In psychology, "core" often refers to a person's deepest and most ingrained beliefs or values, which can influence their thoughts, emotions, and behavior.
Have you ever found yourself doing something and being surprised by your behavior? Or maybe you've noticed that you keep repeating the same behaviours even though you don't like them and can't figure out why.
Acting on our core beliefs can sometimes feel like we're being controlled by something outside of ourselves. Would you allow a child to dictate your career or relationship choices? Obviously not, at least not knowingly. However, in our lives, outdated core beliefs may unconsciously influence our decision-making processes, allowing a child-like version of ourselves to have a say in our career and relationship choices. It is crucial to examine and update these beliefs as they may limit our potential and lead us down an unintended path.
Core beliefs are deeply ingrained beliefs and values that we hold about ourselves, others, and the world around us. Our experiences, upbringing, and cultural and societal influences form them. Core beliefs can be positive and negative, often influencing our thoughts, emotions, and behaviours. These beliefs are often taken for granted and may be subconscious, but they can profoundly impact our lives and shape our perspectives and decision-making processes. Our actions are often guided by our deeply held beliefs, which we believe are in our best interest. However, these beliefs may have been formed at a much younger age and may no longer be logical or appropriate for our current adult life. Despite this, we may continue to act on them due to a perceived benefit or secondary gain, even if it ultimately harms us. They can lead us to decisions that are not in our best interest or may hold us back from reaching our full potential.
An example of a core limiting belief could be the following: when Mary was seven years old, someone stole her pen at school, and she got into a fight with them. The teacher didn't know how to resolve the issue, so the person who stole her pen and Mary were punished by cleaning all the classrooms' bins. This experience shaped her belief that it's not worth fighting for what's hers because she will end up being punished. This experience has ingrained a core limiting belief within her, and she continues to react to it as if she were still that 7-year-old child. As a result, in her current job, she struggles to stand up for herself when her colleagues treat her unfairly. You may notice that Mary's core belief is limiting her and making her life smaller than it could be. Mary acts according to her core belief that not standing up for herself when her colleagues treat her unfairly protects her from punishment. However, this reinforces her limiting core belief and creates an illusion of gaining something by being passive. The truth is we all have a network of core beliefs that were installed in us for our own good. These beliefs may have been valuable and served us once when we were young and vulnerable, but as adults, we have the ability to question them and find a more appropriate belief using our accumulated life experiences, status, knowledge, influence, and resources.
Changing core beliefs is not an easy process, and it may take time and effort to see real change. Or is it?
To change a limiting core belief, you can start by identifying the belief that is holding you back. Then, you can challenge that belief by looking for evidence that contradicts it and practicing new ways of thinking and behaving that align with a more supportive belief.
It might be frustrating to figure out the reasoning behind your actions, especially if some of it is repressed due to past trauma. Even after spending a lot of time thinking about it, you may still feel confused and not fully understand your thoughts. These Cognitive Behavioural Therapy tools can be helpful, but understanding your core beliefs can be challenging at times because they're ingrained deep in your subconscious mind.
How addressing core beliefs at the level they were created – in your subconscious mind - leads to rapid behavior change and positive transformation.
Accessing and working with your subconscious beliefs through techniques such as hypnosis can lead to faster progress toward positive change. Your memories, emotions, and beliefs are stored in your subconscious mind and can influence your thoughts and behavior. With hypnotherapy, you can understand the root cause of your behavior - your core beliefs - and replace limiting beliefs with supportive ones. This can change the pattern of your behavior more quickly and effectively.
It's important to note that this approach should be evidence-based and done under the guidance of a qualified professional.
How hypnotherapy will accelerate your personal growth attractive, viable, and appropriate physiological tool to explore and change cognitive and emotional determinants of complex human experiences.
Hypnosis is a natural and healthy state of mind where we feel calm, focused, and relaxed. This state is dominated by deep alpha or theta brain waves that we also experience when we daydream or are in a flow state. Hypnosis also helps us feel dissociated, which means we can disconnect from our thoughts and emotions and assess them objectively without feeling overwhelmed. This helps us gain a deeper understanding of our subconscious mind and can reduce self-criticism, allowing us to express ourselves more openly and clearly about our troubles and behaviour.
For nerds: Neuroanatomy of dissociation during hypnosis
During hypnosis, we experience a calm and highly focused state dominated by the GABA neurotransmitter that calms our autonomic nervous system, resulting in deep relaxation. Hypnosis is a unique state of mind as, together with calm, we experience deep focus. It enables us to feel highly absorbed and effortlessly focused on a specific subject. This combination of calmness and focus increases neuroplasticity and allows us to learn new things, like a new thinking pattern. Hypnotherapy as an effective vehicule for change Hypnosis makes us more open to suggestions and increases our willingness to follow instructions without being too critical or judgmental. This helps us receive praise, and positive suggestions, be more open to change and self-improvement. Additionally, once we are hypnotised we not only bypassed our critical self-view that sabotage our behavior, but also our standard unwillingness to change and do better is reduced.
For nerds: Neuroanatomy of suggestibility during hypnosis
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