AS YOU ACT, SO THEY EMBODY

Not only do children imitate how you think and speak, they take what you think, feel, speak, and act—and they embody it. We all do. It is how all of us “learn” and integrate our culture—we essentially absorb it unconsciously. Thank your mirror neurons for this. This is how we get a lot of things like beliefs, values, understandings and ways of operating into our neurology. This is not explicit learning, it is implicit learning. “Culture” as the way we do things around here, from how we eat, greet, connect, correct, etc., is absorbed via our observing of others and going through the actions.

This is both good and not so good. It depends. It depends on the specific content that we are absorbing. Live in a dysfunctional family and you will absorb many dysfunctional patterns. It’s what is offered you and what you receive. It will only be later when you move out of your original childhood environment into the larger world that you will find out how well it will fit or not.