Undo Your Social Conditioning to Accomplish Anything and Find Freedom
You were not born to be anxious around other people. Society has conditioned you to be very concerned with the opinions of others, so you fear any negative judgement.
You do not need to be rich to be successful. Society has conditioned you to believe success is measured in money, so you are concerned with how much of it you make.
You do not need a prestigious college education to be smart. Society has conditioned you to believe you do, so you take out a loan to go to school even if it doesn't interest you.
You do not need nice clothes for others to like you. Society has conditioned you to believe you do, so you spend hard earned money on designer-brand clothing.
Every thought you have is the result of social conditioning, and this social conditioning often results in limiting and negative thoughts.
A new born baby does not care what others think.
Babies are born in a state often referred to as pure consciousness, a state of mind where you are at one with reality and not subject to limiting thoughts and beliefs.
As we grow up, our own brains are shaped by those around us. Or as the saying goes, "you are the sum of the five people you spend the most time with."
We transform from this state of pure consciousness of a baby into people desperate for the praise of others. We are conditioned to believe that happiness comes in the form of cramming as much stimulation as possible into each day, so we glue our eyes to our TVs, computers, and smartphones, even thought we know these aren't the source of happiness.
It is impossible to completely undo this conditioning, and really we wouldn't want to anyways. There are many useful aspects of social conditioning, such as the ability to more easily interact with others and prosper in organized society.
The goal is to undo the negative social conditioning, while keeping the good social conditioning.
The way you to freedom from limiting beliefs and thoughts is two-fold.
First, we must recognize that our thoughts are not who we are, but just who we have been made into by our surroundings. You can shape who you are by replacing limiting thoughts and beliefs with uplifting and empowering ones, you just need to take the time each day to devote to this task. The more you practice, the more often you can catch yourself in the act of having limiting thoughts and beliefs.
The second step is frequent meditation. It is only by total immersion in the present moment that we can regain a level of pure consciousness similar to a baby, and meditation is a one-way ticket to the present moment.
I hope this article has empowered you to think about the limiting beliefs in your life, and the real source of these beliefs: social conditioning. If you have any questions or comments please don't hesitate to reply below.
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Good post.
Yes, don't polarize into an absolute to remove all conditioning. Conditioning from our environment and society shapes us into who we are, and there are positive and negative aspects to such conditioning of knowledge accepted as "truth" and the ego-personality-identity construct.
Much of who we are is ingrained. And much of it can also be changed to allow greater degrees of freedom to reshape who we are into better and more authentic version of ourselves.
Although, I think your focus on meditation and the present moment is overemphasized as necessary in this process. You can be here and now without it, and still also reshape yourself without that focus on "stillness" of an the concept of a "pure consciousness" devoid of thoughts. Having awareness of reality and ourselves, and processing this awareness, is a necessary and evolved capacity in human development required for our progression in life.
Take care. Peace.
Thank you for your comment.
I personally found it quite difficult to eliminate negative thought-patterns through reflection and positive reinforcement alone, so perhaps I had more to gain from meditation than others.
Overall I think it comes down to the fact that everyone is at a different stage and has a different relationship with reality, so certainly the meditation can be more important for some than others. I should also point out I agree completely with the importance of awareness in making progress, but I do also happen to believe progress has been greatly overemphasized in society (Western particularly).