There is a wedding or special occasion in your family. You are thinking about buying some jewels. And suddenly when you go to the market, your attention catches all the jewellery stores in the market which earlier you didn’t even notice. Everywhere you seem to be seeing jewellery stores. These stores were there earlier too, but earlier you didn’t notice them, earlier your attention was somewhere else, like on the various food joints in the market. But at this moment, your attention is reflecting back to you mainly the jewellery stores.
Another example. You are in a crowd of people who are all talking to each other loudly. There is too much noise in the crowd that you can’t hear anything properly. But somewhere in the crowd, someone calls your name. Immediately, your attention drops the noise and gets focused on the direction from which the call of your name is coming.
This is a mystery about the phenomenon of attention. There is an enigma in the process of attention that can only be deciphered when observed too closely.
Just like a photograph is developed in the dark and not in the light, in the same way, this phenomenon of attention occurs in the darkness of our brain inside which we cannot see until we observe ourselves. In this darkness of the brain glows a network as wide as the width of a pencil, which governs this phenomenon of attention. Let us understand what it is.
First of all, there are mainly two parts of our mind. One is the conscious mind (CM) and other is the subconscious mind (SM). The CM processes nearly 40 bits of information per second while the SM processes millions and billions of bits of information every second. There is a system which acts as a filter between the CM and SM. This system is called Reticular Activating System (RAS). This system is a network of nerves located in the brainstem.
The RAS sets the programming in our brain through which we see and perceive the world. Of all the data that we consume from our everyday world, RAS processes the data, sends it to the subconscious storehouse and filters and prioritizes it for you so you can focus your attention on a particular information. And then you begin to see what you desire to see.
Throughout our life, this system keeps on constantly changing and shifting. Just realize, how as an adult you don’t see the same situation as you saw it when you were a child. Likes, dislikes and favorites change too. Even our deepest attachments, infatuations and crushes lose their attraction over time. This is all because the RAS keeps on getting programmed and reprogrammed.
In t1 moment of time, you are not the same person as in t2 moment of time. Our life is the sum of these moments t1 + t2 + t3+….+ tn
During these moments, the quality of our life depends on the programming of our RAS filters. When we write, we begin to shift this programming, telling the RAS what things to prioritize and what things to pay attention to.
The more depth we add to our RAS, the richer is the quality of life.
As you take a scrappy notebook and scratch on it with the charcoal tip of the pencil, or metallic tip of a pen, you tell your RAS to pay attention to little things. Writing activates the RAS and helps you zero down your attention so that the stream of your thoughts can flow free.
When you journal or write something such as an affirmation or an
intention, it programs your RAS to pay attention to all those things that are
useful or supporting of your goal.
As for the creative process, there are two writing tools that enable us to reprogram our RAS to look at life in a fresh, colourful way.
One is Exposition and the other is description. Exposition is where you write something by exposing it in full-on detailed manner, by ripping it apart to shreds and by jotting down a picture to its pixels.
Google defines exposition as this…
An exposition is when you look at something as if you are looking at it for the very first time, or as a newborn. How would you then describe it, not as an adult but as a child?
When we write an exposition, we program our RAS to look at the world from a child’s fresh point of view. We code our brain to pay attention to little things, to ask questions, and to sense the mystery and fantasy in everyday things.
Say for instance, if you ask an adult they say,
I live on planet Earth.
Whereas a child says,
I am sitting in a blue-green ball floating in the black ocean of space.
So, writing an exposition programs our RAS to learn to focus our
attention on a particular window of time, to move and control our attention on
our will, to see things clearly and in a magnified way.
On the flip side, description is the way how you describe what you see.
What details you express, and in what words you express the details. A
description is basically a picture you paint with the words.
When we write a description, our RAS gets intently focused on the tiniest details, colours, textures, sounds and smells. This programs our RAS to be more aware and attentive of our surroundings.
The more we learn to be aware of our surroundings, the more awareness we begin to have of ourself. And the more awareness we have of ourselves, the deeper we understand everything.
So, all in all, whether you wish to mirror your desired reality in the world outside or you want to be more creative, then write your way to reprogram your RAS.
Author of
Bird by Bird Anne Lamott writes,
Writing
motivates you to look closely at life, at life as it lurches by and tramps
around. – Anne Lamott
Comments
Post a Comment