Make a Declaration!
Are you paying attention to what you are paying attention to?
You have a magic wand that you might not be using to its fullest potential!
Ok, it’s not magic, it’s neurosciency stuff, but it wields amazing power which may be happening without your awareness!
If you were with us in last week’s Creative Resistance session, then you know how incredibly empowering it is to put down on paper the one thing you are ready to declare. Of course, it is much better to put it on paper than burying it under layers of what society deems acceptable.
If you missed it, then I want to share this with you because it is a powerful tool!
What is your desire?
Let’s start by figuring out what it is you are ready to declare.
What do you long for?
What do you desire?
What keeps knocking on your door?
What permission do you need to give yourself?
What behaviors or states of being are you ready to walk away from?
What behaviors or states of being are you ready to inhabit?
Are you even allowed to desire?
What does the word “desire” bring up for you?
Have you been taught that “desire” itself is deemed sinful tied as it to sexual immorality by society and by church authorities? That’s an old story.
Maybe you are ready to make a declaration filled with negative, not-this energy, as in “I’m made as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!!” Remember the movie, Network from the 1970’s?
Perhaps a more positive declaration is in order, as in “I am taking this action” or I am being this kind of person.”
So what is it you are ready to declare?
Your Reticular Activating System
Let me (re-)introduce you to a special powerful cluster of neurons in your brain stem that take the shape of a short magic wand, called your Reticular Activating System or RAS. In addition to a few other jobs, the RAS filters your sensory inputs and decides what information is allowed to enter your conscious awareness. The good news is that the RAS prevents the brain from becoming overwhelmed.
I recently heard that an Irish woman living in the 6th century received the same amount of data input during her entire lifetime as we receive every second! No wonder we feel overwhelmed. Some estimate that we receive 11 millions bits of information every second! (how did they count that??!) But thanks to the RAS, we consciously only register about 40 at a time.
The bad news is that for many of us, the RAS is working on autopilot.
Your RAS is always working, always filtering. The question is whether you are directing it consciously or letting it run on its default settings.” Link
How or who is choosing which 40 bits of information make it into your conscious awareness?
Here’s the powerful part: You get to choose how to direct your RAS! You can choose what you want to pay attention to. The RAS responds to what your conscious mind decides is important. The RAS filters based on what is “currently relevant or meaningful to you.” Obviously, you are the only one who should decide what is meaningful to you. By being more intentional about what you are paying attention to, you can activate your RAS and direct its course for your good.
How to activate your Reticular Activating System
Your words contain energy. They can motivate or dissuade. After floundering in the feeling that I wanted to be more involved in my kids’ lives, I read about the future scripting method by Magdalena Ponurska. I changed my declaration from “I want to be closer to my kids” to “I am moving to the city where my kids live.”
Write your declaration in the present tense
Using her method, I wrote out in present tense with specific and descriptive details how a day in my life would look six months into the future. I wrote it as if it was actually happening in real time. The RAS focused my attention and found connections and opportunities to turn my imagined version into my reality.
When you state in the present tense what “is meaningful to you,” what you are calling in, or declaring, or choosing to be done doing, your RAS will start finding connections to support your declaration.
My brain doesn’t know the difference between what I could imagine was happening and what was happening in reality.
“Here’s what the neuroscience actually says: your brain doesn’t cleanly separate vivid imagination from lived experience. Write something in present-tense, sensory detail and your prefrontal cortex fires as though the scene is real. Your reticular activating system, the filter that decides what information is worth surfacing to your conscious mind, quietly reorganizes around what you’ve written.” Link
When I made my declaration that I was moving, my RAS directed my attention to start “gravitating toward relevant information automatically.” Link
Avoid words like “hope” and “want”
Those words introduce doubt or convey a sense of lack. To want something means you don’t have it, and that implies lack. If you want to paint more, create a declaration that states “I am a painter and I create art three mornings each week.”
Be specific
As you concretize your declaration, include specific details, something your RAS can actually recognize in all those bits of stimuli coming at you. Remember the SMART method of setting goals? You can use that framework: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound.
Embody it
If you just think about your declaration, keeping it up in your head, it may just dissipate into the ether, like that third thing on my grocery list…what was it again? Make your declaration more concrete by engaging your senses and committing it to the page. Use as many of your senses as you can to make your declaration feel embodied.
Draw it out:
Use your favorite colors to stimulate your visual sense
Use a variety of textures to stimulate your tactile sense
Play your favorite music while creating to stimulate your auditory sense
Burn some incense or a scented candle or spray the air with your favorite smell to stimulate your olfactory sense
I don’t recommend that you eat your art pieces. Maybe nibble on some chocolate as you create.
Write it out: If you choose to write out your declaration, use as many descriptors to make your message as vivid and three dimensional as possible. Listen to music and scent the air as suggested above.
Tell everybody
My RAS has become a motivating force for me. I was able to keep focused on my declaration during the long and hard work of clearing out and packing up and finding a new place to live. In addition, telling everyone kept me accountable. And of course, my kids kept checking on my progress and cheering me on! Telling everyone is a real test of your commitment. People will ask how it’s going which makes it harder to give up and let your commitment fade away.
These are the ways I have used to direct my RAS. For additional ways that you might find helpful, read this article.
Set your intention to pay attention to patterns you are stopping, actions you are starting, or a state of being you are creating.
Your Reticular Activating System will help you achieve just that.