Читать Power and submission: unlocking the Mind's hidden potential - Daria Babkina

How We Were Taught to Suppress Ourselves from Childhood

From the very beginning of life, you were told who you should be: quiet, obedient, "good." These words sounded like care, but in reality, they laid the foundation for suppressing your natural impulses. "Don’t do that, it’s shameful," "You must be exemplary" – these are not just phrases but the first bricks in the wall separating you from your own desires.

A child’s brain works like a sponge: it absorbs not only words but also the emotional context in which they are spoken. If you did something adults considered wrong, you were punished. Not necessarily physically – a stern look or a judgmental remark was enough to instill guilt. The hippocampus recorded these moments as "dangerous," and the amygdala associated them with the emotion of fear. Every time you tried to express yourself, a red light flashed in your mind: "Stop, this is forbidden, this is bad."

School only amplified this process. You were expected to sit quietly, raise your hand, speak only when allowed. You were evaluated for your behavior, not your personality. Too active? "Hyperactive." Too emotional? "Problematic." These labels taught you that being yourself was wrong.

Society’s treatment of the body was particularly cruel. From an early age, you were taught that certain parts of your body were "indecent." You shouldn’t touch yourself, you shouldn’t ask "ugly" questions. Girls were taught to be "modest," boys to be "strong." Desires were suppressed even before you could understand what they were.

The fear of judgment became your constant companion. You learned to restrain yourself, hide your emotions, suppress your desires because you feared rejection. This became your second nature. You stopped asking questions because the answers would still be "wrong."

But it’s important to understand: this is not your fault. It’s a system designed to raise compliant people. People who don’t ask too many questions. People who are afraid to stand out. Your individuality was crushed under the weight of social expectations until you began to think of it as normal. But suppression is not normal. It’s a trap you can escape if you recognize its existence.