Open and Clear, Academy | Rev. Devan Jesse Byrne

Core beliefs are the quiet “rules of reality” you wrote for yourself long ago, often before you even had language to describe them. In psychological terms, they are the deepest assumptions you carry about who you are, what the world is, and what is possible. Things like “I am lovable” or “I am not enough.” “Life supports me” or “Life is dangerous.” These beliefs sit beneath your conscious thoughts the way the operating system sits beneath the apps on a phone. You do not usually see them, yet everything you think, feel, and do runs on them. They shape what you notice, how you interpret events, which memories you keep alive, and which possibilities you never even consider.

Because they sit so deep, core beliefs act like filters over perception. Psychologically, once you believe something, your mind tends to prove it true. You notice the evidence that matches the belief and quietly ignore or downplay what contradicts it. This is why two people can live through the same event and have completely different stories about what happened. One with the belief “I am supported” may experience a setback as a challenge with help available. One with the belief “I am on my own” may experience the same situation as abandonment and proof that they cannot trust anyone. The external event is the same, yet the inner world that meets it is different, so the lived experience is transformed.

Spiritually, core beliefs are like the frequency you are broadcasting to the Wholly Spiritual Universe. They are the tone of your “I AM.” If your core belief is “I am unworthy,” your energy subtly broadcasts contraction, apology, and self doubt. You will unconsciously step back from love, opportunity, and joy, and then say “See, life never picks me.” Not as a punishment from some outside power, but as a mirror of the song you are singing. If your core belief shifts toward “I am worthy of love and support,” the field around you shifts. Your body language changes, your choices change, the people you feel drawn to change. The same world now meets a different you, and the reflection you see begins to soften and open.

On a nervous system level, your core beliefs decide what is safe and what is dangerous. If you deeply believe “It is not safe to be seen,” your body will tense around visibility. You might procrastinate sharing your gifts, forget to send that message, lose your words when people look at you. It will feel like failure or lack of discipline, but underneath there is a core belief that is trying to protect you. When that belief is updated to “It is safe to be seen as I truly am,” the body can slowly relax, and actions that once felt impossible begin to feel natural. The change in experience is not magic in the sense of bypassing psychology. It is magic in the sense that when the root is healed, the branches start to grow differently without so much force.

Changing a core belief does not usually happen by repeating a pretty sentence a few times. It tends to move in layers. First there is awareness. You begin to catch the hidden sentence that sits underneath your reactions. Then there is inquiry. You gently question it. “Is this absolutely true. Where did I learn this. What else might be possible.” Then there is emotional contact. You feel the younger part of you that formed that belief in order to survive, and you offer it understanding rather than contempt. Over time, through new experiences, new choices, and sometimes guidance from others, the belief loosens its grip. Space appears where there was once only certainty. In that space, a new core belief can be invited and tested in real life.

Spiritually, you might think of this as remembering a deeper truth than the ego’s early conclusions. The ego says “I am separate, I must protect myself, I must control everything.” Core beliefs based on that conclusion will make life feel like a constant battle. As those beliefs soften into “I am connected, I am guided, I can trust something larger than my fear,” your experience shifts from struggle toward alignment. Life does not become perfect. Challenges still arise. Yet the way you move through them begins to feel more like a dance with a wise partner than a fight against a hostile world. In that sense, to change your core beliefs is to change the lens through which the One Life experiences Itself as you. When the lens clears, the same world begins to shine in a completely different way.

“I am not enough.”

• You overwork, overgive, or overperform just to feel “acceptable,” then feel empty when praise fades.

• You may sabotage good opportunities because success feels like it will expose how “not enough” you really are.

• Compliments bounce off, while criticism sinks in like concrete.

“I do not matter.”

• You apologize for having needs, opinions, or preferences, and often say “It’s fine, whatever you want.”

• You attract relationships where your time and energy are taken for granted.

• You rarely ask for help, so people assume you are fine and the belief seems “proven” again and again.

“I am unlovable.”

• You may chase people who are distant or unavailable because they feel familiar.

• When someone is kind, you feel suspicious, clingy, or uncomfortable, and may push them away.

• You stay in painful dynamics because, deep down, you think this is the best you can get.

“I am unsafe in the world.”

• Your nervous system is always on alert, making it hard to relax, sleep, or enjoy simple things.

• You avoid new experiences, travel, or visibility, keeping your life very small and controlled.

• Neutral events feel threatening, so you misread emails, looks, or delays as personal danger.

“If I show my true self, I will be rejected.”

• You become a shapeshifter, acting differently with each person so you will be liked.

• Intimacy feels risky, so you keep conversations on the surface or use humor to deflect.

• You later feel lonely and unseen, reinforcing the idea that “no one understands the real me.”

“My needs are a burden.”

• You ignore hunger, rest, emotional support, and boundaries until you are exhausted or resentful.

• You choose caretaking roles, always being the listener, healer, or fixer, never the one held.

• Asking for anything triggers guilt, so you wait for others to guess what you need and feel hurt when they do not.

“Good things do not last for me.”

• When something goes well, you immediately brace for it to fall apart.

• You may end relationships, quit projects, or downplay joy before it can “be taken away.”

• You struggle to commit, because commitment feels like setting yourself up for future pain.

“I am destined to fail.”

• You do not fully try, so any failure can be blamed on “not really giving it my all.”

• You avoid long term goals, education, or big dreams, staying in familiar but unsatisfying routines.

• When something works, you call it luck instead of acknowledging your competence.

“Other people cannot be trusted.”

• You keep emotional distance, even in close relationships, always holding a part of yourself back.

• You micromanage, control, or test people to see if they will hurt you.

• Support is offered, but you decline or doubt it, then feel abandoned and confirmed in your belief.

“I am fundamentally broken / wrong.”

• You become a self improvement project that never ends, treating yourself as a defect to repair.
• Spiritually, you may chase endless teachers or systems, always looking for the one that will finally “fix” you.
• Any mistake feels like proof of your brokenness, while your strengths feel like accidents.