Core negative beliefs are unconscious, deeply held ideas about yourself, other people, and the world that affect how you think, feel, and act in a bad way. Most of the time, these beliefs start to form in childhood after a traumatic event, criticism, or other bad thing happens. Beliefs like “I’m not good enough,” “No one loves me,” or “The world is dangerous” are examples.
These ideas can limit a person’s potential and make them feel bad about themselves, anxious, or sad. To challenge and change core negative beliefs, you need to know yourself, think about yourself, and be willing to face and change limiting thought patterns.
With any attempts at creative visualization you take, one of the most important things to remember is the end goal.
Why are you visualizing? It’s safe to say that the average answer would be to improve a state of mind, perception of an event, or approach to daily life. What you’re really doing is attempting to re-program your subconscious, or reaching an alpha level meditation. It can create very powerful emotions and requires the participant to confront their fears, challenges, and obstacles.
The Problem with Attraction
One of the most fundamental issues with visualization is the process of attraction. We all attract thoughts that are present in the entire universe. This quickly becomes very difficult to deal with, because negative beliefs are attracted along with the positive ones. Even if your conscious mind is committed to doing something, your negative mind could be committed to something else. Unfortunately, when attracting beliefs, it’s tough to filter out these ideas in advance.
Instead, what needs to be done is to explore these harmful thoughts, and defeat them. These thoughts are also referred to as “limiting thoughts”, because they limit you from succeeding at reaching clarity on whatever it is you are visualising.
Overcoming Limiting Beliefs
The best way to overcome these limiting beliefs is to recognise that beliefs are not fact. Beliefs are rather based on only our experiences. When confronting these experiences, it is ideal to ditch the tinted lens. It is imperative to determine the particular limitation to each belief you’re looking at, since you’re analysing these thoughts at the core.
Getting rid of negative beliefs can be hard, and there are a few things that can make it harder:
- Lack of awareness: Many people don’t know they have negative beliefs, and they may not realize how those beliefs affect what they think and do.
- Negative beliefs are often deeply held and can make a person feel like they are who they are. Changing these beliefs can feel dangerous and cause people to push back.
- Fear of the unknown: Challenging negative beliefs can make people unsure and afraid of who they will become without them.
- Relying on old ways of coping: Negative beliefs can be linked to old ways of coping and habits that may no longer be good for a person. It can be hard to give up these habits.
- Cognitive rigidity is the tendency of some people to hold on to their negative beliefs, even when they are shown evidence that goes against them.
Even with these problems, it is possible to get rid of negative beliefs with the right attitude, help, and tools. This can include going to therapy, practicing mindfulness, thinking about yourself, and surrounding yourself with positive people. There are many more types of limitations in play, so your main goal should be to detect what is holding you back from alleviating these thoughts.
In the end, it comes down to drive. If you have enough of a drive to kick these limiting thoughts out of your mind, you won’t be defined by them. Remember that emotions play a major role in your conscious interpretation of thoughts, and if you’re able to approach these limits unemotionally and specifically, you’ll have a better chance of rendering them useless.
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