There are no bad or good core beliefs. Every thought or belief has served us in some way and it always has positive intentions. However, our core beliefs turn into self-defeating or limiting beliefs over time which harms us. In this article, you will learn three ways to transform your negative core beliefs into positive ones so you can take control of your life!
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How to Recognize Negative Core Beliefs
In my previous blog post, we defined what core beliefs are and we also discussed how to recognize core beliefs. Make sure to read this article real quick if you haven’t yet because the first step to transforming your negative core beliefs is being aware of them.
Core Belief Exercise
If you’re still struggling to identify your core beliefs after doing the exercises in this article, another resource to help you is by doing this core belief exercise. This exercise is 52 statements you will fill in through writing or verbally to quickly recognize your core beliefs.
Read Next:
- What Is Core Belief and How to Identify Negative Core Beliefs
- Am I Sabotaging Myself? 3 Signs of Self-sabotage and How to Avoid It
- Being Your Own Best Friend: How to Be a Good Friend to Yourself
3 Ways to Transform Your Negative Core Beliefs
Great job on recognizing your negative core beliefs!
Identifying your negative core beliefs is quite challenging because we are not always aware of these thoughts or beliefs.
For some of us, it might take a lot of reflection before we finally debunked our negative core beliefs and that’s okay.
In my experience, through daily journaling, I learned that one of my negative core beliefs is that “I’m not good enough.” or “I’m not doing enough”. This explains why I’m an overachiever or perfectionist.
This belief is so destructive for me and holds me back from achieving a lot of great things in life.
Not just that but it also hinders me from being proud of myself and appreciating my progress. I figured that this belief is from the comparison I experienced back in my childhood.
We have different experiences, which means it’s so important to reexamine those impactful events in your life.
Awareness is the first step.
The good news is there are so many ways to change these beliefs. Having that said, here are three ways to transform your negative core beliefs.
1. Transform your negative core beliefs by examining if there is much truth in your beliefs
Examining your beliefs system and checking if this is true is a powerful way to transform your negative core beliefs.
Imagine you’re inside your home. You know it’s a sunny day because the sunlight is reflecting into your home. You can hear the birds chirping from your window and the trees swaying by the gentle wind.
Then someone knocked on your door and told you that the skies were dark and it was pouring down.
Will you automatically believe what someone just said?
Some of you might not.
Maybe the first thing you will do is to look out your window and see if it’s raining. You might also go outside and check it yourself or ask someone else if it’s true
Now, take this same approach whenever your negative core belief comes in.
Once you become aware of your negative core beliefs, you can begin testing if your beliefs are true.
Confront your beliefs. Ask questions like: “Does this low score I got on my math test really means I’m a complete failure in life?”, “Is it true that I can’t do anything right? When was the last time I made the right decisions or actions?”
By examining your negative core beliefs, you’re beginning to transform them and cultivate supportive beliefs
2. Changing your unsupportive beliefs by using positive affirmations
Another way to transform your negative core beliefs is by using positive affirmations. Affirmations are a self-help strategy used to promote self-confidence and belief in your own abilities.
Yes, affirmations do really work!
In an article from Healthline, Crystal Raypole wrote, “regular repetition of affirming statements about yourself can encourage your brain to take these positive affirmations as fact.”
For example, you can change your negative core belief, “I am a failure” by affirming, “I accept I have weaknesses but they do not define me.”
It’s important to note that your affirmations have to be realistic.
When you think of unrealistic thoughts or affirmations like “I’m the best person in the world” or “no one can beat me” your mind will not believe this, and besides, you might be setting yourself up for huge disappointments.
Instead, you want to make sure that you’re incorporating real and factual beliefs. That way, you can slowly but surely build a solid foundation for your brand new positive beliefs.
3. Understanding and changing negative core beliefs through daily reflections
Journaling is also a powerful tool to help you transform your negative core beliefs. By writing down your thoughts, you’re giving yourself time to actually think about your beliefs and challenge them.
Faith Okeke from The Villij wrote an article with a few journal prompts from Therapist, Chantée Dardaine to help you work through and change negative core beliefs. Here are some of them:
- What are some unhelpful thoughts/beliefs you have about yourself?
- What does this core belief mean about you?
- Does this belief still serve you a purpose, how does this belief make you feel?
- What supports this belief or what is this belief protecting?
- What or who is the source of this belief?
- Is this belief helping you work towards your desired outcome?
- What are 2 small things you can do differently to limit yourself from reinforcing this belief?
It is possible to transform your negative core beliefs
We discussed three helpful ways to transform your negative core beliefs which are: examining your beliefs, using positive affirmations, and daily reflection.
Yes, it is possible to change your negative core beliefs, but remember that it doesn’t happen overnight.
Take baby steps every single day and with a little bit more patience and compassion for yourself, you will see your progress over time.
Eventually, you will break free from the old negative beliefs that are holding you back from being your true self and you will take full control of your life.
Do you think you can transform your negative core beliefs to positive ones? How do you change your negative or unsupportive beliefs? Let me know in the comment below!
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Jocelyn is a coffee lover who believes that a bad day with coffee is better than a good day without it. You can find her obsessing over stationery, hanging out with her cat, or singing her favorite Taylor Swift songs.