A Coaching Power Tool Created by Anu Sachar
(NLP Coach, INDIA)
As social beings, the need to belong in a group is a strong preference. In our life, there are many groups we are to be part of like family, friends, work, religious, spiritual, peer, community and many more.
As part of the groups, we follow or conform to the established norms. Conformity usually indicates an agreement to the majority position, brought about either by a desire to ‘fit in’ or be liked (normative) or because of a desire to be correct (informational), or simply to conform to a social role (identification).
Are you aware that you are conditioned? That is the first thing to ask yourself, not how to be free of your conditioning. You may never be free of it, and if you say, ‘I must be free of it’, you may fall into another trap of another form of conditioning. So are you aware that you are conditioned? Do you know that even when you look at a tree and say, ‘That is an oak tree’, or ‘that is a banyan tree’, the naming of the tree, which is botanical knowledge, has so conditioned your mind that the word comes between you and actually seeing the tree? To come in contact with the tree you have to put your hand on it and the word will not help you to touch it. – J Krishnamurti
One such form of conditioning is Conforming…
A certain level of conformity is required to operate any successful society…which is good to have.
It becomes a challenge when we start feeling inhibited, unable to express, question or debate with the very groups we are part of….it may lead to severe consequences. All we really want is harmony…