August 21, 2025 • 13 mins
Have you ever noticed how your brain latches onto financial worries while completely overlooking the money and abundance already in your life? You’re not imagining it. Your Reticular Activating System (RAS) which is the part of your brain that filters information was designed to scan for threats. Helpful for survival, not so helpful when it comes to money and remembering your abundance.
Your brain is incredibly adaptable. With practice, you can retrain it to see and feel the financial flow that’s already here. In this episode, I share a powerful practice that one of my clients found so helpful that she asked me to record an entire episode about it, something I call the Money and Blessings Log.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
- Why your Reticular Activating System (RAS) keeps you focused on scarcity
- How to redirect your brain to notice abundance through neuroplasticity
- My Money and Blessings Log practice
- How to combine mental awareness with embodied feelings of wealth
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Hardwiring Happiness by Rick Hanson
Want to learn more or connect with me?
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Step 2: Grab your free Human Design chart
Curious what your Human Design chart reveals about how you're uniquely designed to make aligned financial decisions?
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Learn how to trust your choices, honor your worth, and feel financial freedom that lives in your body, not just on paper.
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From my soul to yours,
Erin
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Erin Gray (00:00):
I had a client request that I record this
episode about an exercise that Ihad her implement and to help
her increase her awarenessaround the abundance that she
already has in her life, andalso to train her brain to look
for the abundance that's alreadyflowing in and the abundance
that's actually coming, thatwill be coming in.
(00:21):
So today I'm going to talk toyou about why, or how, our
brains actually scan for things,why confirmation bias is.
Our brains actually look forwhat we believe in, our stories
and our beliefs and the simplenotes app practice that you can
start to implement today tostart training your brain and
(00:42):
your body to look for theabundance and the money flowing
into your life so that you canactually feel more resourced and
supported right now.
I wanted to offer and ask that,if you have found value in this
podcast, I would love it if youwould leave a five-star review.
It helps the show grow and italso helps the show get found by
more people like you that arelooking for that money, mindset
(01:06):
support and financial confidenceand empowerment, with that
blend of spirituality that I do.
You know.
My mission is to empower morepeople like you to have a better
relationship with their moneyand to truly change their life.
Okay, so let's talk about yourbrain for a second.
You have something called theRAS, which is short for the
(01:26):
reticular activating system, andthis system is a network of
nerve pathways located in thebrain.
It functions kind of like thinkof it like the gatekeeper for
this sensory information thatenters our consciousness, and so
it decides what stimuli warrantour attention.
And if you think about it like,our brains are constantly
(01:50):
bombarded with, you know, if youhave five senses, that's why
they have, you know, suggest,with meditation, is closing your
eyes.
Initially, because oursensitivity to our vision don't
quote me on this, but I thinkit's like around 80%, like, of
all the stimuli that is cominginto our brain, um, I think 80%
makes up our, our vision.
So you know, when you closeyour eyes, how much stimuli are
(02:14):
you able to kind of shut off tothe brain because your eyes are
closed.
So think of it like the RAS,like this filtering mechanism,
and so it's essential becauseour brains are constantly, if
you think about way back when,when we were cavemen or whatever
, and we were constantly on thelookout for threats, right, and
(02:35):
so when you are in this constantfight or flight, survival,
which a lot of us have been, andwe have trained our nervous
systems to be this way.
We are constantly looking forwhat's wrong, what's not working
, because in a way that isactually helpful to us from a
biological standpoint and not alot of us are like in the
(02:58):
caveman days anymore, likeprobably none of us, right?
So when you think about it, itwas a very highly useful thing
for our brain to do, but itisn't very helpful in today's
society and where we live, right?
So the RAS is trained by ourbelief systems.
(03:19):
So if you have been conditionedor you have stories around money
or just think about your justoverall beliefs, I mean we can
get into the money part.
But like if you just thinkabout your overall perception
and perspective around the world, like if I were to ask you what
do you think about the worldtoday, the status or the state
(03:41):
of the world, what do you thinkabout humans in general?
Or, you know, what do you thinkabout your life?
I mean, are you going to comeback with it's amazing, humans
are amazing, our world isamazing or are you going to come
back with more of like we're ona downhill or what happened to
us or what's gone wrong withhumanity, right?
(04:03):
So you have to look at, kind ofyour overall state of being
when it comes to your RAS andthen also changing your
perception and starting to lookfor those.
When I say positive, I don'tthink anything is positive or
negative, it just is, butchanging your belief to a higher
vibration, a higher frequencyin general.
(04:26):
So when you think about if youhave a belief around, let's just
talk about money If you have abelief around money lack and
scarcity and not enough, and youknow it's not working out for
you, your RAS is going to filterthat for you.
So just think about, like, ifyou, if you were to go and buy a
car and the car color is red,and depending on what brand it
(04:49):
is, let's just use a Tahoe ChevyTahoe and it's red, how many
more red Tahoes are you going tosee now that you have one?
It's not.
It's not that they are moreabundant, it's just that your
brain now is focused on that.
So, just being aware andmindful of what you are focusing
(05:09):
on, you're going to get more of.
So the good thing is because Ithink I like to be the example
on the guinea pig, because Ithink my brain was as negative
confirmation bias as it couldget.
So if I can change my brain andwe can rewire our brains right,
they're very what they callneuroplastic neuroplasticity.
You know, research has shownthat our brains can be rewired
(05:33):
right, like our synapses can.
Our neural pathways can bechanged, so we can all change
the way that we think.
We can all change our storiesand our beliefs.
The question isn't can we orcan we not?
The question is, are we willing?
So back to your RAS, back toyour brain, so you can retrain
this filter right.
(05:53):
Our brains are able to bechanged, they're able to be
molded.
Like I always talk about withclients is just the, the neural
pathways.
Think of it like a highwayright now, depending on what
your stories, what your beliefsystems are, that neural pathway
in your brain.
It's like a highway and you getto go very fast down it right.
The connection is very quick,very fast.
(06:13):
So when you're developing newbeliefs, I like to also think
that we can also change ourbelief in an instant, because I
know I have been.
I have done that.
There are some other beliefs inmy life.
That has taken me a little bitlonger and it's not a problem.
An empowering thought that Ihave and a belief that I have is
like our beliefs can change inan instant.
(06:34):
I mean, think about, I watchedthis show called food Inc and
that night I decided I wasn'tgoing to eat meat anymore.
Think about people that havebeen diagnosed with cancer or
they decide, you know, they goto the doctor and they're like
you have to quit smoking.
Like you, immediately you werea belief had as that you were a
smoker, and then now you're not.
So our beliefs can changeovernight, and also sometimes
(06:55):
some of our beliefs just take alittle bit more time, and that's
okay too.
So the practice that you canstart today is, if you have an
iPhone, which I do it's called anotes app.
If you're on an Android, thenI'm sure there's probably some
types of note app that you use.
Or if you pay for a note appwhatever it is that you can.
I just keep it on my phone butcreate what I call a blessings
(07:17):
log, or money and blessing logs,whatever you want to call it
Every time that money flows intoyour life, no matter how, and
nothing is big or small right,everything just is.
But if your brain wants to, youknow, deem it small, no matter
how little it is, write it down.
So, the money that you've madein your business or if you're,
(07:37):
you know, employed by youremployer, how much money have
you grossed for the for the week?
I would do this every singleday.
I would look in and and see um,but like what is your?
What have you received in froman income, any type of refund,
someone offering and actuallybuying you a coffee, money that
(07:58):
you find on the ground, you know, upgrades, anything like that,
any type of money that has comeinto your life, paying attention
to it and writing it down.
Because what we pay attentionto grows.
If you think about everythingis energy, and if we are paying
attention to how much money wealready have and how much money
we are receiving, the more thatwe pay attention to it, the more
(08:20):
that it's going to grow.
And this isn't just a thoughtexercise, this is also a feeling
.
So I want you to get into yourbody and ask and get into the
feeling of sufficiency andabundance as you start to see
how much money are you actuallyreceiving?
Because the feeling of havingis what actually creates more
money.
That is what createssufficiency and abundance, not
(08:44):
how we have been feeling.
How a lot of us feel right Isfrom that place of of scarcity
and lack.
So when you do this exercise,you are literally teaching your
RAS to notice abundance whereyou already have it in our life.
I think a lot of times peoplethink, well, I need to be
abundant, you already areabundant.
What we're really doing is justremoving all of these limiting
(09:04):
beliefs and these stories thatwe have around not being
abundant.
So it's not like you becomeabundant, we already are.
We are born abundant, we areborn worthy.
And what happens is we we kindof think of it like you're
putting on clothes, so each,each layer of clothing you have
are these limiting beliefs.
So over time, what's going tohappen is your brain is going to
(09:25):
start scanning for what isworking instead of what's
lacking.
It's going to start seeing, oh,my goodness, like, look, this
is like it will just be onautopilot for you of how
abundant you already are.
And there's this brain and thisbody nervous system.
You know meshing that occursright.
So when we start to show ourour mind how what we have
(09:51):
already, we can start toactually relax the nervous
system right, we get out of thatfight or flight survival state
because you actually have proof.
You know, like, for me,sometimes I really do have to
show my brain when it wants toargue with me, like I do come
from the energy of certainty andfaith and trust, but I'm a
human right, my brain wants toargue with me and it wants to
(10:13):
tell me where it's not.
And so you have something therethat shows you that money is
already flowing in and that goodthings are already happening
and more good things are on theway.
And so, using that as arecognition and also a gratitude
of feeling and of havingalready money in your life and
(10:38):
of having already money in yourlife.
And we know that abundance doesnot start with having a bigger
bank account, because me, somany of my clients, right, we
already have the money in thebank account but we don't feel
abundant because money or anytype of feeling actually doesn't
occur outside of us.
It is an internal thing first,and then it shows up like right,
like we live in this cause andeffect world.
It shows up first in ourinternal state of being and then
(11:01):
it gets shown in in theobserved world, or what we, what
we see, um with our eyes.
It really starts to train yourbrain to see what's already here
, right, it starts with thatfeeling, that how we feel, first
, and then allowing more to comeinto your life.
So what I would do and what Irecommend when you're starting
(11:21):
this exercise is to start withit daily.
I would look at it in themorning and I would look at it
in the night, because there's acouple of things here.
Right, like you're building thehabit of looking and to notice.
Um, there is a book calledhardwiring happiness that I read
.
That was really um, it's notnecessarily on money, but it
(11:42):
talks about how our brains areactually wired to look for, like
I talked about in the verybeginning of this episode, to
look for the things that couldcause us harm or what's not
working, because that is fromthat survival biological state.
Right, and so really beingdisciplined with looking at and
(12:03):
focusing on where am I alreadyreceiving money?
Where and it doesn't have to bejust money right, like you
could look at all of theblessings in your life, because
that's really true abundance.
Abundance is not just money,but I know that a lot of you,
money is, is a very tender andsensitive topic, so I just
started writing down so I couldsee where all the money was
(12:24):
already flowing to me all fromdifferent sources as well, right
, Um, so I really started totrain my brain.
You know where we already havemoney and paying attention to
that and feeling grateful forthat.
If you want support transformingthe way that you think and the
way, more importantly, how youfeel about money, and really
change your life, I am here toguide you.
(12:45):
I'm here to support you.
I would love and be honored tosupport you on your journey.
You know you can schedule acall.
I'll put the link in the shownotes, you can click on a time
that works for you and we cansee if we are a good fit for
each other.
Until next time, I want you toknow that I'm rooting for you.
I believe in you.
I love you.
We are all abundant, eventhough that our body and our
(13:06):
minds want to tell us that wearen't.
We all are right, like that isour natural state of being.
God did not put us on theplanet to struggle and to not
have fun and to not enjoy ourlife and to feel lack.
That is not our natural state.
So I hope you enjoyed thisepisode and I will see you in
the next one.
I had a client request that I record this
episode about an exercise that Ihad her implement and to help
her increase her awarenessaround the abundance that she
already has in her life, andalso to train her brain to look
for the abundance that's alreadyflowing in and the abundance
that's actually coming, thatwill be coming in.
(00:21):
So today I'm going to talk toyou about why, or how, our
brains actually scan for things,why confirmation bias is.
Our brains actually look forwhat we believe in, our stories
and our beliefs and the simplenotes app practice that you can
start to implement today tostart training your brain and
(00:42):
your body to look for theabundance and the money flowing
into your life so that you canactually feel more resourced and
supported right now.
I wanted to offer and ask that,if you have found value in this
podcast, I would love it if youwould leave a five-star review.
It helps the show grow and italso helps the show get found by
more people like you that arelooking for that money, mindset
(01:06):
support and financial confidenceand empowerment, with that
blend of spirituality that I do.
You know.
My mission is to empower morepeople like you to have a better
relationship with their moneyand to truly change their life.
Okay, so let's talk about yourbrain for a second.
You have something called theRAS, which is short for the
(01:26):
reticular activating system, andthis system is a network of
nerve pathways located in thebrain.
It functions kind of like thinkof it like the gatekeeper for
this sensory information thatenters our consciousness, and so
it decides what stimuli warrantour attention.
And if you think about it like,our brains are constantly
(01:50):
bombarded with, you know, if youhave five senses, that's why
they have, you know, suggest,with meditation, is closing your
eyes.
Initially, because oursensitivity to our vision don't
quote me on this, but I thinkit's like around 80%, like, of
all the stimuli that is cominginto our brain, um, I think 80%
makes up our, our vision.
So you know, when you closeyour eyes, how much stimuli are
(02:14):
you able to kind of shut off tothe brain because your eyes are
closed.
So think of it like the RAS,like this filtering mechanism,
and so it's essential becauseour brains are constantly, if
you think about way back when,when we were cavemen or whatever
, and we were constantly on thelookout for threats, right, and
(02:35):
so when you are in this constantfight or flight, survival,
which a lot of us have been, andwe have trained our nervous
systems to be this way.
We are constantly looking forwhat's wrong, what's not working
, because in a way that isactually helpful to us from a
biological standpoint and not alot of us are like in the
(02:58):
caveman days anymore, likeprobably none of us, right?
So when you think about it, itwas a very highly useful thing
for our brain to do, but itisn't very helpful in today's
society and where we live, right?
So the RAS is trained by ourbelief systems.
(03:19):
So if you have been conditionedor you have stories around money
or just think about your justoverall beliefs, I mean we can
get into the money part.
But like if you just thinkabout your overall perception
and perspective around the world, like if I were to ask you what
do you think about the worldtoday, the status or the state
(03:41):
of the world, what do you thinkabout humans in general?
Or, you know, what do you thinkabout your life?
I mean, are you going to comeback with it's amazing, humans
are amazing, our world isamazing or are you going to come
back with more of like we're ona downhill or what happened to
us or what's gone wrong withhumanity, right?
(04:03):
So you have to look at, kind ofyour overall state of being
when it comes to your RAS andthen also changing your
perception and starting to lookfor those.
When I say positive, I don'tthink anything is positive or
negative, it just is, butchanging your belief to a higher
vibration, a higher frequencyin general.
(04:26):
So when you think about if youhave a belief around, let's just
talk about money If you have abelief around money lack and
scarcity and not enough, and youknow it's not working out for
you, your RAS is going to filterthat for you.
So just think about, like, ifyou, if you were to go and buy a
car and the car color is red,and depending on what brand it
(04:49):
is, let's just use a Tahoe ChevyTahoe and it's red, how many
more red Tahoes are you going tosee now that you have one?
It's not.
It's not that they are moreabundant, it's just that your
brain now is focused on that.
So, just being aware andmindful of what you are focusing
(05:09):
on, you're going to get more of.
So the good thing is because Ithink I like to be the example
on the guinea pig, because Ithink my brain was as negative
confirmation bias as it couldget.
So if I can change my brain andwe can rewire our brains right,
they're very what they callneuroplastic neuroplasticity.
You know, research has shownthat our brains can be rewired
(05:33):
right, like our synapses can.
Our neural pathways can bechanged, so we can all change
the way that we think.
We can all change our storiesand our beliefs.
The question isn't can we orcan we not?
The question is, are we willing?
So back to your RAS, back toyour brain, so you can retrain
this filter right.
(05:53):
Our brains are able to bechanged, they're able to be
molded.
Like I always talk about withclients is just the, the neural
pathways.
Think of it like a highwayright now, depending on what
your stories, what your beliefsystems are, that neural pathway
in your brain.
It's like a highway and you getto go very fast down it right.
The connection is very quick,very fast.
(06:13):
So when you're developing newbeliefs, I like to also think
that we can also change ourbelief in an instant, because I
know I have been.
I have done that.
There are some other beliefs inmy life.
That has taken me a little bitlonger and it's not a problem.
An empowering thought that Ihave and a belief that I have is
like our beliefs can change inan instant.
(06:34):
I mean, think about, I watchedthis show called food Inc and
that night I decided I wasn'tgoing to eat meat anymore.
Think about people that havebeen diagnosed with cancer or
they decide, you know, they goto the doctor and they're like
you have to quit smoking.
Like you, immediately you werea belief had as that you were a
smoker, and then now you're not.
So our beliefs can changeovernight, and also sometimes
(06:55):
some of our beliefs just take alittle bit more time, and that's
okay too.
So the practice that you canstart today is, if you have an
iPhone, which I do it's called anotes app.
If you're on an Android, thenI'm sure there's probably some
types of note app that you use.
Or if you pay for a note appwhatever it is that you can.
I just keep it on my phone butcreate what I call a blessings
(07:17):
log, or money and blessing logs,whatever you want to call it
Every time that money flows intoyour life, no matter how, and
nothing is big or small right,everything just is.
But if your brain wants to, youknow, deem it small, no matter
how little it is, write it down.
So, the money that you've madein your business or if you're,
(07:37):
you know, employed by youremployer, how much money have
you grossed for the for the week?
I would do this every singleday.
I would look in and and see um,but like what is your?
What have you received in froman income, any type of refund,
someone offering and actuallybuying you a coffee, money that
(07:58):
you find on the ground, you know, upgrades, anything like that,
any type of money that has comeinto your life, paying attention
to it and writing it down.
Because what we pay attentionto grows.
If you think about everythingis energy, and if we are paying
attention to how much money wealready have and how much money
we are receiving, the more thatwe pay attention to it, the more
(08:20):
that it's going to grow.
And this isn't just a thoughtexercise, this is also a feeling
.
So I want you to get into yourbody and ask and get into the
feeling of sufficiency andabundance as you start to see
how much money are you actuallyreceiving?
Because the feeling of havingis what actually creates more
money.
That is what createssufficiency and abundance, not
(08:44):
how we have been feeling.
How a lot of us feel right Isfrom that place of of scarcity
and lack.
So when you do this exercise,you are literally teaching your
RAS to notice abundance whereyou already have it in our life.
I think a lot of times peoplethink, well, I need to be
abundant, you already areabundant.
What we're really doing is justremoving all of these limiting
(09:04):
beliefs and these stories thatwe have around not being
abundant.
So it's not like you becomeabundant, we already are.
We are born abundant, we areborn worthy.
And what happens is we we kindof think of it like you're
putting on clothes, so each,each layer of clothing you have
are these limiting beliefs.
So over time, what's going tohappen is your brain is going to
(09:25):
start scanning for what isworking instead of what's
lacking.
It's going to start seeing, oh,my goodness, like, look, this
is like it will just be onautopilot for you of how
abundant you already are.
And there's this brain and thisbody nervous system.
You know meshing that occursright.
So when we start to show ourour mind how what we have
(09:51):
already, we can start toactually relax the nervous
system right, we get out of thatfight or flight survival state
because you actually have proof.
You know, like, for me,sometimes I really do have to
show my brain when it wants toargue with me, like I do come
from the energy of certainty andfaith and trust, but I'm a
human right, my brain wants toargue with me and it wants to
(10:13):
tell me where it's not.
And so you have something therethat shows you that money is
already flowing in and that goodthings are already happening
and more good things are on theway.
And so, using that as arecognition and also a gratitude
of feeling and of havingalready money in your life and
(10:38):
of having already money in yourlife.
And we know that abundance doesnot start with having a bigger
bank account, because me, somany of my clients, right, we
already have the money in thebank account but we don't feel
abundant because money or anytype of feeling actually doesn't
occur outside of us.
It is an internal thing first,and then it shows up like right,
like we live in this cause andeffect world.
It shows up first in ourinternal state of being and then
(11:01):
it gets shown in in theobserved world, or what we, what
we see, um with our eyes.
It really starts to train yourbrain to see what's already here
, right, it starts with thatfeeling, that how we feel, first
, and then allowing more to comeinto your life.
So what I would do and what Irecommend when you're starting
(11:21):
this exercise is to start withit daily.
I would look at it in themorning and I would look at it
in the night, because there's acouple of things here.
Right, like you're building thehabit of looking and to notice.
Um, there is a book calledhardwiring happiness that I read
.
That was really um, it's notnecessarily on money, but it
(11:42):
talks about how our brains areactually wired to look for, like
I talked about in the verybeginning of this episode, to
look for the things that couldcause us harm or what's not
working, because that is fromthat survival biological state.
Right, and so really beingdisciplined with looking at and
(12:03):
focusing on where am I alreadyreceiving money?
Where and it doesn't have to bejust money right, like you
could look at all of theblessings in your life, because
that's really true abundance.
Abundance is not just money,but I know that a lot of you,
money is, is a very tender andsensitive topic, so I just
started writing down so I couldsee where all the money was
(12:24):
already flowing to me all fromdifferent sources as well, right
, Um, so I really started totrain my brain.
You know where we already havemoney and paying attention to
that and feeling grateful forthat.
If you want support transformingthe way that you think and the
way, more importantly, how youfeel about money, and really
change your life, I am here toguide you.
(12:45):
I'm here to support you.
I would love and be honored tosupport you on your journey.
You know you can schedule acall.
I'll put the link in the shownotes, you can click on a time
that works for you and we cansee if we are a good fit for
each other.
Until next time, I want you toknow that I'm rooting for you.
I believe in you.
I love you.
We are all abundant, eventhough that our body and our
(13:06):
minds want to tell us that wearen't.
We all are right, like that isour natural state of being.
God did not put us on theplanet to struggle and to not
have fun and to not enjoy ourlife and to feel lack.
That is not our natural state.
So I hope you enjoyed thisepisode and I will see you in
the next one.
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