Why the Reticular Activating System is so important to understand
Recognize in this very moment how truly incredible it is to be a human being. Our brains are incredibly complex and amazing. You can sift through billions of bits of data at any given point in time. And somehow, so you don’t overheat or short circuit like a computer, you have to organize that information. The Reticular Activating System helps us with that.
The Reticular Activating System (RAS) is a bundle of nerves at our brainstem that filters out unnecessary information so the important stuff gets through.
The RAS is the reason why you buy a new shirt or lease a new car and then all of a sudden you start seeing that shirt or car everywhere you go. The blue shirt or Tesla was there before, but now your senses are enhanced to those specific objects. The same is true if you learn a new word or a new language, you start to hear it everywhere you go. It’s why you can tune out a crowd full of talking people, yet immediately snap your attention to someone when they say your name or something that at least sounds like it. Crazy, right?
Think about it like this. Your RAS (brain) takes what you focus on and creates a filter for it. It sifts through the data and presents only the pieces that are important to you and your value system. The cool part is, of course, all of this happens without…
