Core beliefs reflect how you see or view yourself, others and the world. People are not born with core beliefs, they are learned from family, friends, teachers, religion and culture. They develop from a person’s life experiences starting from childhood and can be positive or negative. Core beliefs influence every aspect of your life; relationships and love, health and fitness, emotions, career, and spirituality. They impact who you are, how you behave and how you think things should be. Let’s talk about negative core beliefs specifically.
Negative core beliefs are also known as limiting beliefs because they limit or restrict you from achieving your highest potential. They are false beliefs that you think are true and prevent you from succeeding in any aspect of your life. Negative core beliefs keep you rooted in fear and unhealthy repetitive patterns that can keep you stuck. It’s challenging to progress in your life when you keep saying things to yourself like, “I can’t do it” or “I’m unloveable”. By practicing self awareness and recognizing your negative self talk you can uncover the negative core beliefs that limit you.
10 examples of negative core beliefs
- “I can’t do anything right”
- “I’m worthless”
- “The world is a dangerous place”
- “I’m a terrible person”
- “I don’t deserve to…(fill in the blank)”
- “I’m a failure”
- “I’m not good enough”
- “I’ll never find love”
- “I can’t trust anyone”
- “I am shameful”
10 examples of positive core beliefs
- “I can do this”
- “I am lovable”
- “I am worthy of success”
- “I am good enough”
- “I do the best that I can”
- “I am safe”
- “It’s ok to express my emotions”
- “I am powerful”
- “I am smart”
- “I am supported”
5 ways to uncover your core beliefs
Practice Self Awareness
I’ve talked more about self awareness here and here.
Try these Journaling exercises
- Observe your thoughts and write down the negative self-talk you witness.
- Transform negative self-talk into powerful life-changing affirmations. Affirmations help us shift negative core beliefs into positive core beliefs.
- How would my life be different if I didn’t think this way? (Base your answer on any belief you uncover.)
- How are my beliefs limiting my life?
- What are my strengths?
- What are some of my positive core beliefs?
Traditional Therapy
Having a regular dialogue with a professional counselor can help uncover core beliefs you haven’t considered before. They may have questions and exercises to help you start transforming negative beliefs into positives.
Transpersonal Energy Healing
This is one of the healing modalities I use to help my clients, a combination of Body Mind Counseling and Hands on Healing. This helps to uncover negative core beliefs, release stored emotions in the body and balance and relax the energy and nervous systems. Learn more about Transpersonal Energy Healing here!
Bach Flower Therapy
This is another healing modality that I use to help my clients get to the root cause of negative emotions and limiting beliefs. I offer 1:1 sessions, but the Bach Flower Remedies were created as a self help system so anyone can access and use them with ease. Learn more about individual remedies on my YouTube Channel.
Don’t know what Bach Flower Remedies are? Check out my 8 minute video What are Bach Flower Remedies?
5 Steps to uncover negative core beliefs
- Practice Self Awareness to Identify your thoughts
- Connect thoughts to emotions
- Journal using the exercises above
- Transform negative beliefs with positive affirmations
- Seek professional help with traditional or alternative therapies
Negative core beliefs are so deeply rooted that even though they aren’t true it feels like they are an unquestionable truth. When you have repeatedly told yourself a belief for so many years, it may feel impossible to think you can change it. It just feels like who you are, but that is far from the truth!
Although it can feel uncomfortable to uncover the beliefs and shift your perception of yourself, others or the world, it’s a journey worth taking because you deserve to live your life to your fullest potential.
“If you raise your standards but don’t really believe you can meet them, you’ve already sabotaged yourself. You won’t even try; you’ll be lacking the sense of certainty that allows you to tap the deepest capacity that’s within you… Our beliefs are like unquestioned commands, telling us how things are, what’s possible and impossible and what we can and can not do. They shape every action, every thought and every feeling that we experience. As a result, changing our belief systems is central to making any real and lasting change in our lives”. ~ Tony Robbins
