Retrain Your Brain
“Everything we experience in this world goes through one filter — our minds — and we spend very little time bothering to see how it works.” —Dan Harris
Your brain is a magical, powerful place. However, like author and journalist Dan Harris eloquently put it above, we don’t spend enough time learning how it works. More importantly, we don’t spend enough time learning how to use it to our advantage.
At the base of our brainstem, there is a bundle of nerves called the reticular activating system (RAS) that filters out unnecessary information in order for the important stuff to get through. (Think of the RAS as the brain’s bouncer.) In fact, our brains have multiple systems operating in a similar way. These systems are valuable because our senses gather millions of bits of information per second — an amount we would never be able to efficiently sort through consciously. Through these systems, our brains filter out what they deem unnecessary, keeping only the pieces of information that are important to us.
You’ve probably experienced the RAS without realizing it. For example, have you ever considered buying a specific car and then, for the next few weeks, noticed that car on the road or in parking lots more than ever before? Have you ever learned the definition of a new word and then became hyperaware of it being used in an article, a TV show or a conversation? That’s the RAS at work.
So, how does the brain know what’s important to us? As Tony Robbins once said, “Energy flows where attention goes.”
The RAS lets through the things you are looking for. But are you looking for the right things, or are you subconsciously looking for the wrong things, triggering the formation of neural pathways and shaping your awareness in a negative way?
The RAS doesn’t distinguish between what you want and what you don’t want; it simply filters out what you are not focusing on. If you’re focusing on the negative, your RAS is programming itself to focus more on the negative over the positive. The good news is we have the power to use the RAS to our advantage and retrain our brains by changing what we say to ourselves and actively acknowledging the positive!
Instead of:
- “I’m stuck where I am”
- “I’m always late”
- “I hate feeling overwhelmed and stressed”
- “Everything is going wrong”
- “I have bad luck”
Reframe it to:
- “I intend to be (insert your aspiration here)”
- “I choose to be on time”
- “I intend to feel in control, relaxed and at peace”
- Acknowledge one or two things from your day that went right, perhaps things that would have otherwise gone completely unnoticed and unappreciated
Make your RAS work for you! Think positive thoughts, and speak positive words. Be aware of what you want, what you want to experience and what you want to feel. Actively acknowledge the good, and you’ll find you have more of it.
About the author
Ms. Megan Petriello is an Assistant Vice President, Assistant Team Leader and a Fitness and Wellness Specialist on the Slainte Fitness team at USLI. Ms. Petriello enjoys staying active by teaching HIIT classes, running and strength training. Ms. Petriello gets the most enjoyment from living an active lifestyle, and she is an avid believer in the power of positive thinking!