When Shraddha’s gang was around, there was always a lot of below-the-belt banter, but that was just the way she loved it. Today however, someone had made a passing comment on her posture, a remark so low-key that hardly anyone noticed. However, she had flown into a rage and stormed right out of the restaurant. Looking back, for the life of her, she couldn’t make out why she had acted that way. But at the time, it had felt as though the remark had evoked a deep hurt, something like a long-forgotten, distressing memory.
The nature, dynamics and feedback loop of the environs we are born into and raised in have the most penetrating impact on the individual psyche. The intellectual and emotional ambience of the childhood home create the very framework through which the individual perceives the world around him. This takes on infinitely more significance, considering that such a shaping of the thought process by the family unit almost always occurs on the subconscious level.
The typical individual is hardly conscious of recurring patterns in his thoughts, emotional instincts, his overreactions and under-reactions, problem-solving strategies and way of navigating conflicts. They are even less aware of the causes behind these cyclical patterns of behaviour. However, almost all behavioural habits have been birthed and reinforced by these very ideas that the individual has imbibed from his childhood environs—by a process of unconscious osmosis. The subconscious, a hidden but powerful storehouse of thoughts and emotions, dictates a massive proportion of human behaviours—virtually unknown to its owner. The seeding, nurturing and complete development of this extremely crucial “individual subconscious” takes places in the formative years of every individual, by the people who occupy his immediate surroundings.
It is crucial to be aware of the existence of this subconscious, the driving force of our seemingly irrational behaviours. For, such an awareness teaches us to observe the thoughts leading up to our hotheaded impulses, to view a situation with objectivity and importantly, modify our reactions. It keeps a check on the knee-jerk reactions of our inner child and instead of yielding to its every whim, helps us reason with it. It is this awareness of our subconscious that grants us agency over our lives and makes us truly in charge.
Tharini Sridharan
Email: tharinisridhar@gmail.com