The Invisible Gorilla in Your Mind: How Attention, RAS, and Focus Create Your Wellness Reality

The Invisible Gorilla in Your Wellness: How Attention Shapes Your Reality

In 1999, psychologists Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris conducted a simple experiment that shocked the world.

Participants were asked to watch a short video of two teams passing a basketball and count the number of passes.

Halfway through the clip, a man in a full Gorilla suit walked into the frame, beat his chest, and walked out.

Here’s the shocking part:

Nearly 50% of people never saw the gorilla.

Not because it was hidden.

Not because the video was fast.

Not because they weren’t intelligent.

They missed it simply because…

They were not paying attention to it. So it did not exist in their world...

What the mind does not look for,

the mind does not see.

This experiment became famous.

But its true message is deeper than psychology.

It is a metaphor for our entire life — and our entire wellness.

Enter the RAS — The “Filter” That Creates Your Reality

Inside your brain, there is a small bundle of nerves called the Reticular Activating System (RAS).

Its job?

To filter the 11 million bits of information you receive every second…

…into only what you choose to pay attention to. About 5% of all info-bits are our world...

RAS decides:

What you notice

What you ignore

What feels important

What becomes invisible

What becomes your “reality”

This single biological filter determines whether your world feels:

- Abundant or scarce

- Hopeful or hopeless

-Healthy or stressed

- Inspiring or suffocating

Not because the world changed.

But because your attention changed.

The Gorilla You Are Missing in Your Own Life

Every day in my clinic, I see patients who are fighting illnesses — not just in the body, but in the mind.

One man only sees his failures.

A woman only sees her weight, not her courage.

A diabetic patient only sees the pain, not the healing possible.

A burnt-out manager only sees deadlines, not the self he lost.

They are not wrong.

But they are looking through a narrow window.

Their RAS is filtering out everything else — the beauty, the opportunity, the possibility, the healing — just like the invisible gorilla.

What your mind focuses on…

becomes the world you live in.

If you focus on fear → you see danger everywhere.

If you focus on illness → you see symptoms everywhere.

If you focus on growth → you start seeing paths you never saw before.

If you focus on gratitude → your world suddenly feels richer.

The Story of a Patient Who Only Saw Darkness

Last year, I met a man struggling with hypertension, diabetes, anxiety, and burnout.

On paper, he had everything — career, family, comfort.

But he couldn’t see any of it.

His RAS was tuned to:

- stress

- deadlines

-guilt

- self-blame

He only saw the “passes” of his daily routine — the tasks, the troubles, the pressures.

And the gorilla — his health, his joy, his life slipping away — passed right in front of him…

and he never saw it.

Until his body forced him to stop.

What we ignore eventually becomes the crisis we cannot ignore.

The Other Side: When Attention Becomes Healing

Another patient — a woman with obesity, thyroid imbalance, and depression — came to me feeling lost.

But she chose something powerful:

She started paying Attention to Wellness, not Illness.

She rewired her RAS consciously:

noticing one thing to be grateful for every morning

watching how her breath changed with stress

listening to the signals of her body

celebrating small wins

seeing herself as capable, not broken

Slowly, her world changed:

Her meals improved.

Her sleep deepened.

Her weight dropped.

Her mood lifted.

Her confidence returned.

Not because magic happened.

But because Attention creates Biology and Reality.

What the mind focuses on,

the body follows.

The 8 Pillars of Wellness Begin With Attention

Every pillar —

mental, emotional, physical, financial, spiritual, environmental, social, and intellectual —

depends on WHERE you choose to place your attention.

Your attention is the architect.

Your RAS is the engineer.

Your reality is the structure or your World that emerges.

If you want a different Life,

don’t change the world.

Change what you choose to notice.

A Final Thought for You

Somewhere in your life right now, a “gorilla” is passing by.

It might be:

Your declining health

Your rising stress

Your deep intuition

Your gifts

Your purpose

Your relationships

Your hidden strength

Your future calling you

Don’t miss it.

Don’t look away.

Don’t get lost in the passes.

Because the truth is simple:

Your attention shapes your thinking.

Your thinking shapes your reality.

And your reality shapes your wellness.

Choose consciously.

Choose gently.

Choose powerfully.

Your world will change the moment you do, Inside.