As I referred to core beliefs on one of the pages of my website, I thought it prudent to give visitors a quick explanation of what core beliefs are. While doing therapy, the idea of core beliefs came up often. This is because core beliefs can create distorted thinking, clouding our view of the world, our relationships and even ourselves. Core beliefs are the foundational views we have about life and our place in it. If these views are problematic, then creating a healthy sense of self later is difficult, if not impossible. Somewhat like stacking wood on boards that have termites. Over time the wood will fall over.
Core beliefs are typically established in our youth but traumatic events, even later in life, can have a dramatic impact on them. An example of a trauma caused core belief is an individual who is robbed at gunpoint. The result of this experience may be a belief that the world is unsafe. This new core belief may cause the person who was robbed to isolate and become fearful of the outside world. As you can see, the new core belief is going to have a huge impact on the person’s quality of life.
For perspective, an example of a core belief originating in childhood might be a feeling that what they have to say is not important and so the child and the adult later on are reticent to speak up and share. This might have been influenced by family that would either discount what the child was saying or ignored them all together. In time a fear of speaking up may be created in the child that could get reinforced later on.