Unlocking Your Reticular Activating System as a Female Entrepreneur

Every female entrepreneur knows how hard it can be to stay focused. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the tasks we need to juggle. Your conscious mind can only focus on a limited number of things at any given moment. It is well-known now that your mind has two parts, the conscious mind, and the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is estimated to process anywhere between 11 to 40 million bits of data per second —the hundreds of Facebook ads, the emails, the sound of cars and people, the smell of food, and so on. 

For female entrepreneurs, understanding the Reticular Activating System (RAS) can be especially helpful because it allows them to focus on opportunities that are most likely to lead to positive outcomes for their businesses. Understanding RAS, Reticular Activating System, can have a big impact on you and your business when you have control of what gets through. 

What is the Reticular Activating System?

The Reticular Activating System (RAS) is part of our brain’s neurological system. It is the part of your brain responsible for filtering out unnecessary information and focusing your attention on what’s most important. It helps us prioritize by recognizing patterns, such as when our name is mentioned or when someone says something we’re interested in. Our RAS (Reticular Activating System) is the bundle of nerves that sits in your brainstem and works as the filter for your brain. 

Your brain can only process so much at a time, so your RAS filter only allows things through that it thinks are important. So how does it know what’s important? It will know by what you focus on most. Have you noticed that people who say they’re not very confident, are not very confident? And that people who say they can’t lose weight, never lose weight. And people who say they are always late, are always late. 

Instead set your RAS (Reticular Activating System) to look for the positive–”I am great at this, I am always on time, I am confident, I am good with money”. Then your RAS will start to show you things to prove your new belief is true for you.

Female Entrepreneurs & Reticular Activating System

We all hold certain beliefs about ourselves. To give yourself the unfair advantage, you can train your RAS to build your beliefs. Your RAS is your filter how you see the world.

Your RAS (Reticular Activating System)  gathers information to reinforce your beliefs. If you have a belief you won’t be successful, you have activated a filter and your RAS will come up with all the reasons you will fail. Your brain is smart enough to find this data without you even realizing it. We do this over and over again–building so much evidence that you won’t be successful.

Since we know this, instead reinforce what you believe in. We have the ability to gather information in two ways, in a positive way or a negative way. If you create a filter to find a way to build the good things, you will collect the good beliefs and repel the negative.

You are case-building your beliefs towards your success or case-building away from your goals. If you’re looking for trouble, you’re going to find it. Instead, create an unfair advantage for yourself by setting an intention through visualization or affirmations.

Using RAS (Reticular Activating System) to Your Advantage

Our Reticular Activating System (RAS) funnels through all the information we’re receiving and tells us what’s most important to us. For example, in the sea of all the noises, we hear our children’s voices. Our brain recognizes that single sound. It’s much more than noticing everyone is driving the white car you recently purchased.

Some people call it Law of Attraction, others may call it a sign, or manifestation.  Highly successful people use RAS (Reticular Activating System) to their favor by changing their beliefs. This can be done by visualizing the positive things in your life or by using affirmations. I had never imagined myself becoming a published author. My best example is when I decided to write a book. Every night I would envision myself finishing the book and I would start feeling this great sense of accomplishment. Our minds are unable to distinguish reality from what’s imagined. Even though it had not happened yet, it was real because I was repeating it in my mind.

How Do I Reprogram My Reticular Activating System?

Once you have a clear idea of what you want and start feeding into the Reticular Activating System (RAS), your conscious and subconscious can work together towards achieving it. You can decide what to think about on a day-to-day basis repeatedly to see a difference. Repeating words will not be good enough without taking action toward the desired goal. It requires repetition, hard work, and tenacity in order to see the benefits.

Our affirmations are the words we choose to tell ourselves. Just like a computer, the programs running through our minds can be positive or negative. At first, it may feel unnatural to repeat to yourself things like “I am a happy person, I am positive, I am successful” because if your filter is programmed to tell you that you’re not a successful person or that you’re not a happy, positive person, there will be a conflict that has to be resolved first.  With each affirmation or visualization, you are presenting more evidence to your RAS (Reticular Activating System) so it can start working its magic.

RAS provides evidence to support your beliefs. If you repeatedly tell yourself that your memory is bad, you’re not doing yourself any favors. Instead, you’re reinforcing a certain belief you have in your mind. The filter supports the system of our beliefs. If you’re fully committed, this can change your life. Imagine what could happen if you visualized yourself as a wildly successful multi-passionate female entrepreneur.

What do you think of this article? Do you have any questions? Ask them below!

Lisa Carmichael ~ Owner & Creator of EPIK Mastermind
lisarcarmichael.com