Once, there were five monkeys in a cage in the zoo. One day, a bunch of bananas were hung in front of the cage. Each time that a monkey tried to reach the bananas, the other monkeys were sprayed with cold water. This went on until the monkeys gave up trying to reach the bananas. The tradition continued even when all the five older monkeys were replaced with new ones. Each time that a monkey tried to reach up the bananas, he got beaten up by the others. Funnily, none of them knew the reason behind the beating.

This story is a clear example of social conditioning. The things that happened to us in the past, combined with the opinions of society, condition us to set our mindset in a particular way. We believe what is being told to us by others and hand the power to make decisions for us in their hands. This, in turn, affects our inner image. Our inner image is what we believe about ourselves. We let our inner image be constructed as per these opinions and beliefs which may or may not be true. Let us not internalize other’s opinions and let us make our own decisions.