What are Core Beliefs? Where do Core Beliefs come from?

Core beliefs are our central ideas and assumptions about ourselves, others, and the world. They are deep seated beliefs which we are mostly unaware of and yet they constantly affect our choices, decisions, and actions. They are beliefs that act like a filter through which every situation or experience is perceived and processed. They usually form during our childhood – mostly during early life i.e. between the ages of infancy to 7 years of age. A few common limiting core beliefs that many of us have are – I am not good enough; I am not worthy; I can never do anything right. How do we ensure that such limiting beliefs do not have an influence over us? The first step to take is becoming aware or recognizing these beliefs by paying closer attention to your self-talk.

What you need to realize is that is more to you than you currently see – the grooves of your mental habits are deeper than you realize! Limiting core beliefs lead to the unwanted patterns, thought loops and unwanted outcomes in our lives.

As an infant and a young child, we are trying to figure out – how to survive- learning to stay safe and get love and approval. Therefore, our early beliefs are most concerned with all of these. An easy way to understand this is – think of a computer and how it is programmed. A computer will function only according to how it was programmed. Likewise, our core beliefs are stored in our subconscious minds- this means they are hidden from our conscious awareness – and are often quite different from our logical and conscious thoughts about ourselves.

Let me explain with a hypothetical scenario. Lets say you are a 6 year old sitting in your classroom and the teacher asks a question- you raise your hand, proud that you know the answer- but you are wrong, what happens? The other kids in the class may laugh, the teacher may make a comment or give you a look that you perceive as negative. Time stands still for you, as you experience feeling humiliated and embarrassed. At that moment, you have thoughts like – I’ll do anything to not be embarrassed like this again or I need to be sure I am always right. These feelings go from a momentary feeling of a 6 six year old to a lifetime of believing it is true about you.

The reason this happens is because in the moment where you say the wrong answer and you have a thought “I am stupid, my answer was wrong ! “– it feels true to you in that moment and so you begin to believe that.

As you go through childhood you begin to accumulate more and more limiting beliefs and this happens because a cognitive bias called confirmation bias is at work, and this way slowly and steadily – these limiting beliefs become your “absolute truth”.

Cognitive biases happen because of the natural way in which the brain works. These are mental short cuts that we use to process the onslaught of information that we are bombarded with on a daily basis. It is basically a time saving method that our brain uses.

A confirmation bias favors information that confirms your previously existing beliefs. This causes us to seek out information that confirms our existing belief while ignoring or discrediting information that does not support it. The bias makes us look for evidence that confirms what we already think is true rather than considering all the evidence available. Eventually this process conditions us to selectively remember information that supports our biases.

The good news is limiting beliefs can be released and transformed. How do we do this and how do we identify our limiting beliefs? More on this in my next blog.