Let me use this opportunity to say a hearty happy new year to all content creators and consumers in the hive communities.
This new year can be greater for us all regardless of what our individual experience was like last year. I have written this blog with that purpose in mind.
The human person is incredibly complex in constitution and make up. One of the amazing thing about we humans is the ability of our brains to handle billions of data that we constantly have to process every second that we are awake.
Think for a minute about the amount of sound hitting your eardrum and the piece of information that the sensory nerves in your eyes and skin supply to your brain in just one second, and you'll get a clue as to the amazing nature of the brain.
How come the brain is not overwhelmed or overworked despite having to handle that much information in a second? That's the subject of today's post.
There is a filter that can be compared to a gatekeeper or nightclub bouncer that is located at close to the top of the spinal column called the reticular activating system or RAS that help the brain out.
The RAS is a component of the reticular formation which is located throughout the brainstem. It is a bundle of nerves at the brainstem that filters out important and unimportant information so that we can focus on the important ones.
Function of the RAS
Basically, the way the RAS work can be explained as follows: The RAS regulate our behavior by filtering out unimportant stimuli while focusing on the important ones. That helps us survive as humans.
For example, let's assume you are about to be attacked by a lion. At that moment of time, your brain needs only one piece of information for your survival - the way of escape. All other information is irrelevant to you at this point in time. So, your RAS goes to work, filtering out all the other stimuli at that particular point in time so you are not aware of them. Thus, the RAS influences your behavior by directing your attention to the stimuli to act on.
Naturally, the RAS is wired to prioritize certain stimuli such as the ones highly connected to our survival because they are deemed important. However, the RAS also works with other stimuli that a person has predetermined to be important.
Denis Waitley explained it this way:
The "Reticular Activating System" filters out the unimportant stimuli and focuses on what is important at the moment....once you have made a distinction that a certain value, thought, idea, sound picture or feeling is significant to you, your reticular activating system is alerted. It immediately transmits any information it receives regarding this significant item into your consciousness.
Recently, I had to get a car for my mum. Suddenly, It seems that everywhere I looked on the road, I see the color of the same kind of car that I bought for her.
This is because my RAS selected that car color and its model to be important to me. The cars have always been there but until they became important to me, I never noticed them.
Now, here is the take away. This new year, if you intentional predetermine that certain goals are important to you and you constantly focus on them, by keeping them constantly in front of you, you will be surprised how your RAS will aid you in their accomplishment by bringing to your notice opportunities that you need to accomplish your chosen goals.
A research was done involving couples with newborn babies living near airports. The couples sleep through the noise of airplanes taking off while the mothers of the babies wake up at the cry of their little ones nearby. Why is that?
The RAS of the couples had learnt to filter out the noise of the airplane while the mothers RAS count the cry of their babies as important.
Funny enough the study revealed that while the mothers of the babies were in the house, the fathers sleep while the baby cry but when the mothers were not available, the father wake up at the cry of their babies!
The RAS of the fathers filter out the cry of their babies as unimportant while their mothers were available at home but when they were away, the babies' cry became important to their fathers.
The RAS also affect our perception. Suppose that an accident took place somewhere and a policeman arrived at the scene of the accident, sure enough, his focus will be different from that of a medical doctor. While the policeman maybe concerned with who is at fault, the doctor's focus maybe on saving the lives of people involved in the accident.
The policeman and doctor have different perception of the accident because by their trainings, their RAS have been programmed to see things certain ways.
In Conclusion
This new year, set goals and keep them constantly before you until your RAS learn that they are important to you and help you to notice opportunities that can lead to their fulfilment.
Reference
Your Brain at Work: The Reticular Activating System (RAS) and Your Goals & Behaviour
Denis Waitley. Seeds of Greatness (New York, NY Pocket Books, 1983). pp. 123-124.