Reprogramming the Reticular Activating System (RAS) week two

No One said this is easy!

People are pretty complex, and life can be pretty complicated at times. This is why changing behaviours, routines, attitudes, and habits can be a challenge as there is so much which goes on inside our head on so many levels.

If we think of an iceberg we have on top of the water our Conscious Level, our conscious awareness, thoughts, perceptions. Then just below the water line our preconscious level, things which are there and can be retrieved easily e.g. do I need to pick up bread and milk when I am out. We are not always thinking about our shopping list till we make an effort to recall what we need, then this pops into our mind when we need it. Then there is our unconscious level, our fears, phobias, feelings, urges, and memories we may have pushed to the back of our mind as they were painful or unpleasant, as ever, this wee post does not replace professional advice.

If we keep on the idea of food, here is how these levels of consciousness can work

Conscious level, which is kind of what we are aware of just now e.g. I am hungry

Preconscious level, is like a store of knowledge we can call on easily if we need it e.g. there is bread in the cupboard and cheese in the fridge

Unconscious level this is where our fears, anxieties, memories, often of things which cause us pain, or were unpleasant so we pushed them to the ‘back of our mind’ e.g. we open the fridge and find when we remove the cheese the fridge is empty, we have a feeling of panic we can’t put a finger on as we can go to the shops and buy more, but, our unconscious remembers a time in our past when the fridge was always empty and the cupboards were bare and our parents were arguing about money as we hid under the bed covers, lonely, hungry and afraid. Now this is maybe so far back in our memory we have forgotten it, but something about that empty fridge called it back, we are left feeling unsettled and we aren’t really sure why.

Our RAS evolved over the years to keep us safe and that includes making sure we have plenty of food, as food, water, shelter is essential to keep us safe. If our RAS picks up the threats, there may be no food before we know it when we go shopping, we don’t just buy a block of cheese but a whole cheese round!

Think of panic buying when the country went into lockdown. This shows how powerful the RAS can be in influencing our behaviour. Fortunately, panic buying did not last long enough to become a habit and people’s routine shopping went back to relatively normal. However, had people of continued to stockpile food and toilet rolls! Repeatedly over a period of time, this new routine would become a habit. Reinforced by the RAS every time someone saw some news about COVID19 or some other possible disruption to the food supply and wondered, ‘do I have enough food? Better get some more’

Unchecked this could lead to debt; food being wasted as it goes out of date, issues of storage and more. As well as exploring habits we may want to change, it’s good to be mindful of not adopting more which are unhelpful for our wellbeing.

If we want to change habits and routines, we need to find ways to re-programme our filter, to find new routines and habits which can support us feeling healthier and more fulfilled. If this is important to you, you need to think about how to change and reprogramme your filter. One series of posts and invitations to reflect cannot cover all the routines and habits any of us may have, so it shall focus on the routines and habits we have for our wellbeing. By improving our self-care, we may find we also begin to re-programme our RAS in other areas of our life.

The Jigsaw Lid for wellbeing

Imagine someone gave you a Jigsaw puzzle of 1000 pieces with no lid! How would we begin to put that puzzle together? Where would we even start? What is the image in our mind of your practicing selfcare and being kind to your wellbeing? What are the pieces which will make this vision real? What are you doing, thinking, feeling, how are you behaving? Having pieces and no vision is as challenging as having a vision and no pieces. For things to change, we need to find new ways to solve the puzzles of our own lives and bring the vision and the pieces together. It maybe the pieces you identify are something like this..

  • Find ways to be cheerful to conserve energy
  • Relax
  • Have more energy
  • Manage problems better
  • Believe in myself more
  • Improve my connections with others
  • Regain an interest in life and sense of purpose
  • Develop a more optimistic approach to the future
  • Improve my self-care
  • Get a better night’s sleep
  • Worry less

These are only examples, think what matters to you and the changes you want to see for your wellbeing, it’s your Jigsaw puzzle, you determine the pieces. Then once you become aware of the pieces you want to bring into your life, the next step is planning the actions to make that happen in a way that works for you. Be realistic small regular steps we can build into our day and our budget are better than thinking about huge steps we never find the time or money to take. Reprogramming the RAS now means your filter is looking for opportunities to support your vision.

Sometimes we have so many things going on in our head at the same time it’s hard to focus; especially if we are trying to plan and work out the potential outcomes of that decision and there seems to be 1001 places to go to offer advice on what to do.

As with any puzzle, its rare we complete it in one go, we maybe do the sky first, or the grass, or the sea. So, it is with the puzzles of life. We start where we can makes some changes and then we build from there. If we try and do too much at once, we can become overwhelmed and find instead, we do little or nothing. So start small and build e.g. I want to be more active, vision yourself as being more active and enjoying it, then begin to look for opportunities. It can be as simple as taking a few minutes walk outside, that is a start and see where your vision takes you next time.

If we are to make changes that means we need to create new routines and new habits and that, is easier said, than done. If our routine and habit has been to see the worst-case scenario, to believe there is no point as things won’t change, nothing makes any difference.  Then no matter what tools we may be presented with, nothing changes. This has to be something which you decide matters to you. This is why reprogramming the RAS matters to help us to look for opportunities instead of obstacles.

Like any puzzle, we don’t always get it right first time and that’s okay, no one always gets it right first time, that’s how we learn. In life as in any game there are rules, learn to have fun, learn the rules for actions you can take which supports your dreams and dream big.

Invitation to reflect

We may have decided it matters to us to explore how to regain our sense of balance, of wellbeing, to consider our routines and habits and the filters we look through the world with and how this can help us to re-programme our filter, to adopt new routines which lead to healthier habits. The Jigsaw lid is a place to start as it helps us decide if there is something we would like to change in our life. The link to the Jigsaw lid is at the end of this post.

It can help helps you decide on the areas you want to work on to improve your wellbeing. There are many tips and ideas on www.copescotland.com which may be helpful once you identify the pieces which matter to you.  Begin to appreciate what is there and shift your focus. Rather than focus on why it is not changing, or will not change, think about what assets we have, or know of which already exist which could support this change. Sometimes rather than start something new to make the change, we simply stop doing something we are doing now. Small steps matter, the first one could be deciding what are the pieces you want to bring into your life. This can be one at a time, do what works for your health and wellbeing as you are valuable and an amazing human being, remember that.

 

https://www.copescotland.com/resources/my-personal-jigsaw-lid-for-wellbeing

Thanks for reading

Hilda

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