Our Internal Doorman

If you want to start seeing things we need to start looking for them. This sounds so very simple, so obvious in fact, that many people wouldn’t spend any time thinking on it. Our brains though, come equipped with a function sometimes referred to as the RAS (reticular activating system); which has to do with states of arousal and such.
I think that we all come equipped with a kind of a filter; a filter that simply holds back the bulk of information that our environment throws at us. Simply put, there is just too much information coming at us, from every angle, at every waking second, of every day; we have all had to evolve a ‘filtering system’ to keep out everything that is not relevant to our conscious desires and ambitions. In letting ourselves know that we want this or are seeking that, then the filtering system, like any good doorman, allows the best-dressed (relevant) info through. We learn to see things by telling ourselves we are looking for them.
We have all experienced this phenomenon countless times. Remember when you bought your first car and suddenly you started noticing that particular model of car everywhere you drove? Why; because it had become relevant to you. They were always there but were never that relevant. It is the same with most things; once we identify what is, for one reason or another, important to us our brains do their thing and go on the lookout for anything that seems at all relevant. If it’s important – then our doorman lets it in.
JBW