Our Conditioning

We are all products of our environments, our ancestry, our society, and of history. All these things have created the program within us that determines how we live our lives.

When we begin to examine the accepted programs that our personality has accepted as self, we find that little if any of it makes sense. We recognize how we too are the same as our mothers and fathers, our jobs, our children, etc. We realize that we have very little individual identity apart from these things. The current identity we are experiencing was developed to survive our daily life in a very basic manner.

As we seek to understand the deeper meaning of  life and ourselves, we peel off the layers of our survival conditioning to discover what lies beneath the surface. Our conditional self is the surface layer of who we are. The “tip of the iceberg” if you will.

By peeling away the outer conditions of ourselves, we can begin a new quest for knowledge and awareness. Here is where we begin the journey of discovering our spiritual essence. Many people find the “peeling away” process difficult at first; however, to move forward, we first must be able to first identify what holds us in place.

Human conditioning is powerful and we have accepted certain beliefs as being truth for centuries, perhaps even eons of time. We have lived our lives for the elements of pleasure and pain, continually unaware of any other way; when it is suggested that a truer self lies somewhere within us, our conditioning rebels.

Our rational minds and emotional bodies impose doubt and fear of the unknown.

We are taught and believe that it is natural to be afraid of learning more about ourselves.

Is it natural to live only in the experiences of the past, trapped by fear, guilt, anger, and shame?  Our conditioning would have us believe this is the way because it knows of no other.  It is in this way that the conditioned self becomes stubborn, set in its ways, and stuck in ignorance.

When we seek to know ourselves as spirit, we do so by removing our outer covering and finding what lies underneath. By exploring our hidden depths, we begin to loosen the bonds that have trapped us in the past.

We now see that our personality conditions, our patterns, have to do with gaining the acceptance and approval of others. The good girl or boy our parents wanted us to be, the well-behaved student who got good grades, the wife or husband who lives to make their spouse happy, the employee who is loyal and works overtime without complaint.  These are only a few of the many facades and roles we play in life.  These facades are the layers through which we must process to find the jewel that lies hidden within—the unconditional spirit self.

When we begin peeling the layers away, it is often difficult to understand how to move beyond our current belief structure. Unconditionally accepting ourself is no small feat. If you want to believe in yourself as spirit and love, you can consciously choose to do so. By acquiring and using the proper tools and with application you will succeed. Nothing less than

Perseverance and dedication are required. To change belief patterns is a continual task. You need be willing to make the effort and take the time.

To begin believing differently, we must open ourselves to our feelings of vulnerability. This allows us to trust in love and to explore the pain that lies within. This initial step is difficult and challenging at first, yet to achieve want we want in life we must take risks.  Fear is simply an instinct to survive. If we permit fear to determine who we are then we will never know ourselves as spirit.

The greatest conditioned fear within, is the fear of change.  If we are afraid that we are not whom we think we are, then we have no identity to attach to.  This fear is so paralyzing that we do not chance to embrace change.  Yet change is and always has been the only constant in life.  We are all designed to be changelings.  Believing any other way is illusionary.  When we live in the illusion we have created, calling it life, without knowing the eternal essence within; we do not really live, we merely exist.

Learned responses are powerful because we believe in them.  When we begin to detach from the energy we have given to our conditioned responses as being truth, they fade.

Our personal reality is completely based on what we believe; when we discover that truth is ever expansive and undeniable, our reality changes. When this transpires, we embark upon the profound and limitless journey within.