Hello Core Belief

What is a Core Belief? – It is said that Core Beliefs are held deep within our subconscious, and that they nestle themselves in there sometime early in our childhood. … or if I can be honest…. I believe that we bring them with us from previous lives. I say this because, if Core Beliefs are formed in our early childhood, then that means our parents, caregivers, environments, cultures and peers play a massive role in forming them …. And… if you believe in re-incarnation, then you know that you choose your parents, caregivers, environments etc, so that you can learn the lessons you came here to learn (Karma). If that is the case, then you can see how I believe that we may have signed up for these Core Beliefs way before conception, so that we can play them out, and either learn from them and release the Karmic debt, or we don’t, and we repeat the cycle.

Anyway… I digressed. Core Beliefs have been identified as being responsible for influencing how you perceive yourself, others and the world around you. They work behind the scenes (your deep subconscious) and can be either helpful or detrimental, but thankfully, they CAN be changed. They DO however, require a fair amount of self-reflection and a willingness to explore your shadow side to uncover and change them.

Aaron Beck, a psychiatrist in the 1960’s, first identified ‘Core Beliefs’ – however, he used the term “automatic thoughts”. Beck’s patients included those with depression, anxiety, bipolar, eating disorders, drug abuse, and schizophrenia, and he noticed that they all had these ‘automatic thoughts’ about themselves and the world around them. These ‘automatic thoughts’ often distorted the truth and had a massive influences on how they behaved. (Side note: Beck went on to develop Cognitive Behaviour Therapy technique.)

Since my Cancer scare, I have been working on re-regulating my nervous system, and exploring where perhaps I may have deep core beliefs, or spiritual blockages, that may have contributed to my ‘dis-eased’ body. One of the many ways to have a regulated nervous system is to have Core Beliefs that support a positive and healthy outlook for yourself and the world around you.

I am going to be vulnerable now and share with you a Core Belief that I have recently identified and am currently working through.

During a recent breathwork course for releasing money blockages, I uncovered a belief that – “I can only have ‘this’ OR ‘that’. This belief appeared when I was asked to ‘call in” or “ask for” whatever I wanted during the breathwork session. This was soooo hard to do, because I honestly believe you can’t can’t ask for whatever you want, because you can only have “this or that’. BOOM – a deep belief identified.

I, of course “fact checked” this belief with my conscious life, thoughts and behaviours, and yes…. I have absolutely been allowing this deep belief to influence every part of my life!!! For example, for as long as I can remember, I have lived with the belief that you have to choose between love and money – that you cant have both. In fact…. I have, on numerous occasions, even said that belief OUT LOUD to my husband! Like what?!?! I can’t believe I have literally said, “Oh well, that’s ok that we don’t have the money to do that, because we have love instead. We chose love.” !!!!!!!! We have even said to each other “I could have chosen money, but I chose you instead.”!!!!! Whaaaaaattttttt?!??!? the actuall!!!!???? ……even writing those words is hard to do- They are so restricting and negative – just imagine how badly they have influenced my decisions and thought patterns over the years, without even realizing it!!!

***** I’m going to go even deeper, and be even more vulnerable, and break this belief down even further, in the hope that you might want to reflect on your own detrimental Core Beliefs and shift them into something healthier and of more benefit to your life too. *****

I thought “this or that” was a ‘Core’ Belief until I realized there was more, that it was only a ‘Deep’ Belief, and that I could keep going and uncover even more.

Teal Swan (author and spiritual influencer) uses a 2 question tool, to help you go as deep as you can to find the real Core Beliefs. She suggests asking these two questions:

If my statement/belief is 100% true why is it so bad?
What does that mean to me or about me?

So … using my statement/belief of “I can only have this OR that’”

It’s bad because ‘I miss out’
It makes me feel underserving

Ooohhhh….. seems like the real core belief is “I am underserving. I don’t deserve”. ☹

Of course, again, I “fact checked” this (hahaha! Those who know me, know that I do this a LOT!) I know this Core Belief to be true when relating to love and money, as stated above, however Geneen Roth (an author and teacher in the field of eating disorders) claims that “the way you feel about your body, reflects the way you feel about life.” So, I checked this Core Belief of “I don’t deserve” with my thoughts about my body, and yes, ‘I don’t deserve’ is, unfortunately, a very apparent and common language when I think about my body.

“I don’t deserve to have a Cancer-free body.”

“I don’t deserve ice cream today I haven’t exercised all week.”

“I don’t deserve to feel good in a bikini, I had all winter off training.”

Whaatttttt!?!?!! This language is awful! I don’t let my client speak to themselves like that, yet here I am, with my subconscious speaking to me like this all day!!!! I can’t believe that this detrimental Core Belief has been happily simmering away behind the scenes and effecting my life so much.!!!!

OK, it’s time for this to change…. What next…..

I went further by unpacking this core belief and looking at all the evidence in my life, that I had been using, to support it- in all areas – Love, money and body. I then rewrote & reviewed that evidence and shifted it away from supporting it. For example, changing how I looked at. If I thought that there was evidence that:

“I make bad choices – so therefore I don’t deserve”, (also note how this evidence relating to ‘choices’ was being reinforced with my old belief of choosing ‘this or that’.)

I re-wrote that to:

“Making those choices allowed me to experience even more in life ( & I listed them), and often “I didn’t have a choice, the ‘mistakes’ were not mine, but others”.

Next, I needed a NEW core belief that wasn’t detrimental, but was, instead, BENEFICIAL for me and my life. Bear in mind that Core Beliefs can’t be formed in an instant – Core Beliefs love looking for evidence to support them, so they will take time and effort to form. I am still not ready to use the words “I deserve”, because I feel it is too closely associated with the words of my old Core Belief of “I don’t deserve”, and I feel like I am lying to myself by using the same word “deserve”. so, I am working with setting up a new, healthy, beneficial Core Belief using the words “I am worthy”. I feel comfortable saying those words instead, and finding the evidence that supports this seems do-able for me, and hence will allow me to set up a new, delicious, healthy, high vibrating, core belief for myself. Yay!!!!

I am worthy – of ABC – (because…… XYZ)

I am also going to continue noticing where I allow the old belief of “I can only have this OR that” creep into my life, and flip it, and make a conscious effort to build new evidence such as “I am worthy of having BOTH this AND that.”

If you are keen to explore your own Core Beliefs and identify the detrimental ones, that may be effecting your health, your body, your relationships, then I suggest starting with a trigger point (eg “I feel so stuck”. ” I am so frustrated with xyz.”. “XYZ pisses me off.” “I can’t have abc because xyc”.) and using Teal Swan’s 2 questions (listed above) to go deeper and deeper. (**tip Be Brave!!!!!, and don’t justify or shift blame, really look at that shadow side of yourself as you answer the questions.) And keep going and going until you get to the most basic of beliefs. Then, write that belief in the middle of a piece of paper, and from that, write out all the evidence you have or know of, that supports that core belief. Then re-assess that evidence, and rewrite it looking at the beneficial things it has brought you instead. Once you have done that, you can start to consider a NEW core belief. It doesn’t have to be deep or complicated, start with a belief you know you can back up with evidence easily and honestly, and grow it from there.

Remember that this life is ALL about experiences, and settling our Karmic debts and lessons. Processing your detrimental Core Beliefs is a great place to start, and it is never too late to explore.

Also…..Thank you for allowing me the safe space to share one of my not-so-pretty Core Beliefs and a shadow side of myself. I hope it inspires you to do the same, and investigate what your Core Beliefs may be too.

If you want any help, advice, prompting questions, or you just need a sounding board, please reach out, I’ll 100% be here for you.

Big Love

Cherlisa xoxo