Resetting Your Subconscious Core Beliefs

Core beliefs can enhance or cripple our lives.

Core beliefs are self-messages accepted and embedded without our knowledge due to everyday experiences and turned into beliefs.

Core beliefs can be discovered, named, and then reset in our subconscious narrative which in turn will change how we respond to ourselves (behaviors, thoughts, emotions, and life), others, and the world.

Core beliefs can be the biggest barrier in our lives or our greatest drivers toward self-fulfillment.

 What are Core Beliefs?

Change is a fact of life. The truth is we are changing every day, all the time between the maternity ward and the crematorium. When planning to do something new or going through a new experience in life, there is one thing that either drives us to success or blocks us from success is our core beliefs. A core belief is a self-message that is created during each life experience and is converted into a belief and stored in a self-narrative in the subconscious mind. All humans possess hundreds, more like thousands of core beliefs. Core beliefs are part of our belief system, and the content of our self-narrative influences how we feel, think and act. Depending on how we received each belief, they can be positive, helpful, motivating, true, or inspiring. Or they can be negative, critical, demeaning, disappointing, false, or harshly judging. Either way, they influence, direct, determine or govern how we act, feel, react, or think in every aspect of our lives.

To this article, the definition of a core belief, also known as a limiting belief, is statements that form from our experiences and are accepted into our subconscious mind and become the content of our personal mental narrative. It’s the act of believing strongly in a concept, idea, principle, and thought and then accepting it as truth even though it may not be. A core belief profoundly impacts our esteem, value, worth, confidence, and ability to function. For example, good core beliefs could be “I’m smart (I’m confident, intelligent, firm, or resilient). While destructive core beliefs could be I’m not good enough (I’m stupid, defective, ugly, unwanted, unloved, or an outcast).

Science has revealed that 95% of our day, our life is being directed, influenced, or governed by our script or mental narrative straight out of our subconscious mind. The content that runs our subconscious mind is core beliefs. Life under control of the script in our subconscious mind is just a constant playback of core beliefs formed and downloaded from other people and events we experience. These downloaded beliefs may not even allow us to be the person we want to be or get into the life we really wish for.

Why are Core Beliefs so important to understand?

We are not always conscious of what blocks us from achieving what we want out of ourselves or our lives. Core Beliefs lay hidden and silent within the shadows of our subconscious mind waiting to be triggered and brought to the surface of our conscious. They surface into our consciousness without awareness. A core belief can be a barrier that can restrict our own possibilities for change, success or block our motivation to achieve our happiness or full potential. To understand the significance of core beliefs, you must know how they originate.

How do core beliefs form?

The human brain is a complicated mechanism. Let’s focus on three of the many functions the brain serves for humans. One, it records every life event that a human experiences. Two, every life event is stored for future retrieval and has the ability to be replayed. The retrieval and replay process can occur on a conscious or subconscious level. Three, a belief is formed during each event and along with an associated emotion that attaches to each belief. At the same moment that the brain is recording a live event, which can be positive, affirming, painful, or traumatic, a belief is formed. This forming belief embeds itself in our subconscious narrative and carries a deep personal meaning of who we are as a person and how we fit in or not. Over time the core belief will root deeper into the subconscious mind. These beliefs can be about experiences, environment, family, ourselves, someone else, society, religion, or basically everything and everybody we come in contact with.

To help you understand better, here are a couple of examples.

 A young individual is sitting anxiously awaiting the return of a math test that the student had studied very hard for. The teacher approaches their desk, looks at the student, lays down the test (with a failing grade), and says, “I do not know if you will ever be able to pass this course”. The beliefs that form for the student are “I am not good enough at math” (or “I’m stupid”) with an associated emotion of sadness and failure attached. The student accepts the failing test score unknowing while their subconscious mind accepts the belief and feeling. The student works hard with a tutor and passes the course but was never aware of the acceptance of the belief. The student grows up and holds a job as an accountant’s assistant. He is offered a promotion but turns down the promotion because he does not think he is “good enough”, “not smart enough,” or “does not deserve it”. A deep sense of being stupid, failure, and sadness also surface but they are not aware of where the beliefs or feelings come from. A co-worker asks states “why didn’t you go to college and get a degree in math to become an account. You are so good at it?” Instantly, he answers, “I am too stupid to go to college.”  

Another example is of a young child that completed an important task, and their parent said, “you can do anything you set your mind to” and the emotion associated with it is pride in self. The belief that forms in this situation was “I can accomplish anything I want, no matter what”. He or she is offered a wonderful experience in adulthood and accepts it due to the mentioned positive belief accepted in childhood and succeeds in that experience. 

A Different Way to Look at Core Belief Development

Let’s look at an analogy. A young tree forms out from seed. The seedling falls to the ground, buries itself, and begins to grow. Initially, the roots spread out seeking and gathering minerals and water to feed their growth. The roots send out nourishments to the trunk, branches, and leaves. The trunk gets thicker with strong bark, branches spread out, and leaves flourish. At full growth, the tree looks majestic, strong, and healthy. Over time, deep in the ground, the roots multiply and begin to intertwine and attack each other. Above the ground, the tree looks healthy but is starting to become weak inside and susceptible to disease and elements due to what is happening under the ground. The tree will stand or fall depending on the health of the roots.

The same is true about all of us. We either grow and change or become stuck due to the messages that we hold about ourselves in our subconscious narrative. We may appear strong on the outside, but it is the hidden beliefs deep within our mind that affect our ability to grow or not.  

What can be done?

Hidden core beliefs are our agents for positive change or our downfall. But the fact is that they do not have to be permanent barriers to our growth. The wonderful thing about core beliefs is that there are methods that can aid us in drawing problematic beliefs out of the shadows and into our consciousness. Once discovered, core beliefs can be named, determined to be good or bad, and then shifted into the light of positiveness and become the energy behind our desired health, happiness, and transformation.   

 

Dr. Bill Tollefson, Certified Master Life Coach, is one of the leading experts in trauma and how to change lives. He helps, teaches, and guides individuals to reach fulfillment within themselves and their lives quickly. Visit www.drbilltollefson.com or call him 239-349-2209