The Brain - Your Personal Supercomputer
Have you ever stopped to wonder why some people always seem to make a success of everything they do, while others, even those more qualified, get stuck in mediocrity?
It's all in the mind!
Our brains are the most powerful supercomputers we will ever get to use. We all own the hardware, but most of us fail to equip it with the right software to enable it to use even a fraction of its power.
Many people are aware of the presence of the left and right parts of our brains, and that one is usually dominant over the other. Generally, naturally right handed people are left brained and vice versa. But what does that actually mean?
At school, we are programmed toward left brained thinking as it is the side that deals with language, rational thought, reasoning etc. Even our memories are stored here. The right brain is our creative centre and it is responsible for our creative throughts and imagination. It is also where we visualise.
It is generally accepted that visualisation works, and helps us to realise our future outcomes and improve confidence. But why?
The left and right parts of our brain cannot tell the difference between real and imagined experiences. Therefore, in theory, if you can imagine that you are for example a pop star, that would become programmed into your brain, which sees it as a reality. However, if that were true on its own, we would all have everything that we wanted.
So why is it, that simple visualisation doesn't always hardcode itself into the brain immediately?
From the age of around 7 years old, our brain develops connections in its central core. This is the Reticular Activating System (RAS) and is a major component of the brain.
One of its most important features is to act as a filter of the mind. The human mind can actively process and concentrate on around 5-9 simultaneous pieces of information before it becomes overloaded and confused. After that it has to either delete, process or file the information for later as appropriate. Only information that is actually needed in the mind gets through.
Think about it for a moment. Have you ever lived near a busy road or motorway (or maybe a railway, factory or airport)? When you first moved there, you would have been aware of the traffic noise in the background. But over time, your RAS would have filtered it out, and you became unaware of the noise. Maybe it's not until you are sitting outside late one evening, once all the normal daytime background noise has disappeared, that you become aware of the noise of this distant traffic once again. Your RAS has been doing its job and filtered out the noise until this time, when there is much less to filter.
Your RAS receives information constantly, and therefore it follows that all negative influences also come through here to be processed, filed or deleted. If the RAS goes on to process and accept the negative influences, then we store them directly to memory. If you RAS is working to use reason and filter information before it is stored, then it follows that in order to ENSURE that we blueprint positive programs, we have to deactivate the RAS. Once the RAS is deactivated, the brain will no longer know whether the ideas flowing through are true or not, but our supercomputer will act as if they are true.
How do we go about deactivating the RAS? Relaxation is the key. When the mind is totally relaxed it is not trying to process any information and can become open to suggestion. There is no reasoning or resistance to ideas to get in the way.
Our minds are most relaxed in the morning and evening. However, in the evening your energy is low and you run the risk of becoming so relaxed that you fall asleep. Your energy needs to be high, so mornings are a great time to talk to your brain, and has the added advantage of setting you up to have a great day.
Self hypnosis and meditation are fantastic ways to relax the mind, and there are many courses or books that can help you perfect these. When you have relaxed your mind, you can begin to program your software, whether it is through positive affirmation, or visualisations of your future. Your mind will be receptive and success will begin to follow.
