Intuition Vs. Conditioning
I’d like to invite the word conditioning to the conversation. Conditioning is a process where our actions are continually rewarded or punished so that we start to associate these behaviors with bringing us pleasure or distress; safety or threat; belonging or isolation; dignity or shame.
We are conditioned to obey societal rules to fit in. We especially notice conditioning when it comes to our relationship with food and our bodies. In an effort to be rewarded, we comply with these rules (consciously and unconsciously).
We are conditioned from a young age that eating vegetables is praise-worthy while eating cookies is shame-worthy; especially if you (1) eat the cookies before the vegetables (2) live in a fat body and/or (3) have a chronic illness such as diabetes.
If you grow up in an environment of food insecurity (the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food), you may be conditioned to ignore cues of fullness when there is food on hand.
We are conditioned to reject our cultural way of eating if the foods from our culture do not meet the health standards of the dominant culture. An example of this would be if you grew up with rice as a staple in your household but were told by a healthcare provider to “cut it out” of your diet if you have certain chronic conditions (ie diabetes).
You can see why conditioning might be the biggest threat to intuition; how our body’s innate wisdom may be overridden in the service of fitting in (obtaining safety, belonging and dignity by following the rules of culture). And, while we may be born with an intuition to eat when we’re hungry and stop eating when we’re full, conditioning disrupts that intuition; especially if you are born into a body that does not meet the dominant culture’s standard of health and beauty.
Sometimes conditioning can be dressed up as intuition making it unrecognizable. How do we disentangle our intuition from our conditioning? What would it take for you to notice an intuition and separated it out from fear-based conditioning?
Leave a comment with your ideas. Or, better yet, reach out to set up a time to chat and get help from me on your journey away from conditioning, towards intuition.