No BS explanation of Abundance mindset and Visualization
By: Iskandar Kurbanov
Tags: Self Improvement, Focus, Visualization

Photo by Kyran Aldworth on Unsplash

I learned about the concept of abundance a few years ago but it wasn’t until this year that I really understood and started practicing an abundance mindset. Before you click away thinking this is some “law of attraction”/The Secret article, let me throw some science your way.

Firstly, what does it mean to have an abundance mindset and what can it do for you? We have an easier time picturing what we can lose rather than what we can gain from any situation. For example, during the stock market crash in March of 2020, the rebound in April caught many investors (including myself) by surprise, because we focused too greatly on what the virus can destroy rather than what will be created out of this pandemic. We have an easy time imagining all of the jobs that will be lost, all of the disruption in logistics, all of the opportunities that we will miss out on, and ultimately all of the lives that will be lost. It is much harder to imagine all of the new opportunities the pandemic might bring; where people will be spending their money, how some companies will adjust and even prosper during these times, all of the new jobs that will be created, and how the world might change for the better. My argument is not that the pandemic was a positive thing at all, I am just trying to show you how disbalanced our perspective is.

Reticular Activation System (RAS)

To completely simplify the definition (for people like myself), the Reticular Activation System (RAS) is a part of the brain that filters the input that we receive from our senses to bring our attention to only the important information, or the perceived important information. This is the same part of the brain that starts noticing the car that you want to buy everywhere you go, why did you not notice the car being everywhere before? That’s because your RAS didn’t think it was important enough to bring it to your attention.

The RAS also works to validate your beliefs. If you think the city that you live in is filled with angry people, you will start noticing all the angry people, hence validating your belief. Your RAS will even go as far as blocking out bits of information that might disprove your beliefs. Coming back to the angry people everywhere example, if you happen to encounter a nice person during that day, you will either completely disregard them or you will be convinced that they are only nice because they want something from you.

So how is this information useful to us? Well, the same way your RAS works to point out all the negative things, it can also point out all the positives. If you believe there is an abundance of new opportunities out there, your RAS will work towards finding those opportunities, or simply “revealing” them to you. The same way it “revealed” that car that you want to buy. It didn’t actually place that car there in front of you, it simply brought it to your attention.

So in essence, living with an abundance mindset is simply focusing on the things that you want to see more of. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the universe will magically bring more happy people into your life, it just means that you will be paying attention to the happy people more than the angry ones. This will result in you meeting more happy people. Your brain has an awesome function, so why not utilize it for your benefit?

I believe this concept is way over complicated and given a mystical feeling that really isn’t there, or maybe it is, who knows, but at least for me I like to have scientific explanations where possible because it’s very easy to start going down the unscientific rabbit hole. In turn, it loses a big audience that might benefit from it. The same way that visualization is over complicated and made a into pseudoscience. Visualization is a tool to help your brain see possibilities. Your brain does not automatically know what it does not know. So visualising what you have not seen or experienced before is beneficial in that it gives your RAS something to look for.