Using CBT to Overcome Negative Core Beliefs and Embrace Positivity
Negative core beliefs can be the driving force for a lot of our behaviors without us even realizing it. Our core beliefs are usually created early on in life. Overcoming negative core beliefs can help people to have improved self-esteem, well-being, and mental health. By overcoming our negative core beliefs, we can ditch the negative side of things and embrace positivity whenever possible.
What Is CBT?
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a type of therapy that teaches how our thoughts, behaviors, and feelings are all related to each other. CBT also teaches that people often have distortions in their thinking that are not based in reality. Distortions are negative thought patterns, such as all-or-nothing thinking or overgeneralization.
What Are Core Beliefs?
Core beliefs are assumptions or thoughts that we have towards ourselves or about the world around us. These beliefs are usually deep-rooted and difficult to change because they have been there for a long time. Some of these beliefs are unconscious, and some of them we might be more aware of.
How Does CBT Help Rewrite Core Beliefs?
The first step in rewriting limiting beliefs is becoming aware of them. Once we are aware of our core beliefs, we can begin to challenge them. This can be done alone or with the help of a loved one or therapist. After we can challenge these distortions in our thinking, we can begin building healthier, more positive beliefs. These beliefs will usually not be adopted fully overnight. Core beliefs take a long time to rewrite because they have usually been with us for so long.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) can be a valuable tool to help us reshape our negative core beliefs. Negative core beliefs can affect our self-esteem and self-compassion even if we are not aware of them. This is even more of a reason to work on becoming aware of our own core beliefs. CBT can help us all become aware of our negative core beliefs, questioning if they are actually accurate or not, and rewriting different beliefs that are based more in reality. Having positive core beliefs about oneself can improve almost all areas of our lives.
We want to remind you that we understand it’s scary to change beliefs we have had our entire lives. But we also want you to remember that it is possible to change our core beliefs about ourselves. Most people will experience higher levels of happiness and well-being if the stories they tell themselves are positive. We all have the power to change our beliefs and stop our inner critic in its tracks.
If you are interested in working with someone from our practice to address your own core beliefs, reach out to us today. We would be honored to help you on your healing journey, however we can.
References
https://www.apa.org/ptsd-guideline/patients-and-families/cognitive-behavioral
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666915320300238
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6127011/
Keywords: cognitive behavioral therapy, core beliefs, limiting beliefs, distortions, self-esteem