Last Friday, a friend mentioned something about, "Wow, ever since my mom bought [x], it's been popping up all over the place." I'm sure you've had this experience at least once or twice (if not hundreds of times) in your life. What's up with it? Is it just that suddenly everyone's decided to buy that one thing? Or is it something more?
It turns out there's a very simple neurological reason for it and it's called the Reticular Activating System, or RAS for short. It's the little part of your brain that controls what actually gets "on your mind."
Here's how it's described in Getting Things Done by David Allen:
Just like a computer, your brain has a search function - but it's even more phenomenal than your computer's. It seems to be programmed by what we focus on and, more importantly, what we identify with. It's the seat of what many people have referred to as the paradigms we maintain. We notice only what matches our internal belief systems and identified contexts. If you're an optometrist, for example, you'll tend to notice people wearing eyeglasses across a crowded room; if you're a building contractor, you may notice the room's physical deatils. If you foucs on the color red right now and then just glance around your environment, if there is any red at all, you'll see even the tiniest bits of it.
Amazing stuff. The RAS comes in handy with things like goals (if you can visualize something, you can make it happen by using the RAS like a homing missle) and preparation (that's why Olympic athletes visualize before they compete). Who knew that something so simple could be so useful? And why don't they teach us this sort of thing in school!?
Namaste.
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2 comments:
Great post. It is amazing how Awareness manifests itself.
Yeah... that's how the brain got around it's limited processing speed. If you place limitations on what you're looking for, the search runs much faster.
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