Tune Your Brain for More Success
By Dr Jill Ammon-Wexler
Pioneer Brain/Mind Researcher
© 2006 All Rights Reserved

Every wonder why some people have such extraordinary luck attracting endless opportunities that move them closer to their goals? Actually there’s a neuroscience explanation for such unusual “luck” – it’s simply their brain following instructions.

The Amygdala
Your brain has many different functional parts that play a part in your ability to achieve your goals. Once such is the “emotional brain” – commonly called the limbic system by the scientific community. Your brain’s limbic system has a whole lot to do with your ability to achieve (or fail to achieve) the goals you set.

One small part of your limbic system is called the amygdala (ah-mig-da-la). The amygdala’s basic job is to scan everything happening to and around you – and to assign emotional meaning what you sense (see, hear, touch, etc).

If it finds something attached to negative emotional content, it then functions as a “panic button” to warn you that (based on your past experience) you may be facing a “dangerous situation.”

The Reticular Activating System
And along those lines, your amygdala is joined by another even more primitive part of your brain located down in your brainstem – your Reticular Activating System ( RAS ).

So what does the RAS do? It actually acts like a primary filter of all of your sensory input. It looks at what is happening to you, and determines what is feels is important enough to send up to your higher brain centers. And interestingly -- since the brain stem is primarily an old portion of the brain that focuses first on your survival – the RAS gives special importance to anything it feels is negative and could damage your survival.

The RAS could even be said to be something of a “negativity magnet” that constantly scans for things that could be said to be urgent or threatening. An important, but not very positive part of your brain.

The Cumulative Effect
The negative signs your RAS is on the lookout for are often primarily based on your prior experience -- all the way back to childhood. Since the RAS is part of the portion of your brain tht is primarily concerned with survival, your RAS looks for anything in the present that could “hurt” you as you have been hurt in the past.

So if you have an old “hurt” related to rejection, the RAS will be on the alert for anything that could signal possible rejection – and send those straight up to your higher brain centers.

Your amygdala, in turn, would automatically attach a sad or painful emotional component to any stimulus that reminds you of rejection. It’s a “double whammy” that keeps you super sensitive to the old “stuff” in your life.

The Positive Side
So all of this must seem rather negative, but there is a way to get these two components of your brain refocused on what you WANT – rather that constantly thinking only of survival and avoiding past negative experiences.

How can that be accomplished? You’re going to have to “re-focus” your amygdala and RAS on the “sunny side of the street.” To rewire their instructions to move beyond the mere survival mode – and more in the direction of helping you instead automatically scan for opportunities that can move you in the direction of your positive goals.

This calls for tuning into your higher brain centers. You goal is to improve the way your amygdala and RAS interpret your world -- to change their focus away from anything negative in your past – and toward giving more attention to what you WANT your life to be like.

The ultimate and most positive tool you have for achieving this is emotion. The reason for this goes straight to how the RAS and amygdala got those negative associations to begin with.

Using the Negative Side
It is the emotional content of past negative events that makes them so “solid” in your subconscious mind. And the only way to fight past emotion is with current emotion. Both the r RAS and amygdala are on the alert for “negative emotion.

Among our most powerful emotions are fear and anger. Suppose you were to arrive at a point in your life that you were so afraid you would continue to be ruled by your past pain, that you became outraged and furious (super anger). You can bet your RAS and amygdala would definitely pay attention, and would then begin to try to steer you away from responding to your old past pain – a 180 degree shift.

Think about it!

?? There are several answers to this gradual decrease. One is targeted brainwave stimulation to the cortex, the other is a more cognitive approach to increasing ones focus.

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