You are conditioned, but you are not your conditioning.

I've been thinking a lot about this recently.

From the moment we're born, we're learning about ourselves and the world. We learn what gets us approval, what feels safe, what success looks like, what we're allowed to want, how much is too much, whether it's safe to be seen and what someone like us is supposed to do with their life.

Eventually we forget that we learned any of it.

It just feels true.

I'm not confident enough to do that.
I'm terrible with money.
I'm too old to start again.
I couldn't charge that.
I'm not the sort of person who puts herself out there.
I need to be certain before I make a decision.

But how much of what we think of as who I am is actually who we learned to be?

This is one of the places where psychology and spirituality meet for me.

Our history matters. It shapes us. Our system learns from everything we've experienced.

But I don't believe that's the whole of who we are.

I believe there is something deeper beneath all of that conditioning, whether you call it Soul, awareness, Higher Self, Source or simply a deeper knowing.

And perhaps freedom begins when we become curious about the difference.

So, here's a question I've been sitting with:

If you didn't automatically believe everything you've learned about who you are and what's possible for you, what might you choose?

You are conditioned, but you are not your conditioning.