Take Your Power Back: The Silent Conditioning of the Mind
CONDITIONING IN YOUR YOUTH
FAMILY
From the moment we are born, we are conditioned. There is no getting around this. It’s how the world operates. We come into our parents’ lives, or an entire family of people who mold us into the person they envision us to be.
If you are a parent, you understand this. You take care of your child the best way you can, instill what you feel is important, express your beliefs, traditions, and expectations toward them until they are old enough to make their own decisions. Families form all kinds of conditioning without you even knowing it.
EDUCATION
Then, you go to school. Depending on the type of schooling you have, you will be conditioned to believe the curriculum in place. Why wouldn’t you? You are a child, and most children are told to trust authority figures.
Even as you get older, your parents place you where they think is best. You may resonate with it, or not, but the decision is typically not yours. You are at the mercy of the system you are placed in.
Teachers can have incredible influence over a child’s mind. Some may ignite inspiration, motivation, and desire to learn more, while others may make the entire experience miserable. This can have a huge impact over your view of education.
Also, you have no idea if the information you are receiving is accurate, if there is a motive behind what you are learning, you just do what you’re told trusting the books you read, the information teachers provide you, and the administrators surrounding you are correct.
FRIENDSHIPS
Whomever your friends are also have influence over how you think and believe. Especially if you are trying to fit into a particular group, wanting to be like someone else to feel a sense of belonging. Inch by inch you might hand over your own morals and values without even noticing. You mold into the group to feel included without any real understanding of your own individual identity.
Even if you don’t like large groups, just having a close friend or a few good friends can be incredibly influential in your life. Your friends come from different backgrounds, families, traditions, and beliefs that may open you up in either positive or negative ways. You might see things in an entirely new way because of your friends. This can begin to mold you into a new version of yourself.
RELIGION
Religion certainly conditions people’s beliefs. It is the bedrock of many cultures. As children, you have no choice what religion, if any, you wish to participate in. Most parents force their children to attend church and a religious denomination because it’s what they believe. They want their children to do the same. In the eyes of the parent, it is the right thing to do.
If you were raised in a particular faith, you either adopted this belief system as your own, questioned it but went along with it anyway, or rebelled and caused havoc in your family because you did not believe what the church was preaching.
Religion can cause harmony or turmoil depending on how much you believe. If you have deep faith and enjoy the teaching of the religion, it is harmonious, yet for those that have different beliefs and begin questioning, it can create inner turmoil, as well as disturbances within your family unit.
Some families are very committed to their religion and frown upon the other members who do not fall in line. This can be so extreme as to strain family bonds and relationships over religious beliefs. Some people may lose contact completely because of differing views.
LIFESTYLE CHOICES
There are so many areas in life where your mind can be conditioned. How you grew up, how you were treated, what your day to day life was like, the food you ate, the level of activity you participated in, your social interactions, your family traditions, political influences, philosophical viewpoints, levels of conversation, critical thinking, if you were preached at or invited to think for yourself plays an unbelievable role in your identity.
As you grow older and leave the family, adventure out on your own, and begin to pave a life for yourself, you may start questioning some or all of these beliefs. You may begin to wake up from your conditioned self and wonder who you really are. You might realize you enjoy living a completely different way than you were taught. You begin developing your own preferred lifestyle.
INTUITION- YOUR POWER SOURCE
Do you remember the first time you heard your inner voice? Do you recall if you listened to it or not? Was this inner knowing accurate or not?
As a child, your intuition may have gotten your attention, however, the outside voices were too loud for you to do anything about it. You were immediately pulled in the direction of your parents, your school, your friends, or your faith, and your intuition was shut down. Your power was taken from you without your consent.
Very few people will ask children what they think? They are children who know nothing in the eyes of most adults. But, as a child you probably did know what you needed, wanted, and believed, but you never had the opportunity to express it. Your intuition was always there; however, it may have been silenced and the connection to your inner wisdom was lost.
If your intuition was unknowingly silenced, it has not vanished permanently, it’s just been in hiding. You CAN reacquaint yourself with your powerful intuitive self. You CAN learn to trust the initial knowing you have about any given situation. This voice is your guide in this world. It speaks louder to you than any outside influence, it’s only a matter of learning to hear it again.
AWAKENING FROM THE CONDITIONED MIND
YOUR IDENTITY
As stated earlier, there is no way around the conditioning of the mind. That is what the world does, whether you’re a child, or an adult. Everything in the world is molding your mind to think a certain way, believe a certain thing, or follow a certain person, group, or organization. From day one as a child, you unknowingly have given your power over to others. It’s not your fault, it’s just the way it is here.
In order to restore your own power, to truly pull inward and regain the power that is within you, to establish what it is you believe, think, and feel, to know your identity in the world, it’s important to see just how much you are impacted every single day.
Persuasion is an art form, and it takes AWARENESS to see it. Like it or not, everywhere you go, you are influenced. From your environment, the people you surround yourself with, books you read, music, movies, tv, media, print ads, social media, the 24/7 news cycle, your job, you name it, it can have influence. When you begin to see this, everything is in question!
You might find yourself in limbo for a while, wondering what it is you truly think and believe. You might feel lost as you regain your true strength within and discover the real power you do have.
YOUR TRUE SELF
As you rediscover who you are in this world, you might also dive below the surface wondering who you are on the inside. When this happens, the entire world is flipped upside down and you are now curious about what your true identity may be.
If you see that your entire life has been conditioned by outside forces, what is on the inside? Who are you deep within? If you are none of the things you thought you were, what else is there?
This begins a true awakening journey, a journey awaiting everyone. Some people are still smothered in the conditioning, others are taking their power back redefining themselves, while some explore spiritual power and see their inner light shining.
TAKE YOUR POWER BACK
10 Questions to See Past the Conditioning
If you see that you are not your conditioned mind, and that everything you have experienced has molded your belief system, then here is list of questions to TAKE YOUR POWER BACK.
Without any outside influence, what do I truly believe? Explore as many topics as you wish.
Do I really believe this, or was I told to believe this?
How much do you rely on other people’s opinions, input, or advice as opposed to listening to your own?
How do you know if the information you are looking at (ie: research, books, news, etc.) is true? Do you check the sources? Is that even possible?
How much meaning do you place on important things in your life? Does the meaning change? Is meaning subjective to you, or is there an objective meaning in the collective? Is meaning created by the mind or is it absolutely true? How can you know it’s true?
Do you hear your own intuition? Do you listen to it? When was the first time you heard your own inner voice? What was that like? Did you act on it or not? Are you handing over your intuitive power to others to make decisions for you?
If you have placed your power into outside authorities, was your initial intuition correct or not?
Are you ready to trust your inner wisdom? Are you ready to explore the REAL POWER within?
When you are truly listening to your inner guide, what connection have you formed with this larger spiritual essence within you?
Do you feel the shift of power from the outside to the inside? What does that feel like to you? Do you feel better or worse? How has it changed your life?