As children, we don’t think about how much we rely on learned behaviour. It’s what we've learned, it’s what we live by without question.

Behaviour is learned

All behaviour is learned, including faulty learning that doesn’t meet the standard behavioural conditioning, and behaviour that doesn’t meet the criteria of what society deems as appropriate, or normal.

Children don't stop to question their behaviour. If parents go on to ignore their children’s behaviour, their children can grow up to emulate the same behaviour in their adult lives. How we are in childhood, is how we may be in adulthood. The closer to ‘spiritual values’ the easier our lives can become.

Children are shown how to behave 

Children aren't born knowing how to behave. Where parents fail to parent in their children's interests, problems can arise.

As parents, it is important to live a life that hurts no one and one which allows you to function in your own normal, where you're happy and adjusted and where you have the opportunity to carve out a successful life, because that will always benefit children.

Behavioural Conditioning 

Where behavioural conditioning is about control, it can set us up to fail, if as adults we fail to take control, and we continue to live a life that isn’t acceptable and it emulates another person’s life.

Ilana Estelle is a mental health and wellbeing advocate who combines educational insight with her personal experience of living with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities. She holds diplomas in Counselling, Diet and Nutrition, Nutritional Therapy, Psychotherapy and Counselling, and Stress Management. Through her writing, Ilana supports others in navigating their emotional, mental, and physical health challenges. In addition to writing for The CP Diary, her work has appeared in healthy lifestyle magazines. Ilana is also the author of three books: Cerebral Palsy: A Story – Finding the Calm After the Storm, Spirituality, Healing and Me, and Survival: The Covid Years – Time for Change.

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2 comments on “Behavioural Conditioning”

  1. I agree that as children we are often subjected to 'behavioural conditioning' without us realising that's what it is.

    I am lucky that as a child I wasn't home long enough for my parents to parent and condition my life in any specific way, but I know that wasn't the same for my siblings.

    I feel it's important that children are encouraged to think for themselves. If and when that doesn't happen, you're looking at something like 'helicopter parenting,' which is never a positive experience.

    1. Thank you. Yes, agreed. Sadly, unless you're aware it's what you've lived, it's not always easy to change.

      It is made easier if you're 'living presently.' Living in the present allows you to visit the past, without emulating certain behaviours from your past.

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