# Conditioning: How Deep Does The Rabbit Hole Go?

When people think about conditioning, the overall perception is that it 
influences our actions but we are still in control. We have the tendency to 
ignore the impact of our environment when we look at ourselves and take 
many processes that have been fundamental to our development for granted. 
This ranges from the language we speak to how we define concepts or even 
the emotions we experience when we think about things. This then 
translates into our body language, our intonations and ultimately the 
culture we feel part of. All these processes are in one way or another 
conditioned and being aware of this can highly increase the control we 
have over ourselves.

There are an endless number of examples that can be given in relation to 
this topic and many of these can sound mind-blowing and hard to believe at 
times. Yet, these dynamics define our everyday interactions and decisions 
more than our own perceived level of control. Most of our actions and 
thoughts happen subconsciously and conditioning lays down the foundation 
of these processes as we grow up. We accept them as part of our identity 
and personalize them so we feel unique and special. Our sense of self has 
little to do with how we perceive it and more with how we have been moulded 
by our environment. I found that neuroscience provides the best framework 
to master the self. Expanding on this, the following five chapters will be 
more scientific and less personal.