S8E3 Your Brains Filter How the RAS Unlocks Small Wins with MS
[00:00:00] Your brain is tricking you. It's showing you failure on repeat, and you are believing it. You skipped your workout, you didn't eat the salad, you crashed on the couch instead of folding the laundry, and that voice in your head says, see, you can't do this. But here's the truth. It's not that you're failing.
It's your brain has a filter that's stuck on failure, and once you learn how to flip it. Everything changes. And before we get started, I wanna invite you to something special. Living with MS can feel overwhelming, but one habit can shift everything. That's what I'll show you inside my free webinar, how to help Slow MS progression, starting with just one habit.
Think of it as your first step towards more energy. Confidence and hope. Save your seat at alene brennan.com/webinar. Welcome to my MS podcast, where women with MS [00:01:00] learn how to slow progression and live a life they love. I'm Alene Brennan, your Ms sister and a practitioner who knows the science and the reality of living this too.
Each week I share simple. Science backed habits to boost your energy. Stay consistent and feel like yourself again, because Ms. May be a part of your story, but it doesn't get to write the ending. Hello, my friends. Welcome. All right. We are gonna start this episode by calling a spade a spade. Living with MS is already hard some days.
Just getting through the basics feels like a win, but your brain. Doesn't give you credit for that. It keeps highlighting what you didn't do. Is this resonating with you yet? And it leaves you feeling like you'll never be consistent enough to make a difference. You'll never be consistent long enough to get [00:02:00] results.
And underneath all of that isn't just frustration over habits. It's that deeper ache. To feel like yourself again, to want to live your life. Not like MS is constantly dominating it. If this is resonating with you, one, you are not alone, and two, you are in the right place. 'cause today we are talking about one of my.
Favorite things when it comes to the brain, which I know sounds a little weird, but it's so fun to understand. It's called the reticular activating system or the Raz, and it is this tiny network inside your brainstem that acts like a filter. Now that may sound like we're diving in deep talking about the brainstem and all that other stuff, but stick with me.
Here we are, hit with like millions of pieces of information. Every single day and your brain can't possibly take it all in. It can't consume all of [00:03:00] the information that our eyeballs see throughout the day. So this system called your reticular activating system, decides what gets through. And here's the kicker.
It listens to you, so whatever you are focusing on, it finds more of. That's why you hear me say one of my favorite phrases that what you focus on gets bigger. That was something that I learned in my yoga teacher training way back in the day. The first time I heard it, I was like, oh, that's a cute little saying.
But then once it like settled in. I really started to notice how true it was. It's one of those things that once you see it, you can't unsee it, and it truly is life changing. So this is what people talk about. That can sound a little woo woo at first when they talk about changing your thoughts, changing your reality, or changing [00:04:00] your thoughts and changing your life.
And yes, that can sound very out there and many conversations. Me personally, I think they are a little out there. However, there is real science behind it and it is your reticular activating system, and it's this concept that two people can walk through the exact same path on the exact same day and have two completely.
Different experiences and it's because what they are focusing on and what is most important to them, your filter isn't just shaped by what you notice in the moment. It's influenced by everything you've lived through, your past experiences, your beliefs, even stories you've. Been told about what's possible for you.
So if you grew up believing that you had to be productive to be valuable, your reticular activating system will be tuned to only notice when you're quote [00:05:00] unquote, getting things done. If you've had years of symptoms and setbacks, your reticular activating system may be wired to scan for dangers or failure first.
In other words, your personal filter. Built from the thoughts you think most often, the emotions you repeat and the identity you've carried for years. And here's the part that I hope feels really encouraging, just because your filter has been shaped a certain way. Doesn't mean it's set in stone. It's not fixed.
You have the ability to change your filter every time you choose to focus on a small win to celebrate progress instead of dismissing it. Or reframing a setback as feedback your training, your reticular activating system to look for something new. Now, I wanna warn you, you don't change your [00:06:00] filter overnight.
So this is not something that all of a sudden you can think one thought, and therefore it's completely shifted. You change it. In the moments you choose to redirect your attention, so this is like training a toddler. Every time it goes astray, you gently take it by the hand and redirect it back. That is why small habits are so powerful.
Each one is like sending a new memo to your reticular activating system. It's like saying, Hey, this matters. Pay attention here. Over time, those little memos add up and your filter shifts. You stop seeing only the failure and you start noticing the healing. I was talking with a client before about this, and she's like, Eileen, every night I crawl into bed, my brain starts listing everything I didn't do.[00:07:00]
I didn't finish the laundry. I didn't call that friend back. I didn't cook the dinner I had planned. It's exhausting and honestly it's crushing my confidence. So I shared this concept with her and she started applying it. She started writing down one win before she went to bed, and at first she's like.
This feels ridiculous. This feels pointless because her quote unquote win was drinking water that day, or making one smoothie or even saying no to something when she was tired and she's like, this really feels ridiculous. But she stuck with it and after a week she started noticing something. She wasn't just writing down wins.
She was seeing them throughout her day, her brain was actually starting to look for them. And if you have a copy of my Ms. Wellness Tracker, also known as the Daily Dashboard, you know that I have all of [00:08:00] those health habits listed out on that one sheet of paper. If you don't have a copy, you can get one for free at alene brennan.com/tracker.
But. It is one sheet of paper that has the healthy habits listed on it, and the ability for you to track your progress, not only throughout a day, but throughout the course of the week. Well, one of the habits that I have on there is your favorite moment of the day. This is a habit that I started many years ago, and it kind of was along this similar path of creating a gratitude journal.
I liked the idea, but it just. Didn't feel right for me. So one of the things that made it feel a little bit more fun was identifying my favorite moment of the day. So before I would lay my head down on the pillow at night, I would think about what was my favorite moment of that particular day. And not only did it train my brain to scan for the good things throughout my day, [00:09:00] at the end of each day, which is so important from a brain perspective, because what we think about right before we go to bed is often what is repeated while we are sleeping.
So we wanna be repeating the wins and not the failures, but it. Also had me living my day differently because as I was going throughout my day, my brain started scanning for the favorite moments. It started scanning for the highlights, and I loved even more so that when I felt like I was living my favorite moment of the day, I was able to drop into it more.
I felt like. I was able to identify it, like, oh, this is definitely gonna be my favorite moment of the day. And then I felt like I was able to cherish it a little bit more because I saw it as a gift and I saw that and I'm like, if this is my favorite moment of the day, like, like put the phone down and truly.
Be here, and if you really wanna elevate it, you can [00:10:00] share this with your family. I do this with my family. At the end of every day, we all share our favorite moments and it's so sweet because not only do we get to voice our favorite moment, and it's wonderful when it includes another family member. You also get to see what was really meaningful for your spouse or for your children, and what a beautiful way to end the day as a family.
So this is such a powerful thing to understand how the brain works and how it filters out different things, but also how you can really leverage it. You may have heard of the reticular activating system before in the concept of, um, like when you go to buy a new car, if you wanna buy a new red car, all of a sudden you're driving on the road and you see red cars.
Everywhere. It's not that they weren't there before, it's simply the fact that you told your brain that this is [00:11:00] something that is important to you right now. So it started to prioritize red cars a lot higher, and therefore it was bringing it to your attention. A quick little like exercise that you can do with this.
Um, I learned this one actually from a Tony Robbins event and I thought it was so fun. So if you are able to right now, um, I say that 'cause I don't know if you're driving or whatever, but if you can look around right now and I want you to find anything that is green in your surrounding. So look, if you're outside, maybe you're looking at the grass, maybe you're looking at the leaves.
Um, if there's flowers close by, if there's a green car, if there's a green house, like look around, maybe there's a green sign. If you're inside the home, look at curtains, pictures, throw pillows, blankets. If you're in the kitchen, maybe look for some food that's around. Scan around and find anything that [00:12:00] is green.
Okay. Do you have it? Fantastic. Okay. Now, this is where the part comes in, that if you're not driving close your eyes and with your eyes closed, I want you to list all of the things that are red in your environment. How many things can you identify right now that are red in the environment around you? And no, I did not just say the wrong color.
Tell me how many of you can identify with your eyes closed, the number of things that are green in your environment versus how many things are red. Okay? If your eyes aren't open, you can open them up. Now, look around how many things around you are. Were they there before? Yes. But you told your brain that green was the priority, so it scanned around and looked for everything that was green.
So it [00:13:00] drew your attention to that. It. Didn't show you anything that was read, because that was not the priority. That was not the focus. This is an exercise that is so fun because it makes it so real. So now think about applying this to your day-to-day when you're thinking about living with Ms. If you are constantly thinking about the fatigue or all of the things that you can't do, all of the things that you are not getting right, there's another water bottle that didn't get filled.
There's another veggie in the refrigerator going bad because you bought it, you spent the money on it. But you didn't cook it. There are your sneakers that are still sitting in the same place as they were a month ago because you have yet to go out for a single walk around the block, right? All of these things you have told yourself, represent.
Failure. So that is what your brain is [00:14:00] gonna continue to show you. Failure, failure, failure, my friends, this is only pulling you down. And then you tell yourself the lie that you don't have the motivation or the discipline to be consistent with your healthy habits long enough to get results. That's a lie.
It is the fact that your reticular activating system is locked in on failure. We need to change this. We need to shift it. And again, just like new habits don't get established overnight, shifting your reticular activating system doesn't happen overnight too. Again, I go back to that analogy when you see it telling you.
These points of failure or pulling you down in a direction that you don't want to go. Think of it as that toddler that you are going up, you're holding its hand gently, and you are redirecting it back saying, I know that you've been [00:15:00] focusing on this, but right now I need you to know that small wins. Are my priority, so I want you to see that water bottle as potential.
There's the water bottle that I can fill so that I can be better hydrated. There are my sneakers that I can put on and go to the mailbox. Those are the potential to help get me moving, and when you do something small, it doesn't matter. It could be. Listening to this podcast, I want you to tell yourself right now that listening to this message right now is a win.
Because you are choosing not to bury your head in the sand. You are choosing to seek out information to change your story with Ms. So that you can get your best case scenario, you are choosing to spend your time learning about that you can have more hope and a better future. See these wins [00:16:00] because they are there and the more you focus on them, the more likely you are to see them again and again and again, and think about how much that's gonna change your mindset when you're able to focus on wins and not.
The failures. It's like trying on two different pairs of glasses. One day you can be so hard on yourself for not getting anything done, and the same day, the same events, but with a different lens. You see wins. You see progress. Even if they're small, you see them as wins versus not good enough, not meaningful enough, not significant enough to make real change.
You see them as stepping stones, small wins of moving forward. So maybe for you it's that you used to be the woman who would juggle the meetings, the kids, the errands, all without blinking. You did it in high heels and you made it look easy. [00:17:00] Now you're measuring spoons of energy before you even get outta bed, and instead of giving yourself credit for getting through the day, your brain only notices what was left undone That.
Is your filter at work? We need a new lens. So here's the question. Which glasses are you going to put on this week? The failure glasses that keep showing you where you fell short or the progress glasses that remind you of all of the small wins you are stacking. Even on the hard, messy fatigue days, because here's the truth, you don't need a perfect plan and you don't need to do it all.
But you do need to start noticing the proof that you are moving forward, and the more you notice it, the more your brain will look for it. That is your particular activating system at work, retraining your filter. [00:18:00] One win at a time. So here's my challenge to you. Pick one small win this week and celebrate it.
Write it down, share it with me on Instagram or email. I'd love to hear from you. Let your brain start seeing healing instead of failure because my friend, you are not failing. You are retraining your brain. You are building momentum and step by step you are healing and creating. The life you love. And that's it for today's episode of my MS podcast.
I hope you're walking away with one small step you can put into practice today, because that is how real change happens. And if you're ready to take the next step, I created a free webinar just for you how to help slow MS progression. Starting with just one habit, save your spot at alene brennan.com/webinar.
I'll see you inside.