The GPS of your Mind

I like to think of the mind as an Iceberg. 5% is the Conscious Mind, above sea level (or “see” level) the part that we can see or are aware of. 95% is the Subconscious Mind, which is under the water and we are not aware of it.

I remember my oldest 2 daughters learning how to drive. When they first got behind the steering wheel, they drove very much with their conscious mind. They were very aware of every little detail, what pedal to push, what gear to shift to, if there were pedestrians around, if they had the right of way, what color the light was, if they were driving in the right lane, etc.

After they had been driving for a while, they started driving with their subconscious mind. They had memorized what to do in certain situations, they could carry on a conversation about something else and automatically choose the right option in the moment, without having to think it through. It was like they had programmed their autopilot.

Have you ever started seeing a certain color of car all of a sudden after shopping for or buying a car of that color? That’s because you’ve brought it to the attention of your Reticular Activating System, telling it that the information is more important than other information coming in.

We have millions of bits of information coming into our minds from all of our senses every moment, but we can only keep about 7 (plus or minus 2) in our mind at one time, any more than that and it will cause overload, and the conscious mind shifts to the subconscious mind, causing us to eat something unhealthy or watch Netflix when we had planned to be more productive.

Your internal GPS in your brain is called The Reticular Activating System. I like to call it “The RAS” (pronounced Raz) The RAS is a bundle of nerves going into your brain that filters out the million bits of information that are constantly coming into our mind through our 5 senses.

It only shows us what is important, such as if someone says your name, you’re more likely to pay attention, than if someone else’s name was mentioned. Irrelevant information goes to the Subconscious Mind.

The RAS gives you more of what you pay attention to (what you feel and believe) and it can’t tell the difference if you want it or not, it just gives you more of what you’ve paid attention to.

Do you want your Self-driving car to take you wherever the wind blows, or wherever others want you to go? Or do you want to program your GPS to take you where you want to go in life?

All you have to do is decide where you want to go, or what you want and then don’t worry about the how, that will all be brought to your awareness now that you’ve told your RAS what to pay attention to, what is important to you.

For example: I wanted to be a public speaker. I focused on that and opportunities came my way that I said yes to. I was scared to do things for the first time, but I did it anyway.

What you resist, persists. It’s better to focus on what you want, than on what you don’t want.

If I told you “Don’t think about the Elephant” your Subconscious Mind hears “Elephant” and will think about it anyway. So consider shift your thinking and focus on what you DO want.

Many of us spend more time complaining about what we don’t want, and then wonder why more of what we don’t want, keeps on showing up! That is why people who have figured out the secret of being grateful for what they have, keep having more miracles show up for them.

Think of your Conscious Mind as a gardener, planting seeds. Your subconscious Mind is the soil, it just gives you more of whatever you plant. So if you plant “I don’t want to be fat” it’ll just give you more fat LOL If you plant “I want to be healthy” then it will give you more opportunities to choose healthy options.

“Your mind is a garden, your thoughts are the seeds, you can grow flowers or you can grow weeds” ~ Osho

Source: Mindful Regeneration