Classical Conditioning it is!

We all need something to believe in. Something to give us hope, something to pull us up when we are sinking. For some of us its a firm belief in religion. For those of us atheists, its either Mother Nature or just some other force we know exists, but we are not yet sure what to call it. A daring few, believe in the power of demons. Many of us have strong trust in the powers of fate and destiny. Oh and how can we forget the belief in superstitions?

I stepped out of the house to go somewhere. I'm halfway down the stairs when I remembered I forgot my phone. I went running back to the house, only to get a good scolding from my mom. 'You mustn't come back to the house right after you've set out for something. Its a bad omen.' She made sure I sat for a few minutes before I left the house again. This apparently, wards off the bad omen.

There is this other friend who would leave home with a long list of things to do. She would be back having done some of it. It was interesting to listen to how she narrated what a horrible day she just had. One by one she would tell me of all the things that went wrong...at the end of it she would say, 'I know why it was such a bad day, I did not pray in the morning'.

We make associations. Its a human trait. When we've had a bad day, we relate it with all the things we did on the day. We even swear not to do those things again, lest we have another bad day. It is funny though how when we have a bad day and although we have prayed or done all the things that should make it good, we console ourselves saying we did not pray enough or did not do all the good things we ought to have done.

The Behaviourist school of Psychology explains this behaviour of making associations as Classical conditioning. Its perfectly fine to make such associations, we've just got to make sure that they don't become an obsession.

Let us however have more respect for other people's beliefs. If she believes she had a bad day because she did not pray, lets respect her belief. Whatever makes her happy. Lets not try and define other peoples happiness for them. Happiness is subjective. Whatever our belief system is, it really doesn't matter as long as it keeps us happy.