What does the RAS do for you?

What is the RAS?

Ever wondered why your mind sometimes seems to have a mind of its own?

Meet your RAS – your Reticular Activating System.

It’s like the bouncer on a nightclub door, deciding who gets in and who doesn’t.

Your RAS is the bouncer of your mind – it chooses what gets through and what stays out.

Here’s the brilliant part – you can actually influence what gets in.

If I said to you, “Whatever you do, don’t think of the colour blue,”

What’s the first thing you just did?

Exactly. You thought of the colour blue.

That’s because your RAS’s job is to filter, distort and delete information – and it deleted the word don’t.

It decided that wasn’t important, so your mind went straight to blue.

Our brains code everything we think, see, feel, hear, taste and smell – and each of us codes things in our own unique way.

Some of you might have pictured a bright blue sky, others the sea, denim jeans, baby blue, navy or even midnight blue.

We all process and store experiences differently, which is why we all respond in our own way.

The good news? You can change that coding – and NLP can show you how.

A simple starting point is to watch your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your reality. So by watching what you think, you’re actually shaping what your reality becomes.

Instead of thinking, don’t be nervous, don’t fall off, don’t spook, remember – your RAS only hears nervous, fall off and spook. Exactly what you don’t want!

Focus on what you do want instead. Reframe those thoughts into:

• I will feel confident today.

• I will ride with purpose and focus.

• My horse will be calm and steady because I am.

Reframe those thoughts and notice the difference – your RAS will start to pick up on everything that supports confidence, calmness and success.

If this sparked your curiosity, have a read through the other mindset articles on the website & watch my Mindset video. They’ll help you train your brain just as you train your horse – with patience, awareness and purpose.

Because when your mind and body are speaking the same language, your horse will listen beautifully.