Reticular Activating System

I’m not a psychologist but I have learned a lot about navigating life better by understanding a few things about how our brains work. The Reticular activating system is part of our brain that acts as a filter. What we focus on is what this filter tries to collect. Our brains are bombarded by millions of bits of information and so in order to survive our brain sifts the information related to our current thoughts, fears, goals in order to decide which pieces of information deserve our conscious awareness. Unfortunately, another survival hardwiring that our brains have is a negativity bias. This means they are actively looking for danger or anything unsettling so they can alert us and we can make a decision to be safe. For this reason we have to be more conscious of what we are holding onto as our brain will help prove us right. If we are highly strung and anxious and insecure our brain will look for situations that will feed those core feelings. So the challenge, as we continue to navigate our journeys is to look for the good. The more we tell our brains to look for the good, the positive, the silver lining, the grace, the more we will find it.