually, through these meditations, you will find yourself less reliant on your eyes, and more reliant on your other senses. Especially with today's world of longer ranged weapons, and more cunning ulterior motives, it is important to always maintain the vigilance expected of a Light Jedi, and pay attention to all our senses, in order to maintain that situational awareness.