Nearly everyone has heard about the Law of Attraction and manifesting your dreams. At first glance these concepts may seem a little ‘woo-woo’. What if there was actual science behind these concepts? Surely, that would make them worth a second glance.
Guess what? The science does exist. It starts with a little bundle of nerves at the base of our brainstem called the Reticular Activating System, or RAS for short. At any given moment we are bombarded by 2,000,000 bits of sensory information. Our brains can only manage about 126 bits at a time.
How does our brain choose which bits to screen out and which bits to keep? We use our Reticular Activating System. This bundle of nerves serves as our filter. It disregards all of that information that isn’t applicable and focuses on those bits of information that are important to us.
Imagine walking down a winding path, on a moonlit night through the forest and something rustles in the brush. It is our RAS that shifts our focus from the magical mood to the presence of other beings in the shadows. In this scenario a hunter might swiftly pull his rifle in anticipation of dinner. However, a group of young children might be overwhelmed by the potential for danger and run for their mothers.
The scenario stays the same. It is our reaction to it that is unique. Our reaction depends upon our model of the world; what we believe and what we choose to focus on. Every RAS has a slightly different filtering process based on our own, unique individual models.
Have you ever noticed when you buy a new car, all of a sudden you see that same car everywhere? That is our RAS hard at work. It is sifting through the data; the other cars on the road and highlighting the cars that look like yours. The RAS likes to support our decisions.
If our RAS likes to support our beliefs, what happens when we focus on all of the things we don’t have? What are we telling our RAS to do? We are actually asking it to filter and focus on all of the opportunities that we don’t have access to. Remember this little bundle of nerves sits at the base of our brainstem. It is part of our most primitive brain. It isn’t very complicated or sophisticated. It gives us whatever we tell it to focus on.
Just like the scenario in the woods above, the situation is the same whether you are a hunter or a child. What changes is how each individual reads and reacts in the circumstances. Are you reading the situation as something to run from, or an opportunity to run towards?
This is the science! When we take the time to retrain our brain, most specifically our RAS, we can shift our focus to one that seeks out anything we want. Think of the number of possibilities that will suddenly present themselves when we shift to a more positive filtering format. Imagine the opportunities for growth, success and prosperity.
If you would like to learn more about your Reticular Activating System and how to shift focus, so that you can experience increased success and live a life of your own design, please call to book a 30 minute phone session with Simone Usselman-Tod, Dynamic Visioning Coach, Certified Life Coach and Business Coach and Certified NLP Master Practitioner. Don’t forget to ask me about about my new signature program! Learn more about Dynamic Visioning.
