[THREAD] I want to talk about one of the most underrated exercises that I love so much. It is called core beliefs. All of us have core values and beliefs about ourselves and the world. However, when we are anxious or depressed, we sometimes internalize negative core beliefs.
We may start to believe that “we are annoying” or “no one loves us” as core belief because we have been depressed for so long that we believe it even if there isn’t a lot of evidence to suggest that this is true. Core beliefs are very important because they dictate our identity!
The purpose of this exercise is to write down all our core beliefs. After that, we pick those that have negative connotations or stem from low self-esteem. When we identify all those that are negative, we will pick one of them (for now) and change it.
We will write another core belief to replace it. Let’s say one of my core beliefs is that “I am very selfish” and I want to change it to “I am a kind and generous person”. After I have written down the new core belief, this is where it becomes interesting.
For the next two weeks, I am going look for every evidence that proves my new core belief, meaning every kind of generous thing I do, I am going to write it down as evidence that this new core belief fits with me.
The purpose of this exercise is to externalize certain aspects of depression that we integrate as part of our identity and to shift them with new beliefs that are more consistent with reality and kinder to ourselves especially if we have been depressed for a very long times.
I would definitely suggest that you give it a try and see how it works out especially if your self-esteem is low and you have integrated negative things about yourself in your identity.
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