Create a Category
You have surely experienced it before. You just made a new purchase—anything from a car to an article of clothing to a lawnmower —and suddenly you see it everywhere! You think:
Why are so many people suddenly driving the same car as me?
How is it that everyone bought the same outfit?
Wow, my new John Deere is popular!
It feels as though everyone made the same purchase as you at the exact same time as you. The truth, however, is the vast majority of those things were already there but you just didn’t have a category in your brain for them yet, and so you didn’t notice them.
It is called the Reticular Activating System, and it is one of the grade school lessons I remember most vividly. The Reticular Activating System is your brain’s way of creating categories and organizing information in order to most effectively manage the overwhelming deluge of information and stimuli it is constantly receiving. You live in a very noisy world. I’m not just talking about physical volume. Your brain is constantly receiving copious amounts of data. The inputs are endless: conversations, internal body signals, external conditions like heat and cold, emotions, threats, language, and on and on it goes!
The human brain is a magnificent creation (how’s that for an understatement?), and the Reticular Activating System might just be one of the most amazing components of your brain. In short, it tells you what of this endless information to notice. It tells you what to ignore, and to which of it you must respond.
It does this by helping you create categories.
When you bought that fancy new Kia Soul, suddenly you see Souls everywhere (there’s probably another lesson there for another day)!
When you donned that trendy Costco lumberjack plaid shirt (am I telling on myself?), it seemed everyone in your neighborhood followed your lead.
When you decided to go John Deere green over Cub Cadet yellow, it was only minutes before several of your neighbors did the same.
Or at least that’s how it seems. The truth, however, is that your Reticular Activating System simply didn’t have categories for Kia Souls or Costco plaids or John Deere mowers until now. Those things were there all along, but your brain was filtering them outrather than highlighting them for your attention.
This is also in essence what online algorithms do. They create categories and learn which ones capture your attention. Then they gather as much similar information—good or bad—and feed it to your stream because they know you will take notice. This is why it is so easy to scroll for an hour before you even realize it.
The takeaway here is simple but oh so powerful. What categories are you creating in that powerful God-fashioned brain of yours? What things are your Reticular Activating System learning to flag and highlight for you? In addition to Kia Souls, Costco plaids, and John Deere mowers, are you meditating on things that feed your soul or rob your joy?
This is the brain science behind the biblical truth that forms our common refrain of “viewing all things through the lens of the True and the beautiful.” We come back to this reminder from Philippians 4:8 frequently because it sits at the core of how your God-designed being functions, and it helps determine what you will notice:
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
In other words, create categories in your brain that point toward flourishing. Dwell on Truth and beauty and goodness. Resist giving too much time to things that distract and destroy. It is true God will ask you to stand against those things with some regularity. But your default categories to take notice of should be labeled “Truth” and “Beauty.”
Be forewarned: You are going to start seeing “new” instances of goodness all around you! They have been there all along, but you are about to take notice! You now have a category in your brain for them!
The preceding article originally appeared in Thann’s “The Equipped” Weekly Newsletter. For more information on Thann’s weekly email, click here.