Coincidence & Art - the connection

Coincidence & Art - the connection

It's a strange feeling isn’t it? You think of someone, and they text you or call you within minutes.

You learn a new word, and suddenly you see it everywhere.

Or you become obsessed with a particular idea, and ‘accidental’ meetings and opportunities related to it start falling into your lap.

It’s not coincidence. It’s a combination of ‘selective attention’ and ‘confirmation bias’.

And understanding the mechanism doesn't make it less magical. It makes it usable. Here’s how it works…

The Gatekeeper of Your Brain

The primary tool at work in your brain here is the Reticular Activating System (RAS).

But let's be clear. The RAS isn't an ‘antenna’ for a ‘wider field of consciousness’. It's a filter that is programmed by you and can be reprogrammed at any time using neuroplasticity training.

It sits at the base of your brain, and its job is to sort the billions of bits of data flooding your senses every second and decide what's ‘important’ enough to show you.

  • Think about the last time you bought a new car. You probably never noticed that specific model on the road very often. But the day you drive it out of the dealership, you see three of them on the way home.

  • Were there suddenly more of those cars? No. Your RAS, based on your new ‘inner focus’, just changed its filtering rules. It put ‘that specific blue SUV’ on the VIP list.

This is what's happening when you see anything that makes an impression on you.  You noticed it once by chance. Your brain, which loves patterns, flagged it as ‘interesting.’

Now, your RAS is actively scanning your environment for that pattern, and it proudly delivers every single ‘hit’ to your conscious mind.

And that’s the ‘miracle’ of inspiring wall art! Your RAS is picking it up all the time you’re in your office, and getting you focused on achieving what the art is telling you. Like this powerful message - print available here.