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Developing Healthier Core Beliefs


13 years ago 0 286 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
Samantha - so far it has reaffirmed my recent realization that I probably judge myself too harshly - definitely much harsher than I would judge others. Also by having to define the elements of the core belief it helps me recognize areas I could work on to challenge the belief and help change it into a more positive one. But I'm looking forward to the next steps given by Jason, because while it has made the beliefs I have and would like more clear I still want to know how to boost it up to the 80 or 100 level!
13 years ago 0 6252 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
Teebs

Just my personal experience, but I never had to get 100%. 80 and the other 20 seemed to fall into place. In theory I find that 80% positive is enough to bury the other 20, But this is me and I have been at it longer than most of us. 

Davit.
13 years ago 0 2606 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
Great work on this Teebs. How has working through the steps of changing negative core beliefs been helpful to you?
 
 
 

Samantha, Health Educator
13 years ago 0 286 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
Step 1: Negative belief = I'm weak,
            Positive belief = I'm strong
 
Step 2: I would rank my positive belief, that I'm strong, as a 30/100.
 
Step 3: I defined my weak and strong in the last post, but to recap 0 would be avoiding everything, making no progress, not practicing my tools, and making decisions based on anxiety. 100 would be persistently working on my issues, making decisions not based on fear, making tangible progress, and pushing myself through a reasonable amount of anxiety without pushing myself over the edge
 
Step 4: I'm assuming I need to rank myself on the attributes of "I'm strong" since that's what I'm working towards, so on a scale of 0-100....
Persistently working on my issues: 50 - I work on them using a wide variety of tools, but much more so when things are tough, and I stop when things are going better
Making decisions not based on fear: 10 - Things have been so bad lately I'm avoiding things just in hopes of getting some relief
Making tangible progress: 10 - I know I have more tools now than I used to, but I feel like I've really slipped over the last month.
Pushing myself through a reasonable amount of anxiety but not too much: 10 - It's been kind of an all-or-nothing - pushing myself to do too much or avoiding everything


13 years ago 0 223 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0

Teebs, this is great!

Changing negative core beliefs to positive core beliefs takes a few steps.

Step 1
- identify your old negative core belief (I’m weak) and the new positive core you are going to work toward (I’m strong).

Step 2
- Next, rate your positive belief  (I’m strong) on a scale from 0-100.  Many people may rate their core positive belief (I’m strong) as low ie.10/100.

EX. Rate: How “strong” are you?

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
< Not Strong

< I'm Strong >


Really Strong >


Notice a couple of important things here. First, we’re asking you to rate your new positive belief, not your old negative belief. This is very important because we want you to toward a new positive core belief, not work away from an old negative one.

Step 3
- The next thing we'd like you to do is to carefully define what you mean by “weak” and “strong” and to put these beliefs at the opposite ends of a 0-100 scale with their rating of 10/100.

Step 4
I now would like you to think carefully and give yourself a rating from 0-100 for each of the terms of the definition. The tricky part here is to really think hard about the definition and then to think carefully about each of the ratings.

Let me know when you are here and I will walk you through the next steps.
 
Jason, Bilingual Health Educator
13 years ago 0 286 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
One of my negative core beliefs is that I'm weak. I would define weakness as it relates to my panic anxiety as:
*avoiding things that make me anxious
*having relapses that make me feel like I'm taking one step forward, two steps back
*not sticking to things that help, like working through the panic program or practicing relaxation
*letting anxiety dictate decisions I make in my life
 
The positive core belief to challenge this would be that I'm strong. Funny how this is a harder one for me to define! I would define strength as it relates to my panic anxiety as:
*continuing to work at it despite setbacks
*making decisions based on my hopes and not my fears
*making tangible progress
*I would say pushing myself through anxious moments, but I almost do this to too much of an extreme as I've talked about in other posts, where I make things worse by pushing myself too hard too fast
 
I feel like some of the statements that define both strength and weakness are definitely true for me.  What should I do next to keep challenging this negative core belief?
13 years ago 0 223 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
Members,

We will now discuss strategies to help you meet your goals for developing healthier core beliefs.

Defining core beliefs: One of the big problems with deep sadness and depression is that everything seems like a big cloudy dark mess. And because everything seems so tangled, all problems seem impossible to solve. Seeing your problems this way can lead to bigger problems such as hopelessness. Looking at one core belief at a time is essential to slowly untangling the problems.

An example to help you along…

Many individuals describe themselves as being a “loser” But what does that mean exactly? In order to change it, we must define it. Here are a few ways to look at it:

• No friends?
• Not being able to make friends?
• No job?
• No money?
• Ugly?
• Stupid?

Now by breaking down the idea of “being a loser”, it’s given us a definition that is concrete and that we can challenge. Before doing that, you should replace the negative core belief with a positive one. For this example, we will use successful. (Don’t forget to define this idea also as we will use it again later.)

Please define a core belief you want to work on. Need any help?

Jason, Health Educator

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