Nature, Nurture Or Conditioned Minds?

We have all heard the often debated question, nature or nurture? I want to introduce a third possibility, conditioned minds.

Once we are born, our minds begin to absorb information from our surroundings and environment. This information comes in the form of beliefs, expectations, social status, reactions, mannerisms, insecurities and more. All of this is stored deep inside our unconscious mind and is used as a blueprint for life. It is said that the first six years of our lives we are like a tape recorder and for the rest, we are simply on playback.

We go on to create lives based on this blueprint (conditioning) as this is what we know. Our decisions are based on this conditioning. If we only know a life based on struggle due to a tough upbringing, we are not going to have the confidence and belief that we could be successful in life, it’s impossible if we only know a life of struggle. It wouldn’t fit in with our understanding of life and of ourselves. We can only produce what we already know and understand unless we become aware of our limiting beliefs and understandings about life and change them.

This is why, ‘the apple never falls far from the tree’.

Let’s look at two different examples to get a better understanding.

1. If someone experienced a lot of hostility and argumentative behaviour growing up, these would be ingrained into their unconscious minds so if they were met with confrontation about something in later life, there is a good chance this would result in hostility for them as this is what they’d know, they would have basically been unconsciously trained to deal with situations in a hostile manner. Their brains would assess the situation (confrontation) which would trigger their related conditioning/learned response to situations of a similar nature causing them to exhibit their conditioned/learned response (hostility) instead of staying calm and consciously dealing with the problem they face.

2. If someone grew up in a not so well off family that had trouble paying their bills and struggled to cope with life’s financial pressures, this type of life would become their conditioning and as a result, they would most likely end up creating a similar life for themselves. Their conditioning would unconsciously set out their life expectations and tell them what they are or are not capable of achieving. This would cause them to pass up opportunities that could lead to a more prosperous life. For example, if they were searching for a job, they would scroll past well paying jobs that they would actually be capable of doing. The only thing stopping them would be their own beliefs and conditioning that they have about themselves. They would only apply for jobs that fit in with their minds unconscious expectations and beliefs about what they can do.

So I guess the question now is, nature, nurture or conditioning? Although all three would influence your life, conditioning from your home and general environment would far outweigh the other two and have a far greater influence on your life. I urge you to question your beliefs about yourself, your capabilities and life in general, dig them out of your unconscious mind using your awareness and see through their deluded nature. Awareness holds the truth.