There’s nothing quite like the experience of getting a new car. The smell of the interior. The finish on the tires (that you never seem to recreate). The shine of the paint job. It’s all so exhilarating to your senses.
I remember when I got my first new car. My parents had helped me with my cars previously, but this one was the first one that I had bought myself. I remember loving the hunt, trying to find exactly the right vehicle for my needs and, of course, a style and model that “no one” was driving. I picked out what I thought was a unique body style and color for my purchase and was so excited to get it out on the road and show off what was sure to be the only one of these automobiles on the road. To my surprise, I drove away from the dealership and quickly noticed two more vehicles of the exact same model and style in different colors on the road. As it turns out, I wasn’t the only one with this car. Who knew?
There’s this part of our brains called the Reticular Activating System (or RAS for short). The RAS is the automatic mechanism inside our brains that brings relevant information to our attention. It’s the function of our brains that causes “new car syndrome” – seeing the model of our new car on the same roads where we previously had not seen any.
The RAS is like a filter between our conscious mind and our subconscious mind. It takes instructions from our conscious mind and passes them on to our subconscious. For example, the conscious instruction of “watch out for cars on the road just like mine” sends a signal through the RAS and summons the force of our subconscious mind to bring any matches to our attention.
Have you ever had this happen to you? You go through life not even knowing that something existed, then you notice it everywhere after you’ve been made aware. That’s your RAS bridging the gap between your conscious and subconscious minds to bring attention to whatever you are now plainly aware of.
A good analogy for our conscious and subconscious minds is an iceberg. It’s estimated that only 10% of an iceberg is visibly above water while the remaining 90% of it still lies beneath the surface of the water. Like the iceberg, our conscious minds are what we notice above the surface of our thoughts while our subconscious minds are the huge mass of thought beneath. For example, neuroscience estimates that our subconscious minds are processing 1500-1700 words per minute, while our conscious minds are only processing around 100. So, when we consciously become aware of something, the message is sent through the RAS to our subconscious mind to bring attention and focus to our new awareness. Our 10% can program our 90% if we understand the process of awareness.
That is why if we want to create the lives we desire and deserve then we absolutely must wake up the power of personal awareness. So, here are three tips to increase your awareness and help you live awake and conscious every single day.
