Visualisations and Manifestation - The science behind getting EXACTLY what you want!

Have you ever been in a busy room, like at a house party, a year end function or restaurant and while you’re engaged in conversation you don’t hear what anyone else is saying. It’s noisy and you’re focussed on the person in front of you. But all of a sudden, something grabs your attention and you can’t help but listen in?

Welcome to your brain’s most powerful tool, your Reticular Activating System!

This episode breaks down the biological (factual) reasons why your future depends on your thoughts.

It's time to start visualising exactly what you want and making it happen!

Transcript

Have you ever been in a busy room, like at a house party, a year end function or restaurant and while you’re engaged in conversation you don’t hear what anyone else is saying. It’s noisy and you’re focussed on the person in front of you. But all of a sudden, something grabs your attention and you can’t help but listen in?

Welcome to your brain’s most powerful tool, your Reticular Activating System!

So today I want to focus on something that is very big in many self-help books, a lot of thought leaders and some of the world’s most successful people are huge advocates of this too. I want to discuss visualisations and manifestations and how it is possible to make anything you want happen.

I know, I KNOW. It sounds a little airy fairy and even though I can deal with airy fairy, I know many of you can’t. You need cold, hard, facts.

Well, that’s what I have for you.

I’ve done some research on the science behind this. The biological truths to reveal why this is such a talked about and successful topic.

Let’s take a step back. The story I just spoke about - you at an event, when something grabs your attention and you just can’t help but listen in.

Let’s look at what happened before that event.

Let’s pretend you’ve been planning a holiday. You’ve researched a bunch of destinations, but your heart is set on a peaceful trip to Bali. 

You’ve researched all there is to know about the different tourist destinations and places to stay, but now it’s just about finding something the perfect hidden gem.

Move a few days forward and you’ve arrived at the event with the busy room full of people. You are talking to your friend about the delicious chocolate pudding they had at the last event, when all of a sudden you hear someone say “On our last trip to Bali we stayed in the most beautiful villa”. Somehow you heard that and now everything that your friend is telling you about their favourite dessert has become absolutely muted. You are watching their mouth and nodding but you’re only hearing “Close to the turtle sanctuary and such a stunning sea view!” 

Even though you have someone talking directly to you only centimetres away, you are completely tuned in to the Bali traveler 5 metres away.

How did that happen?

Well your Reticular Activating System or RAS is a network of neurons located in the brain stem that is responsible for filtering information your brain receives.

It is the translator between what you hear and your subconscious mind.

The conscious mind can handle 40 bits of data per second. Impressive right?

Well the subconscious mind can handle 40 MILLION bits of data per second! So the RAS is vitally important to make sure that the best 0.000001% makes it to your conscious brain.

It understands what is important to you based on what you prioritise in your thoughts and filters information accordingly.

So because you have been spending so much time thinking about Bali, it knew that that bit of information needed to be pushed to the front.

So that outlines why what you spend your time thinking about is so important.

It is the gateway to identifying opportunities.

Here’s another interesting stat for you. We think on average 75 000 thoughts per day. 91% of them are the same thoughts you had yesterday.

And if we keep thinking the same things, we’ll keep getting the same results.

Now let’s think about the type of thoughts you have during the day. Be brutally honest with yourself here.

What percentage of your thoughts are positive and ambitious and what percentage includes fear, negativity, judgement, resentment, self-doubt, self-criticism?

What is that telling your RAS to focus on?

When you start focusing less on the fears and what could go wrong and start focusing on confidence and the positive things that will happen, your brain will naturally alert you of opportunities to make that happen and will shut off any negative association.

What also starts to happen is that the more you believe in yourself, the more confidence you have in your future, the more upright you stand. The better your body language is in conversations, which inevitably makes people see you as the more powerful lobster. If I lost you there, I recommend reading Rule number 1 in Jordan Peterson’s 12 rules to life: stand up straight with your shoulders back.

It will draw people to you, which opens up more doors and elevates you in status, plus the bonus perk of naturally increasing serotonin.

So when it comes to visualisations, these are so important because they are an opportunity for you to define clear goals and to reinforce the important elements to you. Where you are standing, who’s with you, what it feels like, what it smells like. 

So you might do this during meditation, but I know a lot of people find that difficult to do. Either a lack of time or a lack of concentration.

Here’s a hack I recently invented - maybe other people do this too, but I’m quite proud of it so I’m claiming it as my own.

At the end of 2021 I created a Pinterest board called 2022 and I started pinning all the things I wanted to achieve in 2022. I then created an empty board called DONE.

This is a great way to visually identify my goals and keep track of them. Every day I go into my board and remind myself of what it is I am going to achieve.

The bonus is that once you have pinned these things, the Pinterest algorithm starts to add similar items to your feed, so it is a constant reminder and reinforcement.

We’re just passed mid feb and I’ve moved 4 things into my DONE folder with the 5th one ready to move by the end of March.

Other methods include adding something pertinent to your Lock Screen on your phone. Did you know we unlock our phone up to 400 times a day?!

Every time you look at your screen is a constant reminder.

I need to warn you. This is something you need to be consciously aware of everyday. It is a life hack, but it is definitely not a once-off fix.

Become more aware of what you tell yourself and which seeds you are planting in your mind.

I want to end with two quotes:

The first one:

You don’t see things in life as they are, you see things as you are.

Let me say that again:

You don’t see things in life as they are, you see things as you are.

And the second:

Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.

Thank you so much for listening to my rambling.

I hope it has inspired you to change your mindset and achieve great things.

Remember to give me a follow on Linkedin Kirsten Maarschalk or on Instagram @thepinkkirst and as always, please feel free to share your thoughts and share this episode far and wide.

Until next time!