Training Your RAS: Rewiring Your Brain’s Filter for Focus
Oct 01, 2025
As we highlighted in the previous blog, your brain is constantly flooded with noise—sounds, sights, thoughts, sensations. Over 11 million signals rush in every second, but your conscious mind only grabs about 40.
That job belongs to the Reticular Activating System (RAS)—a network in your brainstem that acts like your personal search engine. It’s the reason you suddenly see your new car model everywhere or hear your name cut through the buzz of a crowded room.
Here’s the thing: your RAS doesn’t just shape what you notice—it shapes your reality. Left on autopilot, it highlights distractions, worries, or discomfort. But if you train it with intention, it begins filtering for the cues that keep you steady, confident, and locked in on what matters most.
Deeper Dive into Four Tools to Retrain Your RAS
- Prime with a Focus Script
Before you start a workout, meeting, or presentation, set your filter with a short, intentional script. Speak it out loud to anchor your brain.
Example:
“Today, I will tune into my steady breath, the strength in my body, and the clarity in my mind. I am calm, present, and prepared.”
Think of this as giving your brain a clear set of instructions: This is what matters—highlight these things.
- Condition Your Cues
Identify 2–3 signals that represent you at your best—like the rhythm of your breathing, the feeling of strong posture, or the sound of smooth footsteps. Each time they show up, call them out mentally.
This repetition rewires your RAS to spotlight them automatically, so they cut through distractions when you need them most.
- Build a Distraction Filter Map
Everyone has default distractions—self-doubt, external noise, fatigue. If you don’t train your RAS, those distractions run the show.
Write down your top three. Then assign each a redirect action—something simple to pull you back on track: tapping your fingers, touching your race belt, or repeating a phrase like “reset.”
This process teaches your brain to downgrade the distraction and upgrade the redirect.
- Reflect and Reset
After a workout, meeting, or task, take a few minutes to check in:
- What grabbed my attention most?
- Did I feel scattered or dialed in?
- What did my RAS seem to prioritize?
This reflection makes your subconscious patterns visible—and once you can see them, you can train them.
Everyday Examples
Your RAS isn’t just at work in sports—it’s everywhere:
- In a conversation, it decides whether you notice criticism or encouragement.
- At work, it filters for problems to stress over—or opportunities to seize.
- At home, it highlights what irritates you—or what you’re grateful for.
The filter you train becomes the world you live in.
Try It This Week
- Write a Script – Draft your personal priming script and read it before each day or key session.
- Run a Redirect – Pick one distraction and practice using a redirection cue when it shows up.
- Reflect Daily – Journal what your brain filtered for after one important task.
Thoughts to Consider
Your RAS is always scanning. The question is—does it serve your distractions or your goals? If you don’t guide it, it defaults to old patterns. But if you take charge, you can teach your brain to spotlight strength, rhythm, and focus while ignoring the noise.
You shape your perception every day. And when you train your RAS with precision, you don’t just change what you see—you change what’s possible.
