On the topic of "free will," I have a more nuanced idea of just how much control we have over our actions. I don't see free will as a binary question of having it or not having it, but more of a continuum. Some people have a greater ability to exercise free will than others.
Our consciousness is almost certainly a product of our environment, how we are nurtured, and probably also to a degree our genetics.
These forces create what I would consider to be something like floating on a river metaphorically speaking. That river flows in a direction that exerts influence over the decisions we make over some lengthy period of time (this would be the physiological part of our brains and it's chemistry). I think most people don't even realize they are in the river because they are looking straight down at the water, they don't see the river move or the shore, they have no perspective and in this sense they have very little free will. Others are more enlightened and more aware.
But let's be clear, in any moment, the river influences our decisions, but for the most part we are free to make small, easy, inconsequential choices. The harder and the more consequential the choice, the harder to will be to "swim" against the flow, but the easier and less consequential the choice, the less effect it has on changing who we are.
I don't think the combination of traits that makes us us, which forms the "river" and directs the course of who we are, is unchangeable.
To exert free-will we have to do two things.
1. Realize that free will is more than just individual decisions (do I want pancakes or french toast), but a collection of many choices made over time with effort, sacrifice, meaning can change who we are.
2. Have the desire, capacity and willpower to change. One can be aware of the things I've said, and still be unwilling or unable to make hard choices.
So our individual choices add up over time and can change the course the "river" if you will of who we are. Usually fairly slowly.
Think about a food you dislike; could you wake up tomorrow and suddenly like it? But, conversely, I do think it's possible to slowly change how you feel about the taste of something, perhaps through exposure or effort. If you needed to eat something you didn't like to prevent disease, I think it's possible to change how you feel about it over time.
There is an exception to change. Trauma.
Breaking up with someone you love, almost losing one's life, experiencing intense hardship, these experiences are generally speaking the exception to the rule. These things can give people the capacity to change, even if they don't realize that they have been stuck in a behavioral pattern controlled by their brain. I think this is an evolutionary trait that allows us to make drastic necessary changes very quickly.
Trauma allows us to skip #2, at least as long as its affects are strong in our minds.
Anyway, it's a hard topic to explain clearly, I hope that made sense to at least some of you.
