The Nature vs. Nurture battle

Whenever I meet my cousins , friends and have deep conversations with them about life, children, behaviour and personality development, I always get caught up between nature and nurture influence. First let's understand what is this in lay man language.

Nature is – The genes and hereditary factors that influence who we are, from our physical appearance to our personality characteristics.

Nurture is - The environmental variables that impact who we are, including our early childhood experiences, how we were raised, our social relationships, and our surrounding culture.

So now I'm sure you got an idea as to why I am confused in this battle of nature vs. nurture.

Since the process of child development starts from a mothers womb, every little thing in the surroundings is helping the baby develop. Mothers' emotions, the environment around the mother, positive and negative energy, each and every thing affects. Later, when the child is born and starts growing and developing, surrounding and environment matters again. Encouragement received, playful home, positive emotions and a nurturing environment and neighbourhood makes a child a better person.

But at the same time there is also the role of genes. Behaviour factors, a few health issues, skin tone, eye and hair colour may be inherited from parents and past generations. Few things are unavoidable. But even though we can’t control our genes we can control the environment around the children.

I personally think that both nature and nurture are equally important and valuable. One can’t weigh them on the same scale.

Food for thought - “Does past life influence current life or not? Do sins from our past life make us suffer in this life?” I don’t think they do. But I would love to know your opinion.

See you soon!

- Samrudhi Jaju