When I have coaching conversations with people, I usually end up talking (at least a little bit) about conditioning. To be clear, I'm referring to the process of training human beings to think and behave in a certain way in order to be deemed "acceptable" by cultural and/or societal standards. This happens on scales both tiny and enormous in every human civilization throughout the world. It is a huge part of being human. It is expected, ubiquitous, and largely invisible (unless you stop to take a closer look). Conditioning plays a significant role in molding and shaping our unique body-minds into some semblance of social palatability that allows us to participate in society. This has very primal, survival based origins; humans are social creatures that need other humans in order to live and thrive. I'm certinaly no anthropologist, but that makes good sense to me.
The reason I point to our social conditioning so much during coaching sessions is because it can lead to the perception of many problems for individuals. We naturally absorb the beliefs and energetic patterns of our societies, cultures, and families. And if we perceive that we don't conform to those beliefs and patterns, the inevitable result is feeling that we're lacking in some way.
I don't know how many times I've heard (sometimes in my own head):
"I'm not __________________ enough."
"Everybody else can do this, but I can't."
"There is definitely something really wrong with me."
"I'm broken."
"I think I'm just bad at life."
"What can I do to fix myself?"
If we consider what we know about how our brains function, of course these kinds of thoughts show up! How could they not? They are an inevitable byproduct of a mind trying to constantly personalize and make sense of sensations of dis-ease through the very blurry lens of our conditioning!
Even though the content of these thoughts is always centered around "Me," how in the world could thoughts so universal actually be personal?
What if these thoughts of self-lacking that we cling to and contract around, are simply the normal waste product of our human conditioning?
What if there never has been and never will be anything fundamentally wrong with you?
What if worthiness and true "acceptability" is the birthrite of every human being?
How would your life change RIGHT NOW if you simply saw these thoughts of lacking as completely irrelevant noise?