The Reticular Activating System
There is a part of the brain that controls and dominates the way you experience your life, but most people don’t even know it exists — it’s called the Reticular Activating System (RAS). Although it has many important functions, we are going to concentrate on how the RAS filters the information that comes into your brain and how it works directly with your beliefs. All of this is relates to the Law of Attraction that so many us hear about these days. Understanding this high powered connection can help you change your life so that it is easier, more peaceful and healthier. Who wouldn’t want that?
First, let’s get familiar with the RAS. Science has shown that our amazing human brain can handle up to 100 trillion bits of information at a time. The RAS is the sorting system for all of that input. It starts with survival information and works its way up from there, using your beliefs as the main filter. The RAS uses the information based on your beliefs to filter the multitude of stimuli in the environment so your attention is directed at what is important to you and ignores the rest.
Whatever we believe in is what we see and experience. It’s that simple.
We all experience the processes of the RAS every day. For instance, if you decide to buy a Volkswagen Jetta, you begin to notice Jettas everywhere when you hardly saw any before. Where did they come from? They were there all along, but the VW Jetta is now logged in the RAS as important to you so your attention is directed toward that car. The same occurs if you are in a crowded room and you hear someone off in the distance say your name. You immediately focus your attention in that direction because your name is information that is identified by the RAS as important to you. Although someone may have been talking to you at the time, you won’t remember any of the discussion from that point on. This is your RAS at work.
OK, so now you have a basic understanding of the Reticular Activating System, but how does all of this work in conjunction with the Law of Attraction to bring us a life experience?
The Law of Attraction & Your RAS
There are universal laws that exist on our planet. One of them is the Law of Attraction. This law says like energy attracts like energy. So, just how does the Law of Attraction work? To begin, you need to know some ground rules about the universe:
1. The universe simply works with intention and intensity of energy. What is intention? It’s an aim that guides an action. Specifically, for our discussion, it means using your mind and thoughts for a higher purpose to work in your favor rather than against you. What does intensity of energy mean? It’s the amount of concentration, strength or degree of purpose given to a particular subject or object.
For example, if you spend an inordinate amount of time thinking and saying, “My life is crap and it will never get better”, guess what .¨ you will experience your life as if it is crap, for longer than you wish. It’s that simple. You are the creator of your life experiences. This brings us to the next item of importance.
2. The universe doesn’t distinguish between negative and positive like we do here on Earth. That means, you attract to you whatever energetic frequency you put out there .¨ end of story .¨ no labeling, no judgments and no preferential treatment. You decide what spin to put on your experiences.
Here are a few examples: If you say, “I don’t want to get sick” over and over, the universe hears “sick” over and over (not distinguishing the negative .¨ don’t). Whereas, if you say, “I am healthy” over and over and focus on that, you will be more likely to experience it.
Take another example: If you focus on believing all people are inherently good and loving, your attention will be drawn to those aspects of others. Conversely, if you believe all people are untrustworthy liars, you will find evidence for this as well. You decide. It’s your choice. This is your power to experience your life any way you wish. This leads us to the next important point.
3. All possibilities exist in the universe for all events. Anything and everything is possible. Your beliefs may limit your point of view, but that does not mean there aren’t unlimited points of view. Open your mind. There are many more options available to you for any situation in your life beyond just the ones you believe in.
4.Everything is energy.
Your beliefs create thoughts and the Law of Attraction takes the energy of those thoughts and matches them with the energy of available outcomes. This creates your experience. So, for example, if you believe you are less worthy than others, then you will notice this perspective when you look at others, even though it isn’t true. No one is less worthy or more worthy than anyone else.
Our training has saddled us with a mind that is programmed to lean toward the negative, or what doesn’t work for us, more than the positive, or that which works for us. However, we can use this to our advantage. Since negativity, lack and fear are just concepts we have been taught, we can choose to change this programming and the resulting beliefs. It’s like learning a new habit. The more you practice believing in what you want rather than what you don’t want, your RAS will tune into these new concepts, or frequencies, and ignore the old. And the Law of Attraction will now take the higher frequency energy you put out and match that with higher frequency outcomes. It takes awareness and practice so be patient and don’t give up. You deserve a peaceful, healthy life!
Are Your Beliefs Limited or Unlimited?
Most of what we believe is just learned conditioning. That means that we have been taught what to think. Then we believe what we have been taught as if it’s the truth. We live our lives based on this information. But, beliefs are not truths, they are perceptions and perceptions change all the time, so beliefs change all the time.
If we are willing to accept that we are living a life based mostly on beliefs versus our internal knowing, we can start to notice which beliefs work for us and which ones don’t. Beliefs that don’t work for us are easy to spot because they are limited and irrational. By contrast, beliefs that work in our favor are connected to our inner knowing which is connected to our hearts and our soul energy. So, when you say you believe that some people are better than others, this may make sense to your mind, the mind that has been trained to think this way, but your heart will not agree. Your heart will know everyone is equal .¨ that everyone deserves love and kindness. But, your head will argue this .¨ it is only training. It is irrational and therefore it is not real.
Changing your beliefs is more than just positive thinking or doing the right thing. It is about getting real and connecting with what you truly want .¨ that which works in your favor. In fact, it might be helpful to let go of the concepts of positive and negative. Instead, think of them in terms of what works for me and what doesn’t work for me, respectively. That way, when you decide to change a limiting belief you can focus on what works in your favor, on what you want instead of what works against you and what you don’t want. Based on our training, most of us end up focusing on what we don’t want and so get just that.and we wonder why.
Take a look at the chart below to see the contrast between limiting beliefs and beliefs that are not limited.
BELIEFS
|
LIMITING |
NOT LIMITED |
|
Irrational |
Rational |
|
Mind-based |
Heart-based |
|
Taught to us |
Inner Knowing |
|
Works against |
Works for |
|
Separating |
Connecting |
|
Judges |
Honors |
|
Chaotic |
Focused |
|
Unhealthy |
Healthy |
|
Stressful |
Peaceful |
|
Fear |
Love |
The changes you make will be those that align with your heart-center, with the wise soul that expands beyond your body. You will be tapping into the wisdom and knowing that is directly connected to all beings on the planet. This is powerful. This is how beliefs allow us to become free from fear, free from blocks, free from limits. You deserve this level of change.
You Have the Power .¨ 5 Steps to Changing Limiting Beliefs
Now that you are aware of the RAS and the connection to the Law of Attraction, you can practice maneuvering the RAS in a way to match your dreams .¨ to attract the picture of what you truly want in your life rather than what you don’t want. In general, you can use a 5-step process to assist you.
1.Realization that beliefs are just perceptions that are taught to us and beliefs can be changed. You have the courage to do so!
2.Awareness of a belief that doesn’t work in your favor .¨ meaning a belief that doesn’t bring you peace, connect you with others, reduce stress, support your health, bring you more love.
3.Decide to change a belief. Here you have made a clear decision that you want something in your life to look different than it does.
4.Replace the old belief with one that is less limiting and assists you in your life. Here you could do something as simple as looking at the opposite of the limiting belief and find the new belief in that. It may not be an exact opposite, but an equal opposite. The possibilities are unlimited.
5.Practice your new belief every chance you get. Really.
Additionally, the intelligence of the human body will help you in your endeavor to improve your life. The brain will dissolve bridges that connect thoughts and responses that you no longer want and build bridges to new thoughts and responses that you do — this is called neuroplasticity. For example, if you are afraid of spiders, the neural bridge that is built over time might look like this: Spider .¨ Fear. Scream and kill immediately. But, once you learn how cool spiders are and you decide to change your mind about them and save them instead of killing them on the spot, you begin dissolving the old bridge and start to build a new one. So now the new bridge is: Spider .¨ Cool. Admire and save them.
You can also create something called a Vision Board. A vision board is any kind of board on which you display images that represent whatever you want to be, do or have in your life. The process of creating a vision board is a great way to reprogram the RAS. Because we are easily distracted by old thought patterns, we can use a vision board to help us identify, clarify and focus our attention and energies on what we want rather than what we don’t want.
When we decide to change a belief, we start to choose, think and visualize what we truly want. Our RAS now seeks out the things that match the energetic frequency of our new beliefs, goals and visions. Once your attention is shifted in the direction of your new beliefs, it’s your job to take action on those opportunities when they present themselves. Know that you are more than capable.
It is possible to change the beliefs that are irrational and that don’t align with how you want to live and with what lies deep in your heart.
As you can see, there are a number of different ways to do this though we have only covered a few here. We leave open the possibility that you may have your own way or find a different way that works for you, for infinite possibilities exist. Everything is possible. It all depends on what you believe!
