Whether you are aware of it or not you are always affirming what you believe. The way to keep a belief system going is to continually affirm it and justify it and never question it. We have developed core beliefs in every area of our life and these beliefs impact our happiness, success, and personal fulfillment. We form core beliefs as a way to understand and live in the world around us.
Beliefs are nothing more than thoughts that over time we come to believe as true. Because they feel so real and so true , they can be very strong forces in shaping our perceptions and difficult to change. This is an example from cognitive behavioral therapy of how core beliefs formed early in life lead to negative self-talk later in life. The negative self-talk then contributes to unhelpful behaviors and symptoms.
Negative self-talk often contains cognitive distortions. See below for the how the cycle works. Symptoms — behavioral: social withdrawal; motivational: loss of interest, procrastination; feelings: sadness, anxiety, guilt; cognitive: poor concentration, indecisiveness, self-criticism; physical: loss of sleep, loss of appetite. The belief then drives many different aspects of your life.
However, as an adult this belief can limit you from creating connections and trusting others. As you can imagine, you might never really notice the connection between your anxiety and a deeply embedded belief that the world is not safe.
You just notice that you feel anxious! It gives you an opportunity to take a step back and look at the situation in a different way. You can challenge the belief and remind yourself that you are safe, right now, which can help you to shift your focus from the anxiety to what action needs to be taken and get present in the moment.
Another example might show up in your career or in relationships. However, you notice that as you take steps towards your career goal, you find yourself sabotaging your success, procrastinating , feeling anxious and avoiding what you need to do. Why do I keep stalling? I want this goal!! Uncovering your core beliefs helps you to take charge of your life. To recognize the unconscious forces that drive your thoughts and behavior, which ultimately empowers you to do something different.
To change your beliefs, and ultimately change your life. Core beliefs can be challenging to change as they are often hidden, automatic beliefs, which have also become part of our identity. Learning to identify, challenge and reframe your self-defeating thoughts and core beliefs is an important step in emotional health. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy CBT offers several strategies to help identify and change your core beliefs.
What we believe about ourselves determines how we feel. These hidden assumptions are not apparent from the reaction or the thoughts. We have to get past the surface of thoughts and solve the mystery of our reaction to find the beliefs.
Notice that the package of false beliefs and assumptions above starts to seem a bit unbelievable. When you identify the core beliefs to this detail they begin to become ridiculous. This is often the case when we expose the whole bundle of agreements in the mind. When you fully identify a set of beliefs you instinctively divest your belief in them. These shifts happens just through your expanded awareness. Just by identifying your beliefs you facilitate change in your emotions and behavior without a lot of work.
Each agreement is like a link in a chain. If you just break one link then they all lose power. Take a look at the third false belief for a moment.
Our mind is quick to make this association and believe the opinions other people have about us. We often believe it without realizing it. This starts to fall apart under some scrutiny. Different people will have different opinions about us. Their opinions are mental concepts in their mind. We only feel a change when we change our belief about ourselves. We might have an agreement buried in the mind that we are an idiot. We might also have mental agreements that we are smart.
Our mind can flip back and forth between the two many times during the day, or even in an instant. Changing your awareness of one belief affects the whole system of reactions. You simply stop believing in them. However it does take some effort to develop the awareness to identify them.
It sounds simple but does require some work. There is also one very important step in the process that is often missed. You have to change your point of view in order to change a core belief. Where you shift your point of view in your mind is critically important. Certain points of view will make it easy to dissolve a core belief and others will stop the process. If you are judging the beliefs you find, or yourself for having them they become stuck.
When in judgment you also create and believe a judgment story about your beliefs. When this happens you have built a layer of story and beliefs on top of the existing core belief. The new point of view you adopt must be free of judgment about the core beliefs you identify. In the Self Mastery Course I teach you how to identify core beliefs, change them, and how to avoid the trap of judgment as well. Some popular self help approaches like to use affirmations.
A faster and easier way to change a belief is through shifting point of view. A new perspective allows you to have that epiphany of awareness that changes the way you see things. Without this shift in perspective it is very difficult to change a belief. When you are within the paradigm of a false belief it appears completely true so you continue to believe in it. Mindfulness is really one of the best tools there is for learning to hear your thoughts.
Read our easy Guide to Mindfulness to learn what it involves and how you can start practising mindfulness meditation today. By: Internet Archive Book Images. Beliefs can be tricky little numbers. So how to dig out the belief from behind a thought? Learn how to do this now by reading our article on Balanced Thinking. This will inevitably be the core belief. The process might look like this:. Oh goodness that feels like a punch to the gut.
All sounding a bit heavy? You can lighten the mood with core belief work by trying a bit of perspective changing. What would this belief look like to you if you were a famous star? If you were on your death bed? If you were back to being your innocent two year old self? For example, if you were a famous star and walked into your workplace right now, would you think you were worthless?
Would your dying self really care what your colleagues thought? The point of this is to show you how changeable and therefore not factual beliefs really are. And it gives you a chance to see other possible beliefs more easily. From another perspective, what might a better core belief be? By: Art Poskanzer.
Who are you with when this belief tends to rise up? Where are you? What are you doing?
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