Core Negative Beliefs and the Progress of a Person Towards a Target - Research Paper Example

Introduction “A belief is an assumed truth. Thus, everything is a belief -- including this statement. We create beliefs to anchor our understanding of the world around us and thus, once we have formed a belief, we will tend to persevere with that belief” (What is belief? 2009). We are leading a life which is governed by certain beliefs. Nobody knows from where we come and where we go. Certain beliefs are prevailing in the world about the origin of our life and life after death. We forced to formulate certain beliefs when we were unable to find out the truth behind a problem whereas when we able to establish a certain thing, it became a fact rather than belief. For example, we failed to prove the existence of God scientifically and hence we forced to formulate certain beliefs regarding the existence of God. On the other hand, even though we believed earlier that the earth is flat in shape, we were able to prove that earth is spherical in shape and it is a fact now. Beliefs can be of two types; negative beliefs and positive beliefs. Positive beliefs always help us to lead a healthy life whereas negative beliefs always cause problems for the future life. This paper briefly explains the core negative beliefs. Core Negative Beliefs Some of the core negative beliefs are; not good enough (incompetent), not good enough (unlovable), unwanted, different, defective, imperfect, bad, powerless, one-below, in danger, not safe don’t know, wrong etc (List of typical negative core beliefs, n. d). These negative feelings always develop negative attitudes. Self confidence would be destroyed if one person develops such negative feelings. Such people will never succeed in life. Self belief is the core of success in life and the negative feelings always retard a person from going ahead. “Your belief system gives you a framework that helps you interpret and understand the experiences you face in life. Core beliefs resonate through your whole life” (Nutting, 2008). Beliefs which develop during the childhood would last till the entire life span of a person irrespective of whether it is negative or positive. For example, a child who develops fear out of some wild animals during childhood could have sustain it, during the entire life span. Belief in abilities during childhood could make a person capable of taking stiff challenges in his future life. “Instead what you and I learned for most of our life (so far) was simply how to "channel all our energy and resources towards dealing with these negative beliefs" (Nutting, 2008). Positive beliefs are less irritating compared to the negative beliefs. For example, the feeling of being recognized by others is a positive belief whereas the feeling of negligence by others is a negative belief. The person who has such a negative feeling of negligence by others would never try to interfere in any social matters whereas the person who has the positive belief of being recognized by others would always undertake new challenges from the society. For example, a political leader or social reformer would try to interfere in more political or social matters if he feels that others are recognizing him and hearing his opinions with interest. On the other hand the person who developed negative feeling would curse his destiny and will stay away from social or political matters. Negative core beliefs always lead a person towards premature judgments or unwise actions. “If you are not clear as to what your negative core beliefs are as yet, you need to first pin them down and identify them, before you can start changing them. Important questions to ask yourself throughout this ‘identification’ process are: What does this information mean about me as a person? What does this clue say about who I am? Asking yourself these questions will help you uncover your negative core beliefs from specific thoughts and experiences you have already identified” (Lim, Saulsman & Nathan, 2005, p.1) Self awareness is the first step in avoiding negative core beliefs. We should not avoid any information as irrelevant to us simply because of our negative core beliefs. We should remember that each person or living thing has a space in this world and the creator has sent us to this world with a vision and mission. Identifying these missions is the core of leading a successful life on earth. Superiority and inferiority complexes are developed ones not an inherited one mostly. Even if it is inherited ones we can change it by practice. Conscious effort is needed for the blocking of negative beliefs. For example some people have a tendency to do things as perfectly as possible. A student who fails to achieve 100/100 marks should never develop a negative feeling. He should realize that even if he was able to achieve 90/100, he will get one of the highest grades. On the other hand if the student worries about the lost 10 marks rather than deriving pleasure for the achieved 90 marks, he could jeopardize his future learning process or studies. “If you have identified a number of negative core beliefs, choose only ONE to begin working on. You could choose the one that is of greatest concern to work on now or one that is related to any biased expectations, negative self-evaluations, or unhelpful rules and assumptions that you have previously worked on” (Lim, Saulsman & Nathan, 2005, p.4). it is not possible for a person to avoid all his core negative beliefs with in a moment using a specific medicine or methodology. The person who is addicted to negative beliefs should try to tackle one at a time. Once he is successfully eliminated the first negative belief he can then concentrate to the second one. Thus the negative beliefs should be tackled individually rather than collectively. Conclusions Core negative beliefs always retard the progress of a person towards a target. On the other hand positive beliefs always accelerate the development of a person. Negative beliefs, if not tackled properly may prolong till the end of life of a persons. Conscious efforts and self awareness help a person to overcome core negative beliefs. References 1. What is belief?, (2009), Retrieved on 22 November 2009 from http://changingminds.org/explanations/belief/what_is_belief.htm 2. List of typical negative core beliefs, (n. d), Retrieved on 22 November 2009 from http://www.growingaware.com.au/Negative_beliefs_examples.htm 3. Lim, L., Saulsman, L., & Nathan, P. (2005), Improving Self-Esteem, Retrieved on 22 November 2009 from http://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/docs/SE_Module%208_July%2005.pdf 4. Nutting, John (2008) Negative Core Beliefs - and how they control the selves and your Life, Retrieved on 22 November 2009 from http://www.growingaware.com.au/NEGCOREBELIEFS.HTM 5. Read More