Written by: Serene Shereef, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
“As you think, so shall you become.” ‒ Bruce Lee
It is a universal truth that our feelings are always coming from our thoughts in the moment. It's really our thoughts and our beliefs that allow us to interact and engage with our environment and create meaning within our human experience. Most of the time, we believe that our external circumstances, which are the stories that we tell ourselves about what is going on around us, are what creates our feelings. But in reality, it is really our thoughts about our external circumstances that generate our emotions in the moment, our human experience. Our thoughts generate our feelings and our feelings aka our emotions aka the vibrations within our body trigger our actions and our actions create our results. So, our results are always a reflection on our thoughts and not our circumstances.
I want to share with you how we can program our brain, specifically our reticular activating system [RAS] to actually make our dreams a reality. Let’s first explore how our thoughts and feelings, the words that we use which become our affirmations or our beliefs for our everyday life, as well as visualizations, the pictures that we create in our mind can be used to harness the power of our RAS and really create massive impact in our lives.
So what does this mean realistically, when we think about our life? What it means is that we need to start paying attention to what our thoughts are. What are the words that we are repeating to ourselves and what are the pictures that we are creating in our mind and our heart? Because our visualizations as well as our affirmations aka thoughts are really creating the results that we're seeing in our life.
The RAS is a network of neurons located in our brain stem. It is responsible for our ability to focus and how we perceive the world. It also helps us to regulate our fight or flight response. Essentially, our RAS is a gatekeeper to our consciousness. Now, when I first thought about this, it was fascinating to me that we are living in an era, especially now, with millions and millions of data points that are constantly bombarding our brains. If we truly paid attention to everything in our environment, we would be overwhelmed all the time. Instead, our RAS allows us to filter the information that is being thrown at our brain and determine what are the things that really need our attention and what can be ignored?
Now one of the ways the RAS helps you focus is to filter through the data that is being presented to you and then connecting to the data points that your brain has determined is important to you. So, we don't have to look through everything. And over time, this really is a subconscious instantaneous process. The good news is that we can connect and activate our RAS consciously by creating an intention that something is important and therefore worthy of our attention.
I'll pick an example. Maybe one of your goals this year is to play the violin. So, your RAS now is going to take every data point connected to playing the violin. And bring them to your attention so you can actually achieve your goal. So now you start hearing people playing the violin everywhere. Maybe you might see it pop up in your Facebook feed or your YouTube feed. You might find yourself connecting to concerts that you want to go see, or you might find yourself seeing more violin stores as you drive. It's not that there are any more violin stores than there were before, but now that your brain is connected to the violin as a focal point, and you have begun to notice it everywhere. And your RAS is finding all of the opportunities and information to help you achieve your goal of playing the violin.
So how can we train our RAS to get what we want? How do we connect to thoughts and beliefs, creating affirmations as well as visualizations, which are really images of what we want to create? And then, harness both our subconscious and conscious mind to work together and make it happen.
“The most valuable skill or talent that you could ever develop is that of directing your thoughts toward what you want.” – Abraham Hicks
Our brain does not enjoy cognitive dissonance, which is really when you have thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes that are conflicting with each other and create mental discomfort. It creates a space in our brain where we're trying to think. For example, I believe A and I believe B, but they conflict with each other. So now what does that mean? I'm struggling with my contradicting thoughts, which one do I believe? Our brain wants to create a story that makes sense of what we are experiencing and use data to validate our existing beliefs. So, we are always trying to find ways that our beliefs are true. And if there's something in our world, in our external circumstances that don't fit with our beliefs, then we are trying to figure out how to break that cognitive dissonance and make it fit within our story.
For instance, if you believe that you are constantly messing up and not doing a good job, if your thought is, “I'm just not very good at my job, or I'm just not very good with computers or cooking”, then your RAS is going to point out every single piece of evidence that confirms your belief. Now instead, if you say I am a very focused individual, your RAS is going to look for evidence to support this. And if there are places where we're in cognitive dissonance, for example, you're getting distracted and you're not focused, then your RAS is going to pull through and find opportunities for you to bring your focus back for you to create a reset and get back to what you were doing because you have created an identity, i.e. a belief/thought that this is who you are, and if you are deviating from it, your RAS is going to connect your conscious and subconscious efforts into bringing you back to cognitive stability instead of that dissonance you are experiencing. This is actually a great thing. It allows us to program our minds. It allows us to take control and create what we want through visualizations, the use of pictures and images and affirmations, the use of words, and really pulling together our thoughts, our beliefs, the words that we tell ourselves. Ultimately our mind believes what you tell it, i.e., the pictures and words that we use to create the stories that we want our mind to believe. So, we get to take control and to create what we truly want to see.
"If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration." Nikola Tesla
So how can we harness the energy and vibration of our feelings? We create our human experience with where we put our attention and focus. You can explore this by asking yourself “Where's my attention now, what am I feeling now? What are the pictures in my mind? What are the words that I'm connecting to in this space? What are my thoughts and feelings?”. Start exploring this as a way to really connect to yourself and ultimately take action in connecting to both your conscious and subconscious, because action is where clarity is.
It is only by doing something that we know what works and what doesn't, and it is only by doing something that we can actually get better at it. We can have all the thoughts in our head about how we're going to make the best pie, but until we make the pie, we're not going to know. “Does it work? Maybe we need to adjust the temperature in the oven a little bit, maybe we need to add a little bit more sugar or maybe you need to add less sugar. Maybe we need to add a little more vanilla”? Action creates clarity and gives us additional data points that we can then use to create what our next step is going to be. “What are we going to do next? And then next after that?” That's how we create it. A lot of times I hear from my clients, “I just want to know what to do before I can take action. What if I'm making a mistake? How do you know if something is a mistake or not?”
You can only get clarity by taking action. We are so afraid of making a mistake that we keep ourselves stuck by not taking any action. We are worried that we are going to fail at the things we try, however, if you quit, then you have truly failed. The only way to fail is to not take action. Let’s stop defining everything that we do as successes and failures, and instead, let’s explore this as a curious scientist doing an experiment. Every step gives us more data points to make decisions and take our next action.
This mindset shift will allow you to take action while minimizing all the mind-drama associated with the unknown. You are exactly where you're meant to be. And your journey will unfold the way it's meant to. You get to make every day be what you want to see. And you're going to create layer upon layer with the work that you do, the feelings that you connect to, the thoughts that you believe.
What is one goal that you have for 2022? What are the words you're using and the pictures that you're creating in your mind about this? As you connect to this thought, and you know that this is what is going to help you create momentum in your goal, create a vision board with the words and images that truly connect you to this goal. Place it where you will see on a regular basis. Every day as you see this, remember the magic that you are creating with this goal. Every day spend a few minutes connecting to your words, your thoughts, and your beliefs, that support you in this journey.
Affirmations starting with, “I am so happy and grateful”, can create an additional element of power and energy within your life. To continue our earlier example, “I am so happy and grateful that I am now playing the violin and having a really great time doing impromptu concerts with my friends.” Repeating these affirmations, and visualizing that picture of you, really living as your best self, achieving your dream goals is a powerful tool to program your RAS.
It is important to actively train our RAS so that it can connect all the information and opportunities that are out there that will help you achieve your goal. I keep my vision board on my desktop and my phone. I remind myself daily on my focus goals, including the words that support my journey. This allows me to filter through all of the information that comes through and helps me connect to a variety of opportunities that will make the biggest difference in my life. My RAS is uniquely trained by me to only connect to what is important for me, and release the thought “What if I pick the wrong one?” It's not about that. Whatever you pick, trust your brain. You're subconsciously aware of so much more than your conscious brain can even comprehend. Believe in yourself. You approach it with faith and do what comes up. Do one step at a time. And each action will create clarity on what the next step needs to be. By connecting to the pictures, the images in your brain with visualization, you are able to connect to your future self and then consider “What is the action that my future self, as someone who has achieved this, what are some of the things that they would do? What would that look like in my life?”
And remember with everything that we do, every action, every thought, every feeling, we learn more about ourselves. Our struggles and our transformations. What brings us joy and peace? What are the thoughts, feelings, and actions that connect us back and finally experience the true belonging of our soul and the sparkles of adventure and everything that comes up. It's just part of the journey. When we experience bumps on the road, it doesn't mean that anything has gone wrong or somehow we didn't program our RAS correctly.
When we make mistakes, I love that they’re just more data points. We're going to take our data points. We're going to plug them in and this is essential to know the next step. The more action you can take that creates clarity, the more you know about yourself, both your conscious and subconscious mind. And know that you create true belonging by honoring and loving who you are, by connecting to your truth and knowing that you have everything that you need to make it come true because you are enough just as you are. I remind myself of this truth every day.
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I hope you'll continue to follow and use some of these tools that I'm sharing, and I would love to connect with you on social media so we can talk more about how these are applicable in our real lives. We can amplify these tools and we can share with others and continue to build a supportive community that will help each other get to our next level.
Serene Shereef, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Serene Shereef is a general & trauma surgeon and a mindfulness & productivity certified life coach. After struggling with severe burnout and hitting rock bottom, she used the energy of mindfulness with the scientific principles of habit building and created systems of productivity to reclaim her life. She now uses this unique powerful framework to help other professional women struggling with burnout and overwhelm to take control of their time, mind & energy. She has created an integrated mindfulness and productivity program that builds clarity on your life’s passion and purpose and uses individualized systematic tools to take control of your life so that you have time for everything that is important to you. Her goal is to help you do less and live more, embracing the joy of living your best life.
