the Reticular Activating System
The reticular activating system (RAS) is a network of neurons located in the brain stem which performs a crucial role in maintaining behavioural arousal, consciousness, and motivation.
It is the portal through which nearly all information enters the brain (smells are the exception - they go directly into your brain’s emotional area). The RAS filters the incoming information and affects what you pay attention to, how aroused you are, and what is not going to get access to all three pounds of your brain.
The filter is there to protect you: you can’t take in all the information & the stimuli out there, have all the thoughts at once - it would overwhelm your system.
Example
Have you ever noticed how after you research or spend some time on a specific topic you are interested in, that starts appearing more frequently in your day to day life?
Let’s take buying a new car: your car starts popping out all the time on the roads now. How is that possible, did everybody start buying the same car? No, the car was always on the roads but now your filter allows that information to be brought into your consciousness because that car is now relevant to you.
Another Example
Same filtering applies to your beliefs as well: if you’ve been practising and training your RAS that you are not strong / worthy / good / [fill in the blanks] enough, everything that is not according to your beliefs will be filtered out.
So you’ll never really see & feel the moments when you are strong / worthy / good / [fill in the blanks] enough, which will just reinforce the beliefs and you end up in a vicious circle.
Tips
Make sure you read often your short-term goals: your RAS helps you keep them in mind. Even when you don’t realise you’re thinking about these goals, your brain knows that they’re important and makes note of anything that might relate to them.
where attention goes energy flows