As an NLP practitioner, a lot of the work I do focuses on the Reticular Activating System or RAS for short. Simply put (I like to keep things simple) the RAS is the brain’s information filtering system and each person’s RAS is unique to them. We receive so much information at any given time, if this system did not exist, we would go into overload.
The system works by filtering all the information we receive, then files it either in our unconscious or conscious mind, based on what makes sense to us according to our perspective of the world, through our beliefs, values, conditioning etc. Pretty good system. It acts as a kind of door between the unconscious and conscious mind.
Everything deemed not to make sense, useless, not relevant, goes straight into the unconscious and the door is closed. Leaving us with the information we can understand and makes sense to us, according to our view of the world. It is important to remember, our perspective of the world is totally unique to us. Nobody will have exactly the same perspective as we do. (Hence a well known saying in NLP ” The map is not the territory.”)
To give an example, if you buy a new car that is red, it seems all of a sudden that every other car you see on the road is red. It’s not that they’ve been in hiding waiting to pounce as soon as you got a red car, it’s just that you didn’t notice them before, as your focus was not on a red car, (unless of course your previous car was red!) so previous information you received that related to red cars was dumped in the unconscious mind, courtesy of your RAS.
Then when you became the proud owner of a red car, it was relevant to you, so information your brain received relating to red cars got promoted to the conscious mind and hey presto, you started seeing a lot of red cars!
Now I believe and it is just my belief that I want to share with you, that according to the Law of Attraction, this is what would be known as the unseen. In other words, the red cars were always there, you just didn’t see them. They were unseen by you. Now when you think about things like success, money, happiness, it is exactly the same principle. If you are not focusing on them as they have been dumped into the unconscious, you don’t see them. However, as in the case of the red cars, they are still there, they are just unseen by you.
So all you have to do is focus on those things you want. Picture them, visualise and when you do that, you open the door. You activate your RAS, which will then filter all the info you receive relating to what you are focused on into the right place, the conscious mind. Now, when that happens, not only has the door opened, your mind has opened.
It’s opened up to possibilities an opportunities and ways on how you can get what your want, because your RAS is working in its usual efficient way and filing everything relevant to what you are focused on in the conscious mind. So what was previously unseen you can now see. How good is that?
Now for all you Doubting Thomas’s out there, let me just give you something to mull over. I wrote an article, which is available to download for free on my blog site about how the Law of Attraction really works. I put in an afterthought which mentioned the credit crunch, falling house prices and that because that’s where our focus was, it was getting worse. The article was written around six months ago and lo and behold! Take a look around. Coincidence? Let me ask you this. Where has our focus been in the last week? Answer How bad the credit crunch and the weather is. What are we getting more of? I rest my case! Remember the red cars!
Adopt Coaching 2009- www.adoptcoaching.co.uk
Janet Wilks has a coaching practice in the UK, Adopt Coaching. At it's heart is the concept of Thinking Big, believing anything is possible. Janet's mission is for everybody to understand they have a unique purpose and destiny in life and that everybody is born with natural gifts and talents.
Janet's purpose is to support and guide people, through coaching and workshops, in discovering their unique purpose and natural born talents, by facing and confronting their fears, their lack of self worth and self belief and finding the courage, taking action and overcoming whatever it is that is holding them back from living to their true potential. They are then able to fulfil their unique destiny, achieving everything they put their minds to, using their natural gifts and talents and having a big life.
Janet has diplomas in coaching and psychology, is a registered NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) Practitioner and a member of the European Coaching Institute. She creates and delivers workshops as well as 121 and group coaching and has over 500 hours personal and business coaching experience. She is currently studying EFT (Emotional Freedom Therapy) to further enhance her coaching skills.