As I was completing my book Creating Your Path: Harnessing Your Spiritual Powers to Create a Vibrant Life, I rose early each day so that I could adequately prepare for a productive course of writing. I would meditate, drink coffee, and gather my thoughts before I started the creative journey. At the time, I had recently moved and did not have access to a television. It became easy to avoid news and what was wrong in the world. Instead, I would watch a vast array of brief motivational videos while I ate my breakfast. I noticed that I felt pretty good afterward and was able to move into writing with ease and positive expectancy. As a result, I was productive.
One of the videos I watched talked about the concept of priming, which made me realize that I was priming myself for positivity and productivity because I exposed myself to words, ideas, and images that promoted positivity and productivity. By exposing myself to the ideas that I wanted to adopt, I was unwittingly encouraging the characteristics I desired to cultivate.
I have been thinking about the concept of priming a lot recently, which coincidentally (or not) keeps showing up in my life—in articles, headlines, speeches, etc. Perhaps it is a new buzzword, or maybe I have been primed to attend to the word and am now finally noticing. I can’t be certain. In either case, priming is a useful strategy to understand because you could use it to activate the qualities or conditions you desire in your life. Knowledge of priming might also help you deflect the effects of any unwanted priming.
Priming happens when you are exposed to a stimulus—a word, an image, an idea, or an experience—which then activates your brain to notice it or attend to it more closely than you would if you had not been exposed to it. Because the brain is drawn the what is familiar to it, a prime often activates an already stored mental representation. This then acts as a filter through which you experience subsequent stimuli for some time after the initial encounter.
Priming explains how certain words, images, ideas, and experiences have the potential to change your attention, perception, interpretations, and behaviors. Most of this occurs without conscious awareness; however, priming can be used deliberately to modify your attention in a manner that you choose.
Here are some examples of how the concept of priming has been studied from within the field of psychology:
· A study conducted by Bargh, Chen, and Burrows (1996) revealed:
o When students were primed with words that were related to rudeness, they were significantly more likely to interrupt the researcher conducting the study. When students were primed with words related to politeness, they were significantly less likely to interrupt the researcher.
o Subjects primed with words (i.e., a scrambled-sentence task) associated with an elderly person stereotype walked slower down the hallway after the task than subjects who were primed with neutral words.
· Harris, Bargh, and Brownell (2009) performed studies on children and adults watching television that included various types of advertisements. Their findings revealed that both children and adults consumed more food when exposed to food advertisements, thus revealing that food advertisements prime viewers for consumption.
· Nine experiments designed to prime people to think about money produced the effects of self-sufficiency. “Relative to people not reminded of money, people reminded of money reliably performed independent but socially insensitive actions” (Vohs, Mead, & Goode, 2006, p. 1156).
There are dozens of studies suggesting that priming people through the use of words, concepts, images, or behaviors affects the behavior of those individuals being primed. In most of the experiments, the primed individuals were not informed or aware of the true nature of the experiment. This is troubling because we all like to think that we are in conscious control of our lives. Perhaps knowing what priming is and how it can affect you will help you notice how you are being directed by the external world. Beneficially, you can harness the power of priming to attune yourself to what you do desire so you can notice and create more of it in your life.
How to Use Priming to Your Benefit:
Consider what traits, habits, or experiences you would like to prime in yourself, your family, your coworkers, and your friends. Would you like to prime humor, optimism, success, respect, honesty, kindness, happiness, or some other emotion or quality? You can encourage any idea by talking about it, viewing images of it, watching videos about it, embodying it, displaying symbols (e.g., pictures, clothing, gestures, etc.) that portray the desired prime. In all instances, be certain that your approach is ethical and beneficial for all people involved.
If appropriate, prime yourself for some of your goals as you begin your day. If you desire motivation, success, focus, optimism, or some other quality related to your goals or the type of person you would like to be, plant the seeds through words and images early in your day. Strategies like affirmations, visualizations, a goals list, vision boards, and other verbal or visual strategies offer your brain powerful suggestions that encourages your brain to notice opportunities or similar situations that match your desire.
· Affirmations are verbal statements repeated a few times that declare your ideal, like “I am highly efficient and productive in my career” or “I am optimistic and creative in all areas of my life.”
· Visualization is a strategy whereby you close your eyes and imagine your idea in vivid detail. By thinking, seeing, and feeling your ideal day or life, you orient your brain for what you want rather than falling prey to whatever happens to come your way. Choose what you want so that you can experience more of that.
· Reading your goals list may prime your brain to focus on specific objectives or qualities. This is especially powerful if coupled with other strategies, like affirmations and visualizations.
· Vision boards are visual displays of your goals and ideals. By making these images more familiar to your brain, you may be more likely to recognize paths to achieving them as you move through your day.
If you are new to priming and are not sure where to begin, try relevant and appropriately suggestive videos, language, audio recordings, reading material, or images that model what you desire. By experimenting, you will find what works best for you.
Personally, I love to watch Ted talks (www.ted.com/talk) and motivational youtube.com videos, view a series of inspiring photos that I have saved in a file on my computer, listen to music or motivational messages that resonate with me verbally and/or vibrationally, or read a section of a book that promotes the type of message I am seeking. I have also come to appreciate MindPT (Mindpower Technology), which offers priming videos for specific types of goals—some of which are even free (https://mindpt.com/mindpt). I like to do these activities first thing in the morning to get me inspired and focused on positive and goal-oriented activity, as well as at night to plant positive messages before going to sleep.
You will see that when you prime your brain, you will be more alert to opportunities and coincidences that may lead you to your ideal. Those chance encounters may have been there all along, but you may not have noticed until you activated the idea in your brain.
In my experiences, when I prime my brain, it seems as though I begin to encounter all sorts of meaningful synchronicities. While I am likely to attribute such experiences to Divine Interventions, the field of psychology might suggest that I have fine-tuned my attention to notice specific aspects of my experiences.
Priming can be effective in orienting your brain to what you want, as well as what you don’t want. Therefore, be careful. Try not to prime yourself for anything negative. It is easy to get of bed on the wrong foot, metaphorically speaking, and to then keep noticing and creating more of what you don’t want. While no one does this on purpose, it is easy to prime yourself unconsciously. Similarly, it is easy to prime each other unconsciously through our use of words, images, and behaviors. This may be beneficial or detrimental. To counter any negative effects, try to prime yourself for humor, positivity, productivity, or whatever will shift you out of your negative funk.
The effects of priming vary with each individual, both regarding strength and duration. However, it does seem to work on most people. It is a magnificent tool to gear you for whatever trait, behavior, or goals you desire. With awareness, it might even help you steer clear of those that you seek to avoid.
References
Bargh, J. A., Chen, M., & Burrows, L. (1996). Automaticity of social behavior: Direct effects of trait construct and stereotype activation on action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71(2), 230-244.
Harris, J. L., Bargh, J. A., & Brownell, K. D. (2009). Priming effects of television food advertising on eating behavior. Health Psychology, 28(4), 404-413. doi: 10.1037/a0014399
Vohs, K. D., Mead, N. L., & Goode, M. R. (2006). The psychological consequences of money. Science, 314, 1154-1156. doi: 10.1126/science.1132491