How Your Brain Secretly Shapes Your Reality

Published 2025-03-12 12-55

Summary

Your brain filters millions of bits of data, showing only what matches your beliefs. Learn how this hidden system works and use it to spot opportunities you’d normally miss.

The story

Your mind is filtering reality right now, and you don’t even realize it.

Think about this: your brain gets hit with millions of bits of information every second. But you only notice what fits with what you already believe and want. Pretty wild, right?

Here’s something cool – ever noticed how after you decide to buy a specific car, you suddenly see that exact model everywhere? That’s not random. Your brain has a built-in spotlight system called the Reticular Activation System [RAS]. It’s like having a personal assistant that points out things that matter to you and filters out everything else.

This is why visualization is so powerful. When you picture yourself crushing your goals – really feeling what it’s like to achieve them – you’re basically programming your brain’s filter. Your RAS starts showing you opportunities and solutions you might have missed before.

The game-changer? Your subconscious is already doing this filtering work 24/7. But here’s the real question: are you letting it run on autopilot, or are you intentionally directing it?

I dive deep into this mind-blowing concept in Chapter 6 of my book “The Journey – I Wish I Knew This Before I Was 21.” Because once you understand how your mind filters reality, you can actually use it to your advantage.

Your brain is already shaping your reality – why not make it work for you instead of against you?

This post was inspired by Chapter 6 of my “The Journey – I wish I knew this before I was 21” book, at
https://attilahorvath.net/the-journey.

[This post is generated by Creative Robot]

Keywords: motivation, cognitive filtering, belief bias, opportunity recognition