Did Ya Know?... · THE SKOOL HUB

Ahmy Brock

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Did Ya Know?...

Just a little brain science on a random Wednesday for ya - thank me later.

Your brain isn't ignoring the good stuff to be mean to you.

It is just following the instructions you give it every day.

You say, "Whatever do you mean, Ahmy?" 🤣

Well, let me explain...

In your brain stem sits a cluster of neurons called the Reticular Activating System (RAS).

Its job is to act as a security guard for your mind.

Every second your senses take in millions of bits of information. If your brain tried to process all of it your system would crash. To keep you functional, your RAS drops 99% of the noise and only lets through what it thinks is important to you. 99% - isn't that fascinating?

Here is how that works against us:

Our default setting is self-protection. Human brains evolved to scan for problems, threats, and mistakes first. Missing a real threat was fatal so our system defaults to looking for danger.
Our focus sets the filter. The RAS doesn't judge whether a thought helps or hurts us. It simply highlights whatever we pay attention to most. (so - pay attention to your attention 🥴)

If you decide to buy a specific car, you suddenly start seeing that type of car on every street. They were always there but your brain was throwing that data away to save energy. Now that you care about it your brain flags it.

The exact same thing happens with your self-talk.

If your baseline rule is "I am not enough" or "This always goes wrong," your RAS goes to work finding facts to prove that true. It amplifies every small mistake, skips over genuine compliments, and reads neutral situations as failures. Proof of your competence and of your progress is sitting in the same room. Your brain is just throwing these in the trash before you ever consciously see them because they don't match the 'search query' you typed into Google.

There is a big difference between searching 'what are all the possible things that could hurt me today' vs. 'give me a list of all the pleasant things happening in my life.'

The query is up to you...the minute you wake up. YOU set the stage. Yep, I said it!

The practical takeaway: You do not need to force fake positivity. I despise that crap.

It is helpful though to change the instructions you are giving your brain.

When you notice a wall of evidence that everything is going wrong, stop and check the instruction you gave your filter. If you swap the internal question from "Why is everything so hard?" to "What is one small aspect that is actually working right now?", that exact same brainstem filter starts handing you entirely different facts from the same day.

Want to learn more about how your brain runs the show for you?

Enjoy Being Human

💞 Life will Life 🧠 The Brain will Brain

Having some human skills makes life smoother.

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Did Ya Know?...