What is Your Reticular Activating System and How Does it Get You What You Desire?
Program your brain to work harder and move you closer to your personal and professional goals
Do you struggle with organising your time?
Does making plans fill you with dread?
I don’t know how long this will take, what if I run out of time to do this? What if I fail and look a fool? What if I’m not up to the task? What if something more pressing or appealing comes up? What if I’m not ready? What if … what if …?
On it goes — the self-sabotage that destroys dreams or keeps them in that immobile state as nothing more than dreams. I struggled with this all the time and the result was hopeless procrastination.
Then I learnt something new.
A concept I had only briefly chanced upon but then forgotten, started to appear within my radar with persistence. I read about the Reticular Activating System or RAS, in Marie Forleo ’s book — Everything is Figureoutable — and was gripped.
After that, I heard it discussed on a podcast, and then it appeared in an online article. The term became so prolific that I wondered why I had not stumbled across it before.
This was RAS doing its thing.
What is your Reticular Activating System?
After a little research, many things made sense to me. I started on study.com and realised that the idea of manifestation is not as woo as I’d once believed. It was logic, it was neuroscience; it was RAS.
The brain decides what to allow in, and its prime mission is to keep you safe and help you to achieve your goals.
We all appear to be busier than ever before; a constant flood of data ensures that we have little time to pause and reflect.
Our brains are increasingly challenged by sensory information overload and they work hard to filter out what is unhelpful.
The brain decides what to allow in, and its prime mission is to keep you safe and help you to achieve your goals.
Enter the RAS, the gatekeeper of information that is let into the conscious mind, connecting the subconscious part of the brain with the conscious part.
Your RAS filter sits at the base of the neck and it is what alerted me to information about this phenomenon in the first place.
Following my value-based goals has been an obsession and priority in my life lately, and it was the pursuit of these goals that led me to this discovery.
Your RAS is an attention filter; your brain ensures that you gravitate towards what is important, what serves you, what you believe.
Because your RAS finds ways to trigger your alertness to the things that you focus on, focus on what serves you best and what validates your beliefs.
RAS is what can potentially keep you centred on your goals and encourages you to make positive progress towards their accomplishment.
“You become what you give your attention to.” The Greek philosopher Epictetus said. He knew what he was talking about.
Since learning about this captivating phenomenon, I began to pay attention. My motivation increased, I became more focussed on my goals, and although my progress may appear slow to some, it is all relative. You will start from a different place than I did.
Initially, when you wish to improve, the best competition is yourself.
Firstly, let me tell you how looking at the past cemented my trust in my RAS and inspired me to work with it.
Using RAS to manifest the man of my dreams
Before I met my husband, I had decided men were off the agenda for the foreseeable future. I had my daughter to focus on so my break-up with her father was going to be the first and the last that she would experience in her only one shot at childhood.
I wrote my intentions in my journal, along with the proclamation that in the future, any man I decide to share my life with, will meet certain criteria.
I wanted to be with someone who felt like ‘home’
Porsche and villa in Monaco aside, I wanted to be with someone who felt like ‘home’; someone with whom I could laugh, cry, share adventures, and be myself with, whilst not being bored out of my pants. Mutual trust and spirit of commitment, both to each other, and to our dreams, were non-negotiable.
I wrote all this down, with a lingering doubt that such a man existed, so I prepared for life as a happy singleton for the foreseeable future. But a spark of hope had lodged itself in a place that I was unable to access then.
Jumping ahead, I did meet this man. I had dug deep into an internal pit of wisdom and realised who I wanted to be with. I went off my usual piste, to where the snow was fresh and new, and ready for me. I had finally grown up.
I had manifested my soulmate by being honest with myself, identifying what I really wanted, and writing my relationship goals down, with assiduous regularity. Sounds like simple Law of Attraction woo? Well, I believe woo is often a pretty veil for people like me who choose to prettify science.
I was unaware of RAS at the time, but now I look back and see that it was working for me. I had clarified in my mind what I was looking for and my trusty gatekeeper had set to work.
How to lay the foundation for optimum RAS performance
The thing about dreams is that they are like warm nectar on your tongue, fleeting moments of bliss that exist only in your thoughts. They visit often, offering respite from the mundane of the everyday, but until they become goals, with intentions, they will never change or move you forward. They are the soothing balm to life’s wounds.
There is a place for daydreaming, but that place is light years away from reality. That is … until you transform dreams into goals that reflect your values, and dangle those goals in front of your RAS.
For example, for years I had been completely content to avoid driving. I did not want to waste a Birthday present on driving lessons when they were offered. I had no desire to drive; it did not interest me. It was a horrible big mechanical-related activity that couldn’t be further from my interests.
Yet every so often I felt the tug of should and booked onto a course. Each effort ended in failure and a period of further driving avoidance. I lived in cities brimming with public transport so what was the point?
Eventually, avoidance was no longer an option. My husband and I fell in love with a house set in a valley that was serviced by one token daily bus. There was no way our family could function if I did not pass my test this time.
The children needed to get to school and I had to get to work. My goal of learning to drive reappeared at the top of my journal page like a persistent but annoying friend, only this time it was different.
This time I had real motivation.
My desire to live in the beautiful countryside with fresher air and access to healthy walks and wildlife was my goal. That was what I wanted for us, that was my value.
Learning to drive was a step towards achieving that bigger goal, the one that emerged from a dream, underpinned by values. I passed my driving test and we moved.
Goals: Write them down, say them out loud, and amplify the intention
Goals are more purposeful than dreams, especially with strong intention behind them. Write them down, say them out loud, and amplify the intention. Then do it again, regularly so that they dwell at the forefront of your mind and allow RAS to work its magic.
The goal of I want to set up a website will alert your brain to articles on building websites.
You will hear of amazing web-developers that could help you. You find yourself drawn to ideal websites more often, hoping to learn. You articulate your ideas and people with knowledge come forward, recommendations pile up.
You hear someone utter web developer in a busy store.
Once you identify an important personal target, your RAS will work to guide you towards what you need. You then hear it amongst all the noise that is ‘life’, in the same way, that you can hear your name uttered across a crowded room.
It is not hocus-pokus witchery, but neuroscience. Your RAS is at work, striving to satisfy you, to keep you safe. It knows what you need, you know what you need.
RAS is at your service.
How to stimulates your RAS
How do you strengthen this RAS filtering system? How can you ensure that your brain prioritises your goals?
This is where encoding comes in. Incoming information is processed and analysed in the hippocampus section of the brain. Then the brain decides what to store in the long-term memory.
This accessible article explains the process which began with Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850–1909) who pioneered memory research.
A whole bundle of creative processes is at work to strengthen the image and ensure it is imprinted or encoded into your memory
Writing helps that encoding process. This is partly helped by the generation effect first reported by Norman Slamecka and Peter Graf at the University of Toronto in 1978, who demonstrated that you are more likely to remember what you generate.
Think about it; writing your goals down involves several processes: you start with the thought and its exploration in your mind; the transfer of that information onto paper involves motor skills.
Then we add language, creative processes, and the mindfulness of the act itself as your hand forms the letters on the page; you see the written words.
These seemingly simple activities engage visual, semantic, organisational and, if you speak your goals out loud, acoustic encoding. A whole bundle of creative processes is at work to strengthen the image and ensure it is imprinted or encoded into your memory.
When you add the connection of values, such reinforcement will not go unnoticed by your RAS. You gain clarity and enhanced motivation.
writing and speaking your goals regularly is like setting an algorithm in your mind
Dr Gail Matthews, a professor at the Dominican University, once conducted a study on how writing down goals, committing to action, and being accountable, can influence the achievement of the goal.
This is why I have started to write my goals down. Thinking up a few goals could be, at worst, a passing dream, at best, a promising start. However, writing and speaking your goals regularly is like setting an algorithm in your mind.
Discuss your goal with others. Keeping that goal alive is what will attract you to the information you need to accomplish it. Your attention is vigilant and tuned in to related information and solutions to your problems. You are on the alert to anything that whispers even a small hint of your goal.
What changes can you expect?
As I have mentioned, I tend to procrastinate. Through regular journaling, I discovered that much of this was down to a lack of confidence and an inner-critic with a particularly loud voice.
My draw towards creative endeavours was not something that had ever been encouraged or taken seriously and I suppressed it for many years, other than to amuse myself occasionally.
I wanted to be able to put my writing out there and to call myself a writer so, I wrote
Until I had had enough. Until due to a series of unfortunate events may years later, my confidence shattered and I turned to my comfort zone. Except I realised I did not want my writing to be a comfort zone any longer. I wanted to move or inspire people with my words. I wanted to be able to put my writing out there and to call myself a writer; so, I wrote.
At first, I wrote privately in journals, all about how I wanted to write, why I wanted to write and what I wanted to achieve. The thought of this filled me with dread; after all, who did I think I was?
Technically, I was famous
Then one day, whilst sitting in a very cool café in Krakow, I started a blog.
Just like that, I paid for a domain and subscription and there it was … waiting for my words. Tap tap tap on the keyboard and the first post was written. I posted it. I told no-one. Yet I was ecstatic because I could go onto the internet, search for my blog, and find my work.
It looked more professional than anything I had ever produced. I was on the world wide web! Technically, I was famous.
I started to put a link to the website on social media where people could see it, with the option to ignore it. I do not do selling or promotion … or do I? The point is, that I gradually increased the number of times I mentioned my work, I started a newsletter, and strangely enough, began to stumble upon opportunities.
Eventually, I became brave and tentatively submitted articles to publications, discovering that the world did not end and that my few pieces of work were accepted.
All the time I wrote down my goals and discussed them with my husband as well as one or two trusted friends who showed unwavering support.
The small wins I have achieved so far is because I tickled my RAS with what I wanted it to prioritise. I am halfway through writing my first book and am bravely reaching out to more publications. I have the best husband/friend, and live in the town that I have dreamt of living in.
I write down what I want. I keep alive that which I want to manifest in my life, and opportunities for learning more keep coming my way.
Keeping your RAS watered will not bring instant gratification, nor will it weave magic spells. It will, however, keep you alert to what is important to you if you keep the right focus. You will subconsciously be drawn to information that you need when you might otherwise have skipped over it, missed it, or been distracted by something more attractive.
How can I justify writing things that no one will read?
Consider reframing your writing practice into something necessary for your wellbeing, clarity, and focus. Writing down your goals can take whatever form that suits you; there are no shoulds hovering above ready to judge.
Grammar, syntax, eloquence can also go elsewhere because this is your space. Write one sentence, one paragraph, one page … it does not matter. The key to success is in repetition and regularity.
This letter is your younger self looking at the person you wish to become
One approach that may appeal to you and is a powerful way to begin, is to write yourself a letter, not the one where you write a letter to your younger self. This letter is your younger self looking at the person you wish to become. Try to recall your youthful enthusiasm, hopes, dreams.
Write this letter stating how proud you are of your achievements, outline what you see, where you live, what you are doing; anything that links to your desired goals.
Describe in detail how this goal has manifested itself, acknowledge and appreciate the steps your older self took to get there. Spill it all onto the page until you are happy that your younger self has identified your fulfilled goals.
Your values are likely to surface when you use this method. Your younger self’s dreams will sparkle with optimism.
After you have done this, highlight the essentials and leave out any fluff. Next, condense these down 1 to 3 specific, realistic goals then break them down into smaller steps. Focussing on one small step at a time makes it manageable, achievable, and less overwhelming. I could take or leave the Porsche because it had little to do with my values.
Each day, or each week, write down 1 to 3 steps you can take to move you further towards your goal. Zimmerman et al conducted a study that involved participants throwing darts. The results demonstrated the importance of identifying the steps you need to take to accomplish a goal.
For example, I wanted to write a book, and articles for publications. I started small, by promising myself to write for five minutes each morning in my journal. I ended up writing more. I was drawn to anyone writing about writing, and that is how my explorations led to relevant publications.
There is a ton of advice out there about writing, but until I had made writing my goal and set my intention, I never saw it. Now, I have started to have articles accepted and am compiling information for my first book proposal. Every small step counts.
Finally, write your goal or goals regularly and look at them and review them often. Say them to yourself and keep them fresh, but don’t obsess. Your brain needs a rest to process information in the background. If you need to adjust your goal over time, then do so.
9 point summary
- Writing down your goals is associated with higher success in achieving them
2. You must want the outcome. If your goals do not align with your values, you cannot fully focus on them and you will send confusing messages to your brain.
3. Your reticular activating system is the gatekeeper to the myriad of messages that enter our brain daily. It decides which sensory inputs are a priority by using a system of encoding
4. By prioritising your goals and ensuring they become firmly encoded into your memory, you tell your brain that this is important to you and it needs to find solutions
5. You can help with this filtering system by writing your goals down; think about them, visualise them, speak them out loud to yourself or a friend, commit to them and hold yourself accountable
6. Write down concrete achievable steps you can take towards achieving your goals
7. Wake up to your goals by writing them down at night; reinforce them by writing them down in the morning. There are worse ways you could start and end your day
8. Remain alert to opportunities and learning
9. Take the steps, no matter how small, towards the accomplishment of your goal
Rinse and repeat
If you are contemplating your dreams, goals and intentions, you may find this article helpful: