The filter to YOUR reality. If you can think of it, you might just get it. If you can see it – you can hold it in your hands. “He’s not that much smarter or better than me, but how can he be so much more successful?” Do you ever wonder if there’s a secret to success that you’re not aware of? If so, you are not alone. Our brains are incredibly complex. We can sift through billions of bits of data at any given time. And somehow, we have to organize that information. In other words YOU determine what’s important to you.
The Reticular Activating System helps with that. The Reticular Activating System (RAS) is a bundle of nerves at our brainstem that filter out unnecessary information so the important stuff gets through. It works like a filter, that’s why it’s called the “Main focus filter” as well.
The RAS is the reason you learn a new word and then start hearing it everywhere. It’s why you can tune out a crowd full of talking people, yet immediately snap to attention when someone says your name. You want to buy a white Mercedes – suddenly you see this type of car everywhere. They have been there all before, only now, they became important to you. Your RAS takes what you focus on, what’s important to you and creates a filter for it. The rest of the information is mostly deleted, distorted or generalized. It then sifts through the data and presents only the pieces that are important to you. The RAS programs itself to work in your favour without you actively doing anything.
That’s why it’s vital having a burning desire for a definite purpose that is meaningful to you. This desire becomes your healthy obsession, so your mind is already convinced that you will have it. You are crystal clear about your values. You create emotions associated with passion, which is a strong emotion, an intense desire or enthusiasm for something. Passion acts as the motivation to push through suffering for the sake of achieving the desired result. The word “passion” comes from the Latin word passion which means “suffering”. The source of passion is in the emotional parts of your brain that include the brainstem, amygdala, and basal ganglia. These areas of your brain activate more impulsive and irrational behaviors that are driven strictly by emotional intensity.
In the same way, the RAS seeks information that validates your beliefs. It filters the world through the parameters you give it, and your beliefs shape those parameters. If you think you are bad at speaking in public – you probably will be. If you believe you can write well – you most likely do. The RAS helps you see what you want to see and in doing so, influences your actions.
Everything you have created in your present life and everything you will create in your future life is a result of your subconscious programming or your paradigms. You have been programmed since birth with thoughts, beliefs, values, goals and dreams that influence your actions, and therefore your behaviour and results. The sad story is – you have not chosen any of this and it still influences your life to a large intent. Think about it – have you ever chosen your favourite food? Your parents gave it to you first.
You love your parents and they love you, still, they could not give you what they didn’t have. You are largely a product of your environment. This happens regardless of whether or not you are aware of it. Because you will never behave consistently in a way that is inconsistent with your programming, or in other words: you will never outperform your self- image.
Most of the results you produce in your life have been produced automatically through your subconscious mind. It is a faithful servant and infinitely more powerful than the conscious mind. That’s why the only chance you have to become successful in all areas of your mind is to reprogram the subconscious mind, to overcome your paradigms. There is no such thing as “trying” or “working hard” to succeed.
People who succeed are not trying to succeed any more than those who fail are trying to fail. Both of those happen automatically and by law. The neuroscientific evidence for this lies in an area of the brain called the Reticular Activating System (RAS).
The RAS is simply a bundle of nerves in the brain stem that filters out all the unnecessary information so that only the important stuff goes through. The RAS is a very sophisticated filter that screens out the junk and allows you to focus on what you value and supports you when you set your goals.
It is also a filter between your subconscious mind and your conscious mind. Whatever you are thinking about AND getting emotionally involved in enters into your subconscious mind and attracts the conditions, situations and people according to what you are focusing on. The RAS seeks information to validate your beliefs and in doing so, it influences your actions. You can reprogram your subconscious mind, override your existing programming to draw to you the people, information and opportunities that help you achieve your desired outcomes. You do this by getting clear about our purpose, mission and vision; setting your intent, goals, your actions; creating a full sensory mind movie of your desired future in the present.
Focus on the mostly “negative” or let’s call them “unhelpful” things (social media trivialities, news, gossip, drama, envy, sickness…) and you will invite negativity into your life. Focus on the “good” things (opportunities, solutions, dreams, creativity, energy, gratitude..) and they will come to you because your brain is seeking them out. It’s not magic, it’s your Reticular Activating System influencing the world you see around you.
There are many ways to train your RAS to get what you want, test these:
- Think of the goal/outcome you would like to achieve or the situation you want to influence.
- Now reflect on the experience you want to reach in regards to that goal/situation.
- Create a mental movie of how you envision that goal/situation ideally turning out. You draw the future into the present. Notice the sounds, feelings, visuals, conversations, self-talk in as much as possible details of that mental movie. Replay it often in your head.
- Write your goal on a goal card, carry it with you, read and write it often and feel all the associations as if you have already reached your goal. Create affirmations around it and build goal-supporting habits.
- Set your intention. This basically means that if you focus on your goals, your RAS will reveal the people, information and opportunities that help you achieve them. If you care about positivity, for example, you will become more aware of and seek positivity. Setting your intent(ion) is like sending a message to your RAS saying that you are expecting success to happen with certainty.
- Use your imagination. Your imagination can change your perception of your reality. Your ability to imagine a positive scenario around an event or a specific outcome in your life creates mental imagery in your mind. This process involves a network in your brain called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Your mental imagery can ‘see’ how things might have been or could be in the future. This in turn reinforces your creativity. It’s kind of like unlocking all the intelligence resources you need for success.
- Get “addicted” to success: Once you achieve the first success that you’re striving for, your brain releases dopamine, which is best known as the “feel good” hormone because of the role it plays in addiction and drug use. Dopamine gives you motivation, driving you to repeat the behaviours that created that awesome feeling when you succeeded. Although the dopamine response is short-term, your brain will remember how awesome the experience was, so then you can’t help but to strive to seek it out over and over again.
All of these ideas and principles are not new. Like everything else in the universe: everything happens according to certain laws. The principles of success and the laws of science have always existed even before any human brain became aware of them.
This field of psychology which describes the RAS was founded over 100 years ago. The idea is: If I can hear my own name in a crowd of thousands, can I also tune my brain to focus and attract the things that matter to me? I certainly can, and wherever my attention (energy) goes – this is what I attract into my life. My RAS makes sure of that. So why not focus on all the “good stuff” to draw them into my life?
If you would like to know more set up an appointment with me.