by Renee Lindstrom, Author of Somatic Archetypes, written by a real person

I recently shared that I shifted a conceptual word I used in the 90’s to describe the landscape dynamics of a group, family or community, where someone is held in a role created through the opinions, beliefs, and perspectives within it. (the members in the group). The word was entrainment. I have come to understand that this begins in the baby stage of development through the reactive behaviour of those who surround them. Oh, he/she is…….., Oh, she/he is like ………. Oh, she/he is always like ……….. These are seeds of a pattern that this he/she child will be modelled into. Through the patterns they are assigned by others.

I began to replace the word entrainment with social conditioning, which can be expanded into a broader range of understanding. This has been an interesting focus of attention in the practices I have researched. This is relevant from the perspective of transitioning the elusive patterning that became habitual through mental, emotional and physical behaviour. I perceive this patterning as putting people into roles. It is not who they are on the inside at their core level of response, yet society has confined them into a model of patterns through unconscious awareness.

I bring this up as families and groups are the biggest challenge I have experienced, and witnessed in how far members will go to keep someone confined to a role that is false for them, and not for their highest good. (So of course, I am writing about it.) It meets their need to do so. It’s not the need for the person receiving their advice that’s being met, as what’s being dished out is for the advice giver’s personal gratification. The person seeking advice is seeking empathy to be heard and unravel their doubts. They are longing to connect to their inner abilities of reassurance and confidence in making decisions. The best way to keep someone chained to their role, that serves others more than themselves, is by creating confusion, doubt, fear and anger. This range of emotions comes from mental concepts and words strung together by people expressing their points of view, opinions, beliefs and perspectives using moral judgements, labels, assessments and right and wrong thinking due to their own scarcity mindsets. I sit with people who are in this type of situation and being treated like inanimate objects by family, friends and peers through the roles they have assigned to them. It’s obvious and yet one of the most difficult patterns to shine the light on. The person in the role assigned to them has adopted a system of inner processing that supports what they have been told by others who did not have their best interest at heart.

WE all operate from the core position of getting our own needs met. Very seldom have I come across someone who holds another’s needs at the same level of importance as their own. Ah, let’s say never have I ever experienced this except for the Rinpoche’s and traditionally cultured Buddhist teachers I have met. I don’t know if this next statement has changed or not due to the Chinese invasion of Tibet. At one time, the culture of social engagement in Tibet wasn’t conditioned through ego. In the West, we are conditioned by socialization patterns with ego responses at the core. In Tibet, they did have patterns of cultural conditioning, yet I am suggesting it wasn’t ego centered. I bring up this topic as it is at the core of our mental, emotional and physical well-being. It seems to dominate every Western person’s response at a core level, from what I have witnessed. It is the most challenging maze to find a way out of for a better lifestyle experience. I recently found myself being engaged in a pattern to put me back into the role I once held in someone’s life, and I found myself at the edge of my window of tolerance. It was observable from a somatic/mental awareness. I removed myself from the situation and processed it to come back into a calm space of being. The beauty on this occasion is that when we engaged. I was simply able to say, “I was being put back into a role to meet your need. It doesn’t work for me anymore.” I meant enough to this person that they heard me.

These engagements, though challenging to us as they are not in our normal range of experience, are what deepen connections. They are at the core of feeling our humanness. I can attest to that. I feel it and observe it. I recommend it, even though it is stepping onto the labyrinth pathway when we have trained ourselves to solve puzzles. One is connecting, and the other disconnecting. at the level of experiencing life as described in this post. Of course, this is my opinion based on my experience and training.

Learn more about Inside Awareness Center for Integrative Somatic Learning

Posted on Renee’s authentic accounts only:

Follow on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, X or Pinterest

Please like and subscribe

Copyright 2025 Renee Lindstrom, GCFP

Feldenkrais®, Feldenkrais Method®, Awareness Through Movement®, and Functional Integration®, are registered service marks of the Feldenkrais Guild® of North America. Feldenkrais Method®

---

Support Somatic Learning Development for choice in social conditioning experiences to create healthier lifestyles at home and globally

For transparency I have begun posting a link to my paypal for those inspired by my posts that have been for learning purposes. I am not sponsored other than by myself at this time. My focus has been on the development of an interconnected and integrated system that is apparent in all my efforts shared. The focus of this body of work is on somatic connections that is completely misunderstood by most. The mainstream focus talks at it with strategies in mind while my focus is on the practical aspects of living it. It matters in understanding how to support somatic empathic children from early childhood and shifting a social conditioning that could benefit from more from this focus of learning and understanding. This focus is on a well functioning body, improved relationships and communication, and connections to food, nature and environment to support healthier social and cultural conditioning. If you would like to buy me a coffee or support this effort for further development please go to paypal.me/reenelindstrom – you will notice Renee is spelled Reene on this link – that is me, it is not a mistake. You will see this link on my Youtube Channel and educational web materials, fyi.

#cultureofvalueseductionalmaterials, #socialconditioningeducationalmaterialsforempaths #retrainingbehavkouratcoreorginsofresponsespractically