Dissolving Beliefs: when an old saying sounds like the truth

A belief is a conviction about oneself that feels like a perception: something often heard, often repeated, or drawn from one’s own experiences. I'm too much. Or: When I cry, I'm weak. Such statements come across as facts. Often, a statement like that once explained a situation that a child otherwise wouldn’t have been able to make sense of. It helped make sense of the world. Yet it has remained, long after the world has moved on.

Whitewashing and What Works Instead

At this point, contrasts are of little help, however understandable the desire for them may be. Anyone who simply covers up an old statement with a friendlier phrasing is just sugarcoating it: the underlying feeling remains unaddressed and may turn out to be Shame Let us know as soon as the new formula is available on one's own ideal fails. A more viable approach is to test the old statement against today's experiences and try out an alternative that works. A statement loses its power when the feeling it conveys, is understood; and this is most likely to succeed if we are allowed to recall the situation from which it originated.

Where a sentence comes from

The origin of this phrase and what it once referred to can be found in Consultation via video or phone understand.