What are core beliefs?
All of us have core beliefs. These are central beliefs that exist at the very core of how we see life and reality. Our core beliefs are an integral part of how we see ourselves, and they shape both our experience and the way that we see reality. They have a large influence on people’s perceptions and decision making. These beliefs are often formed early in life and can be difficult to change, even if they’re not accurate or helpful.
Sometimes these beliefs can be clearly obvious, and they can show up in our daily thoughts. Alternatively, many can stay buried beneath the surface for many years. These beliefs can touch on a variety of different themes, below I have outlined a few of them.
- Self-worth: beliefs about one’s value, lovability, or deservingness
- Competence: beliefs about one’s capabilities, skills, or effectiveness
- Control: beliefs about one’s ability to influence events or outcomes
- Safety: beliefs about the world being dangerous or safe
- Trust: beliefs about the trustworthiness of others
- Intimacy: beliefs about the availability of love and closeness
- Power: beliefs about one’s power or powerlessness
- Vulnerability: beliefs about one’s resilience or susceptibility to harm
- Fairness: beliefs about the fairness or injustice of the world
- Meaning: beliefs about the purpose or meaning of life
- Coherence: beliefs about the predictability or chaos of the world
It is not unusual for a major life event to trigger ones core beliefs. Life can be moving along very nicely, and then suddenly something will happen that will activate the belief. Let me give you a couple of examples.
Imagine a successful business person who has spent their life achieving success and recognition. One day they lose their job and financial income. It is very common for many people to base their value on their career. i.e. if I am successful then I have value. If I don’t have success then I have no value. It’s only when his or her career goes south that their core fear is triggered. Before this event they might not be aware that their core belief even existed. In this example they will have spent their life avoiding their fear by working extremely hard and being successful.
Let’s take another example. Imagine a woman who likes to be in control. Maybe she likes being involved with family matters and being in control of the running of her family’s life. Her sense of security comes from being in control. Then for whatever reason she has a problem with her health and needs to spend a few weeks in hospital. During that time it would be impossible for her to be in control, as she is in hospital. This random event can trigger her need to be in control. It’s only through this life crisis that her core fear is triggered of being out of control. So our core fear can silently rest until an external event brings it to the surface.
For many people spend their life avoiding their core fear, this is done through a variety of coping mechanisms that help to avoid the pain and discomfort. Our core beliefs limit the amount of love, freedom, and satisfaction that we let into our lives.
Our core beliefs also shape how we see and interpret reality. They are lens which we view events and experiences through. This lens will focus on evidence that supports the core belief while it also ignores what doesn’t support it. For example, if you believe you are useless then this core belief will ignore anything that will prove it wrong. This means that even if there is evidence to prove your negative core belief wrong it will do it’s best to ignore it.
It seems strange that our minds should want to keep their negative thought patterns alive and present. That being said our core beliefs want to stay alive and they do that by looking for evidence to prove them right.
In Awake Patterns we will help you discover and break through your core beliefs and patterns. The first part is to work out what the pattern is, and then we get to do something about it.
Check out our free ebook to see our process and how it all works.
