Neuroscience and Mental Health

Here’s Why I See RAS as the Secret to Accomplish Dreams with Less Effort.

Successful people achieve more with less effort and become happier as they leverage the Reticular Activating System’s power.

Importance of Reticular Activating System (RAS)

The term “secret” in my title is deliberate, as the information I provide in this story has not been coherently documented in the literature.

Consequently, the concept remains enigmatic to the public. I see it as a duty of call to simply explain it so that more people benefit from this natural ability.

My specific goal is to introduce the role of RAS without going into scientific details. Thus, I provide practical tips to leverage RAS’s power to realize our dreams with less effort to live healthier and happier lives.

My motto is happiness comes from the mind with the nurtured body.

The human body and the brain have an enigmatic section allowing us to achieve our dreams. It is called the Reticular Activating System (RAS).

This anatomic construct in the brain stem can contribute to achieving our goals if we can use it with awareness, commitment, and persistence.

We all have dreams and aspirations starting from our childhood. Successful people set the vision, establish goals, strategize the path, and progress the journey with flexible tactics.

Awareness of RAS and leveraging its functions can accelerate the driving power in this exciting journey.

Purpose of the Article

One of my writing goals is to simplify my knowledge and experience in the cognitive science domain and turn theories into practical solutions for my readers.

Recently I introduced BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor), β-hydroxybutyrate, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and emotional regulation for mental health based on my reviews and experience.

Readers of these stories inspired and encouraged me to document my theoretical knowledge and experimental skills in educative stories.

Thus, in this story, I provide practical tips to leverage the critical function and power of the Reticular Activating System with simple lifestyle habits.

This is an informative article, not prescriptive as professional advice.

Introduction to Reticular Activating System (RAS)

The Reticular Activating System (RAS) comprises a cluster of nerves in the brain stem. Its primary role is to filter unnecessary information and only allow essential content.

It can be handy to learn that all critical information between the body and the cerebrum (upper part of the brain) passes through and is filtered in the brain stem.

RAS achieves filtering flooded information based on fixed parameters.

These parameters are our safety, survival, and other factors which have supreme importance coded in the old brain that the cognitive system (thinking part of the brain) perceives.

RAS is critical for survival as this region filters unnecessary and inundated information from multiple senses. Its focus is on seeking facts validated by our perception and beliefs coded as memory.

The conscious brain might obtain proof by checking positives and negatives.

For example, if we imagine the failure and focus on it, the RAS will bring evidence of failures.

Likewise, focusing on success brings success. Perhaps optimists are happier and live longer for this reason.

Realistically, the conscious brain can handle a tiny chunk of information. The solution to our problems is tapping into the vast ocean of the subconscious mind.

This is where RAS plays a critical role.

More specifically, RAS establishes a bridge between the conscious and subconscious mind.

The Role of RAS on Long Term Memories

Have you ever felt you were able to visualize a face but could not remember the name of a person?

I did. It was at the tip of my tongue, but my memory got stuck in remembering the name.

To solve this problem, I used the questioning technique.

When I verbalized the question like “what was the name of this person?” and relaxed my body for a while, the answer came within a few minutes or hours based on the proximity of the memory.

The RAS created the bridge between conscious and subconscious memories.

When we struggle to access old memories, we can activate RAS using the cognitive system by asking specific questions.

Deliberate questions with a relaxed mind can make the brain hypnotic. Therefore, I don’t see talking to myself as crazy but clever.

Thus, mindfulness and meditative practices clearing the mind and relaxing the body can strengthen the cognitive system by improving attention, focus, memory, task switching, and problem-solving.

The Role of RAS in Manifesting Dreams

The benefits of the law of attraction in manifesting dreams recently gained significant attention from the public.

The premise is imagining the outcomes and feeling they already exist in our lives. This approach is believed to bring what we desire to our lives.

The implementation of this esoteric theory happens using the RAS effectively.

Imagining the outcomes is only one aspect of the solution. By itself, it cannot achieve the goal. We need to activate the RAS to support the imagination.

Activation of RAS requires strengthening the neural connections. It is called rewiring the brain with lifestyle habits and cognitive power such as thinking, imagining, and verbalizing.

Interestingly, rewiring the brain is a biological activity that can be achieved psychologically.

Our thoughts and emotions can influence complex enzymes, proteins, neurotransmitters, and hormones to nourish neural connections.

However, as the brain is a biological entity, the process happens slowly, requiring significant effort.

Furthermore, this biological process also involves chemical and electrical processes. Therefore, building habits take a long time.

The critical point is persistence and not giving up when we do not receive instant results. Biological results won’t happen immediately as the human body is not a machine.

The connections will take time to form and get stronger.

This awareness is critical for the successful implementation of the law of attraction.

Commitment, patience, and persistence are the key attributes that distinguish successful people from unsuccessful ones.

The critical point to rewiring the brain for manifesting dreams is to consume information in small chunks.

Understand the Function of RAS with the Library Metaphor

Imagine a massive library with 50 million books.

In one scenario, we shelf these books randomly. In another scenario, we use a systematic approach, such as cataloging them using the Dewey system based on subjects and keywords.

Finding a specific book in the first scenario can take days, weeks, or even months, based on our luck.

However, finding the desired book in the second scenario can take only a few minutes because we eliminate 99% of unnecessary and irrelevant information and focus on a narrow region.

We admire professionals who can access critical information in seconds or minutes, even amid urgent situations. Their secret is coding the information meaningfully, like in the library analogy.

My point is if we make a deliberate effort to code information, RAS can enable us to achieve our dreams.

Understand RAS with the Vehicle Scenario

Possibly you heard about the famous car analogy.

We know that when people purchase a new car with a specific brand and color, they start noticing similar vehicles on the road more frequently.

Why did we not see the same number of cars before?

It is because RAS blocked them before as they were not relevant to our lives.

The critical point is RAS only gets information that is relevant and necessary for our survival. Thus, sorting information based on relevancy and necessity allow us to leverage the power of RAS in achieving our dreams.

From the cognitive angle, focus and attention based on criteria that we developed determine our success.

Understand RAS with the Gardening Metaphor

All manifestations occur with thoughts. Every material we have once was just a thought. Thus, I imagine our thoughts turning to ideas as seeds and the brain as the soil.

Whatever seed the gardeners add to the soil, they get the desired plant. For example, they don’t get an apple tree when they add orange seed.

So far, this is a universal rule. However, you may wonder what the relation of RAS is in this analogy.

The third factor for the seed to turn into a plant is nurturing it. Thus, the gardeners need to water and give the necessary nutrients to the seed.

My point is that RAS serves as a nurturing system for the brain.

So when we have a thought, we need to give meaning to it with the necessary focus and attention. One of the practical ways is to plan and take action to achieve goals.

Our focus, attention, plan, and actions can activate reticular formation neurons in the brain, which resemble the soil of the seed we plant.

Why Some People Achieve More with Less Effort?

The short answer is they use RAS effectively.

As I documented in this story, I used to have analysis paralysis in the earlier days of my doctoral studies.

With guidance from a distinguished supervisor, I learned to activate my RAS to eliminate the side effects of information overload.

The human brain is energy-hungry. Coding, processing, retaining, and storing information consumes significant brainpower.

If we put too much unnecessary information, there will naturally be less energy for necessary ones.

Imagine CEOs of large organizations involved in all details happening in the venture. What is the likelihood of achieving their goal?

In this particular scenario, the CEOs need to eliminate a big chunk of information and only focus on the most critical ones for their role deliberately.

Those successful people who achieve more with less effort use their RAS effectively. But unfortunately, people who struggle with difficulties cannot leverage the power of RAS deliberately.

Conclusions

The reticular Activating System (RAS) is a tool given to us when we are born.

Unless we want to become a neuroscientist, we don’t need to know about the mechanics of RAS. As we don’t need to know about a smartphone or a computer to benefit from it as a tool, we don’t need the details of RAS to benefit from it.

So, by simply understanding its role and principles, we can use it effectively. Therefore, I’d like to give a dozen points as takeaways from this story.

Takeaways to Leverage the Power of RAS

Based on my experience, here are the 12 takeaway points to use the power of the reticular Activating System (RAS) to achieve our goals and manifest our dreams as desired.

1 — Accept that the human brain has a built-in filtering system.

2 — Observe thoughts and label them by assembling a set of criteria.

3 — Your criteria should reflect your personality, goals, and lifestyle.

4 — Practice mindfulness and meditate daily to strengthen attention.

5 — Nourish the brain with healthy nutrients (e.g., omega-3s).

6 — Activate Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor to nourish circuits.

7 — Ask powerful questions to get answers from the subconscious mind.

8 — Remember to rest the body to allow the RAS to access memories.

9 — Turn filtered thoughts into actionable plans.

10 — Commit, be patient and stay persistent.

11 — Keep hope and optimism for what matters to nurture RAS.

12 — Be grateful for this unique power as a blessing.

To inform my new readers, I wrote numerous articles that might inform and inspire you. My topics include brain and cognitive function, significant health conditions, longevity, nutrition/food, valuable nutrients, ketogenic lifestyle, self-healing, weight management, writing/reading, and humor. 100+ Insightful Life Lessons from My Circles for the Last 50+ Years

Let’s take this information and use it to make a meaningful difference in our lives and those we care about. Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.

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