Last week I talked about the power of gratitude. I believe that living in gratitude changes everything in our world and in our experience. It is a way to direct our brain power.
Let’s talk about the brain for a moment. We all have a Reticular Activating System (RAS) that does powerful work for us. There is way too much stimulus out there for us to possibly take all of it in.
It screens information, it is our filtering system.
I call it our Google Search.
If you go to your computer and put a request in your search box, your screen will immediately fill up with information. The amount of information seems infinite, page after page of options! The same is true with the amount of data around each of us at all times.
How is it determined what data we see and experience? Our RAS screens for us. Here is the huge good news. We tell it what to screen for us! This is often done unconsciously and passively. AND, once we know we have this personal power, we can tell it with great intention and alertness.
Just like we are in control of what we type into our Google search, we are in control of what we tell our RAS to look for. Think of the last time you bought a car. If you are like most of us, you researched and explored your options before buying. You finally settled on a particular make and model. Let’s say you buy a green Toyota Camry. Suddenly, you see green Camrys everywhere you go! It is as if everyone noticed you bought one and went out and bought one for themselves. In actuality, there are no more on the road and in the parking lots than before. You had put green Toyota Camry in your “Google search” and your “computer screen” filled up with examples.
How do we use this knowledge? If I put into my search, “everything that is wrong,” my “computer screen” fills up with examples and experiences to support it. I run out of “disk space” for anything that doesn’t support my belief and statement. If I put into my search, “everything that is right,” my screen fills up with all of the examples and experiences to support what is right. Or, as Henry Ford said: If you think you can do a thing or think you can‘t do a thing, you’re right.”
I am doggedly diligent about what I put in my Google search. When am feeling any way that is unpleasant I first ask myself if there is anything I need to be taking action on. If not, I notice what I have put into my search. Am I making myself wrong? Am I making someone else wrong? Am I making a situation wrong? Am I looking for what I don’t like? Am I focusing on something I have no control over? Am I filling up my “disk space” with everything that is wrong?
I am going to refer back to an example I used last week, living in Texas in the summer time. (Is it because it has been a hot summer and I am needing to remind myself of this?!) I have a belief system that I don’t like heat. I see it as miserable. I see the steam, I feel the sweat, the scorching on the bottoms of my feet, the aching and blistering skin from overexposure to the sun. For many years of my life I complained all summer long. “It is SOOOOO hot.” “I hate the heat.” “I am miserable that I can’t do the things outside that I like to do.” Whine, whine, whine. I had put into my search everything that was wrong with Texas summers.
After learning the value of gratitude, I changed what I put in my Google search. I noticed a big difference in how I was feeling. I was saying, “I am so grateful for air conditioning in my home!” “I am so grateful that I don’t have to work outside.” “I am so grateful for air conditioning in my car.” “I am grateful for air conditioning in my office.” You get the picture! Hot Texas summers no long brought me upset.
When I notice I am not feeling emotional, mentally, and/or physically the way I want to be feeling, I look to see what I have in my Google search. If it is a statement or belief that is causing me to feel less than my best, in my mind’s eye I “highlight and delete.” I then, consciously and with great intention, fill it in with a new statement that encourages and supports being in a place of ease and joy.
Is your disk space filled with “spam?” Do you need to highlight and delete? What are you going to iintentionally put in your Google search?