Your Brain is Filtering Your Reality

In this episode of Just Call Jenna, Jenna explores how the brain’s Reticular Activating System (RAS) quietly shapes the reality we experience by filtering the millions of pieces of information we encounter each second. She explains how our beliefs, identity, and repeated focus train this mental filter, influencing what opportunities, people, and possibilities we notice. Blending neuroscience with concepts often associated with manifestation, Jenna offers a grounded perspective on why changing your mindset is less about wishful thinking and more about intentionally retraining your brain to recognize new patterns and possibilities. 

Jenna also dives into why affirmations alone often fall short, emphasizing that lasting change happens when the nervous system feels safe enough to embrace new beliefs. She discusses how emotional conditioning, self-awareness, and consistent focus on gratitude, growth, and possibility can gradually reshape thought patterns, behaviors, and ultimately the life we create. Rather than relying on toxic positivity, this episode provides a practical framework for aligning your mindset with meaningful action and sustainable personal transformation.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Welcome back. Today I'm going to talk about your brain filtering your reality. So, what that really means, kind of in the way of manifestation, how your nervous system comes into play in that. And my favorite thing in the world, the reticular activating system, or what I call the RAS, because that's how you filter. So we're going to kind of address all of this. So, for example, the RAS, the filter, the reticular activating system. The way it comes about, someone might mention a word that you've never heard, and then somehow you hear it seven times that week. This is all because of the reticular activating system in your brain. It's like a filter, it will give you more of what you're aware of. In other words, it just filters in what you see. So your brain hits 11 million bits of information per second. Well, your conscious can only process about 50 bits of that information. So there is a ton of information in the subconscious or your unawareness that you are processing all the time. For example, right now your brain is processing sounds, sensations, sights, smells, touches, everything going on around you. It's too much for you to be aware of. You can't focus on that much information at a time. So your reticular activating system is actually how you're going to control what you filter in. Neuroscience says something else happened, right? Your brain decided that that info mattered. Your reticular activating system or your RAS, it's not just observing your reality, it's actually filtering it in. It's a network of neurons at the base of your brain stem. It's a filter to filter out that overwhelming amount of information. Again, 11 million bits per second. You can't process all that. You are conscious of about 50 bits per second. So that's just a lot of information that your brain has to decide goes away or not now, right? Just filters it into the bottom. It stores it. It's kind of like the gatekeeper. It decides what to ignore and what to repeatedly focus on. More, more, more, more, more of what you tell it to be aware of. So if you're ruminating on negative things, it's going to find all the reasons for your negativity. If you're focusing on possibilities, opportunities, it's going to filter that in. Again, it's going to prioritize and store what you don't need because your conscious mind, your awareness can't process all that you're getting in. Kind of where neuroscience and manifestation overlap. That's where your RAS is. That's where you actually have control of what you're manifesting, what you're thinking, what you're focusing on. You actually have that control. What you think about more will ruminate and be more. There's that you think 60,000 thoughts a day, 90% of them are the same thoughts as yesterday, and 70% of them are based in negativity, the negativity bias in the brain. So if you can control what you're aware of and what your dominant thoughts are, that's how you make changes. What if the life you're experiencing right now isn't luck or bad luck, if you will, but what your brain has been trained to filter, what your dominant thoughts are based on those same theories. It's not because the universe is picking on you or awarding other people, but it's actually delivering exactly what you're thinking about the most, what you're filtering in, because the law of attraction is like attracts like. So if you're thinking negative, poor me, judgmental thoughts about yourself, your brain is designed to be a prediction machine and give you all of the reasons why those things are true. It is looking for evidence to prove things true. So what you focus on is what you're going to get. Tomorrow I'm going to think more of I'm abundant and there's more opportunities. And as that goes on, that is going to become more of a dominant thought than just a seed planted. But if you don't plant the seeds to tell that filter what to be aware of, you kind of can't get to the end. So there is a little bit of time buffer between when you start these intentional thoughts, mantras, manifestations. And the more you repeat that, the bigger that's going to get. So again, it's kind of where neuroscience and manifestation meet up, but the intersection is highly related to that RAS filter and what you focus on. That's why some people seem to be more lucky or more able to do things than others. But what you think is how you're going to filter your reality. When I was in that hospital bed, I didn't realize that I was just ruminating all these traumas that I had gone through in my life and I was stuffing them down and letting stress ruminate. I thought I was okay. I thought everything was fine. And then I learned to say, I'm a peaceful, abundant person and become that. So who I am now, this Jenna 2.0, is nothing like who I was before. There are some things that are just innately who I am, but I would not have described that first version of me as peaceful. I would have said I was aggressive, I was a hustler, I was an achiever. And I'm still some of those things because they have become part of my identity. But now my filter is peace and joy and abundance. And I live that every day. My filter let me become aware of all the opportunities to be abundant, peaceful, all of those things. And now that's the life I live. That's kind of the point of this podcast is to ask and understand that you have this awareness in your view. You might think everything's okay. Controlling your RAS and deciding what you want to filter in will open the door to what you want and who you want to be. Your brain is filtering what you experience, but you actually have control of what you want to focus on. It's a big question that many people ask all the time. Am I manifesting or is this my mindset? Well, you kind of need a little bit of both. I don't think we have to choose science or spirituality. It's kind of like two pillars, and there's maybe a bridge in between that you can walk. Um, I think they say the same thing, but in a different way. I think science gives structure to concept that spirituality has intuitively understood for centuries. The reticular activating system, URS, that is the place you control. You can tell your brain what to filter in. Your brain has these habits and predictable patterns of doing what you've always done. But if you don't have what you want, you have to do what it is that you've never done. The reticular activating system, URS, that is the place you control. You can tell your brain what to filter in. You choose what you want to filter in. And what you filter in, the law of attraction will come in and give you more of what you already have. Like attracts like. So if you're focused on negativity, you're gonna find a lot more negativity. If you're focused on positivity, you're gonna find a lot more positivity. What you focus on is what you're gonna, what you're gonna get more of. Remember, your your RAS is your filter, but you can train it. Focus trains that filter, and your identity trains that filter. So everything aligning up, living in alignment, being true to who you are and where you want to go, the the filter in your brain, your RAS, is gonna get you there. You should ask yourself in the morning, what opportunities am I available to see today? Not just what do I want to have and you know, this is what I intend to do for the day. Those are great, highly recommend them. But you should be asking yourselves, what opportunities am I available to notice today? Not what could go wrong or why is life against me, but what wants to align with me? What do I have space for? What am I putting out that I want to get back of? And there's a little time buffer in there, but if you're intentionally sort of doing that in the morning and instead of making things so concrete, and I think you should absolutely be specific, the brain needs specificity and details, or it makes up dramatic stories, but that filter will shape your perception. And that perception will shape the decisions that suggest what you do and filter into your identity. Have you ever noticed that if you think something negative about somebody because somebody told you this person is like this, you start looking for all the evidence to prove that that person is like that, whether that be good or bad. That is your brain and your RAS filter and other pieces working together to do that. Again, the brain is a prediction machine. It looks for evidence to back up what theories you make up in your mind. This is why affirmations often fail, because they're just a little too specific without that openness. If someone says, I am successful, but internally they feel unworthy, failure is likely to happen because the universe speaks frequency. It doesn't speak affirmations. I think awareness is much more important. So that practice of what opportunities am I available to notice today. And again, if 90% of the thoughts that you have today are going to fail tomorrow, why not be available to notice opportunities so that tomorrow there's more opportunities? After a week or two, you're going to be just noticing opportunities. So it's not so much about where you're stuck today. Today might feel stuck and heavy. We've all been through terrible things. You might be going through a terrible thing right now. I had a hard week, but just by asking myself, what am I available to notice? That hard week didn't take over and ruminate and ruin my life and send me in the depths of the downward spiral. I noticed how I felt. I have emotions. I'm a human being. I make mistakes just like anybody else. But by saying, What am what opportunities am I available to notice every morning? By the end of the week, that hard week that a couple of years ago would have destroyed me and had me in the pit of despair is now like, okay, that happened. But that's how the nervous system responds. It's going to respond to how you emotionally feel about things. The stronger the emotion, the more it's going to settle in your nervous system. So if affirmations are failing, it might be because your nervous system isn't aligned with what you're trying to put out there. Now, I'm not saying stop the mantras and manifestations and affirmations. By all means, if that's what it's taking to filter that RAS in and choose what you filter, do whatever works for you. If I'm saying I'm successful, but I don't feel like it, my nervous system isn't going to support it. Therefore, the universe isn't going to support it, whether I like it or not. If I can't let that settle into my nervous system that I feel successful, no amount of success is ever going to fill that. And I'm probably going to block a lot of opportunities out of my life. So you've heard me in podcasts say I'm the kind of person who, or I might want to be this. I'm learning to trust myself is a great affirmation. It doesn't have so black and white that I trust myself. It's just I'm learning to trust myself. You're letting that settle in, that you're trusting yourself. Opportunities exist even if I don't see them. I am training my brain to feel safe. I am training my nervous system to be safe. I recently have gone through a very hard time in my own personal life. And I just keep telling myself, right now, my job is to let my nervous system settle. So when that stress comes up, which, oh, by the way, this week there has been a ton, I am calm through this storm. This has been a week of storms, tsunamis, and things that would have set me into spirals before, but it doesn't mean I won't focus on those things later. But right now, at this trial and tribulation of life, this storm, my job is to just let my nervous system settle and stay peaceful. So these are what real affirmations sound like, not unrealistic. I'm here and I'm affirming here. Great, I would love to be over here, but I need to get to here first. So baby steps. What is step one? A lot of us do this thing, and of course, society backs it up, but most of life is not that dramatic. I mean, sure, the movies, the books, the drama, the reels online. Yes. Oh, here's what I bought on Amazon, and now my life is better. Um, here's what I followed, this new diet, and my life is better. All these now, now, now fixes. Most of life is actually the mundane, the boring, the in-between that we're not focusing on. So training that thing in your brain to filter in more of what you want. It's not just the dream of where you want to be. It's, okay, I want a clean house, but I'm a hoarder. Maybe today I'm just gonna focus on one closet, one drawer, one baby step. I'm the kind of person who cleans up after myself. Those kind of things start moving you in that direction so you can be at the end result because there needs to be some kind of time buffer, but along the way is motivation, action, and consistency to keep it up. You start with the right thoughts and I'm learning to trust myself. Opportunities exist, even if I can't see them. I'm letting my nervous system settle. This creates less internal resistance inside you. And the brain is more willing to adopt these thoughts and they become psychologically attainable. Remember, the brain, when something is new or uncomfortable, it's going to go danger. It's going to try to fight you. But how do you create less internal resistance? You start with that filter and some realistic affirmations. Controlling your filter is the big thing, right? That RAS filter. So is manifestation real or is it a mindset? Well, it's both. If you're thinking about opportunities, more opportunities come. If you're thinking about closed doors, more closed doors are gonna come. How does that really happen? This is law of attraction stuff, right? Like attracts like. What does that really mean? This is how your brain is filtering your reality. What you're filtering in, you're going to get more of. Neuroscience shows that your brain does that. What you're thinking about is going to attract more of it to prove itself true, so that tomorrow you have more evidence. So some might describe manifestation as energetic alignment. Others are subconscious conditioning. I think it's kind of both are true to varying degrees. Science and spirituality say the same thing. What you repeatedly focus on, the brain prioritizes. The nervous system familiarizes it, and your behavior will unconsciously shift towards it, and your actions will move in that direction. So that's manifestation, right? It's really that if you're here and you want to be here, you need to get your brain and nervous system and everything moving in that direction. And as you do, momentum will pick up and more of what you're focused on will come in. Your brain will look for evidence to prove what you're thinking is true. It wants you to be right. So it's not about sitting and visualizing money, for example, which by the way, I love to do that. It usually works a little differently than you might think it would. You start believing that it's possible to have more money, not looking for ways of, oh, I have all these bills, I have all these things in my way. You start really believing that it's possible for you to be rich and have all the abundance you like, right? You start thinking that that's possible. What kind of person are you that can hold that? And then you pay attention to the actions you're making. You start deciding does what does future you look like? What does the person that has all the money to pay your bills and live in abundance, what do they look like? What do they think like? What do they act like? It's possible that you could be that person. And then you'll start noticing opportunities for money to come in. You'll take more aligned actions in that direction, and you'll make decisions from an expansion perspective or what that future you is that can hold all that. So I'm using the example of money because I think we all live in a capitalist societies and everybody's manifesting money. I'm out there hustling, I'm getting my grind on whatever it is. I happen to be one of those two. Instead of fearing that I have all these bills to pay and how am I going to do it? I just imagine that I'm the kind of person who paid everything. I let go of the how. I just imagine what it feels like to be the person who paid that big bill. Instead of worrying about that, my way of bawling about it is to just sit and think about if I'm the person who has that bill paid, how am I thinking, acting, feeling? And my internal world shifts and my outer world aligns because I'm controlling what the RAS in my brain is filtering in. Money seems to be one of the biggest things. At least half the time, people are concerned about finances. Think about it. Instead of worrying about, oh, I have this big bill, I have to ball harder, right? You've been doing things a certain way for so long. Why not try to just sit and think about what it would feel like if I didn't have that pressure and it was paid? And if you start acting like that now and let go of the how it's going to happen, that thing will be over before you know it. And you'll wonder why you put so much worry into it. You worry way too much for somebody who has figured it out all the time. You have survived 100% of your bad days. I think all of us can sit and think about what it felt like when something bad happened and the world was caving in. Oh, I'm gonna fall apart. Oh, all these bad things are going to happen. And it continued, right? Just think of what it would be like to be that person that had what you needed. How would you act? What would you feel like? What is that identity? It will shift inside of you, and your brain, your RAS will start filtering in everything it can to prove that true. So it takes a little faith in believing that it's possible because right now you can't see it. You're not aware of how that's possible. But just I'm the kind of person who pretty soon, before you know it, the border's built, you found all the pieces and the pictures coming together, and you're down to two or three pieces before the puzzle's done. But you can't do that until you would start accepting that it's possible that there's even a puzzle. The nervous system piece is missing from all of those conversations, in my view. You can't sustainably attract what your nervous system perceives as a threat. It thinks it's unsafe. So you kind of have to train your nervous system and don't forget your brain is part of the nervous system. You have to train yourself to be the kind of person who, or that my nervous system is safe. Again, this week was hard for me, but I'm telling my nervous system to settle. So I can sit here and have normal conversations and help people and still be the authentic me, even though there's a little storm somewhere in the lake of me. I think that it's normal to worry, but I've learned to stop overthinking the worst that can happen and ruminating on that. And I start overthinking what's the best that can happen? What does my ideal look like? And my nervous system starts to accept that. You can't consistently hold on to experiences your body associates with danger. You just can't. If you do that, you're going to be in PTSD and trauma because you're not letting it go. Love, success, visibility, peace, name it, money. If it associates anything with pressure, abandonment, judgment, burnout, or loss, you'll unconsciously sabotage all those good things because your nervous system doesn't know how to hold it. So you have to teach yourself how to do that. That's why I always say I'm the kind of person who. It doesn't mean that I have to be perfect because striving for perfectionism actually creates more trauma. It's usually a trauma response. Now, me five years ago, I was constantly chasing it, but it was never enough. I didn't realize what that was until I almost died, how detrimental that was. It's not because I was lazy or low vibration, but it was because my nervous system prioritized familiar over happiness. So in theory, I wanted to be happy, but I wasn't aware of everything I was doing that was blocking my happiness. I wasn't aware that it's kind of like saying I want to go to the gym and lose 100 pounds, but then I'm eating pizza and drinking beer every night. But instead of myself blocking those, I start saying I'm the kind of person who walks at night. More often than not, I will make choices that align with that because we are all the product of what we consistently do. The question comes then, how do we work with the brain intentionally? First of all, your watcher listen to my podcast. That's number one, just so you know. But seriously, the answer is the neuroscience. It is the being the kind of person who making conscious choices to be aware of what you're thinking because thought patterns can change, responses can change, identity can change. Your brain decides what's important, but your brain decides that based on what you focus on. So consistently directing your attention towards possibility is going to be better than consistently focused on what problems might exist, having a can-do attitude, so to speak. So if you are consistently directing yourself to possibility, opportunities, gratitude, you're going to be the kind of person who, if you decide it's important to be abundant and peaceful, guess what? It's going to be important to be abundant and peaceful. If you decide it's important to focus on how hard your life has been, guess what? Tomorrow your life is still going to be hard. But when you label something as important, the RAS filter starts scanning for evidence that that's true. So again, the practices are thinking about in the morning what opportunities am I available to notice today and get very comfortable with I'm the kind of person who.