Understanding the deep beliefs that drive your automatic thoughts, and how to change them
In the previous post, we mapped the twelve thinking traps, the Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANTs) that block action in every area of life. You may have recognised many of them. You may have even practised the pause-and-examine technique on some of your own thoughts.
But if you have tried to challenge your ANTs and found that they keep coming back, there is a reason. Surface thoughts such as “I will fail,” “this will never work,” or “I am not good enough” are not the root of the problem. They are the fruit. Beneath them, often laid down years or even decades ago, sit something deeper: core beliefs.
Understanding core beliefs is the difference between trimming a weed above the surface and pulling it out by the root. It is what makes the difference between temporary relief and lasting change, in the mind, in the heart, and in the circumstances of a person’s life.
What Are Core Beliefs?
Core beliefs are the deep, fundamental convictions we hold about ourselves, about the world, and about our future. They are not usually conscious. We do not walk around thinking “my core belief is X.” They operate more like the foundation of a building: invisible, but everything built on top of them takes their shape.
They typically form in three domains:
- Self: “Who am I? What am I worth? What am I capable of?”
- World: “What is life like? Are people trustworthy? Is the world fair or hostile?”
- Future: “What can I expect? Is change possible? Will things ever improve?”
Healthy core beliefs sound like: “I am capable. I am worthy of good. Difficulty is temporary. Effort produces results. Allah is with me.”
Unhealthy core beliefs, especially those shaped by trauma, prolonged hardship, or spiritual affliction, sound like:
- “I am fundamentally flawed or broken.”
- “I am cursed. Good things are not for me.”
- “No matter what I do, nothing changes.”
- “I am a burden. People leave me.”
- “The world is dangerous and unpredictable.”
- “Allah is far from me. I am beyond His mercy.”
How Core Beliefs Create ANTs
Core beliefs are the factory that manufactures ANTs. Once a core belief is in place, the mind automatically generates surface thoughts that are consistent with it, even in situations where those thoughts are not warranted.
Here is how it works:
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Core belief: “I am not capable.” → ANT when a job opportunity arises: “They won’t hire me.” → Action: Does not apply. Core belief: “Good things are not for me.” → ANT when a marriage prospect appears: “It will fall apart like everything else.” → Action: Withdraws from the process. Core belief: “Nothing I do makes a difference.” → ANT when considering a new business: “What is the point? It won’t work out.” → Action: The idea dies. Core belief: “I am cursed.” → ANT when experiencing a setback: “This is proof. It will always be like this.” → Action: Stops all effort. The blockage becomes permanent. |
Each time the ANT produces the avoiding behaviour, and the avoiding behaviour confirms the feared outcome (“I didn’t get the job,” because no application was sent), the core belief is strengthened. This is the loop. This is how a person can be genuinely trying, making du’a, doing their Ruqyah, and still find that life does not move. The spiritual affliction may have planted the seed, but the core belief has taken root, and now it grows on its own.
Where Core Beliefs Come From
Core beliefs are not chosen. They form through experience, and they can be shaped by many sources:
Childhood and Family Environment
A child raised in instability, criticism, or conditional love can develop beliefs like “I am only acceptable when I perform,” “I cannot trust others to stay,” or “I must not need too much.” These beliefs go underground and re-emerge in adulthood as ANTs about work, relationships, and worth.
Trauma and Repeated Failure
Repeated experiences of loss, rejection, or failure, especially without the support to process them, can solidify into beliefs like “effort is pointless” or “I am not the kind of person things work out for.” The mind, trying to protect against future pain, establishes these beliefs as rules.
Spiritual Affliction
This is where things become particularly relevant to readers of Risalatul Khayr. Sihr, jinn whispering, and the evil eye do not only produce symptoms in the body and disruptions in daily life. They work at the level of thought and belief. A person under prolonged jinn influence will often report that they have developed deep convictions, seemingly from nowhere, that they are worthless, that they are cursed, that Allah has abandoned them, that nothing will ever change for them.
These are not conclusions they reached through reason. They were installed. And because they were installed gradually and subtly, the person typically believes they are their own thoughts, arising from their own honest assessment of their life. This is one of the most insidious dimensions of spiritual affliction: it can rewrite a person’s self-concept from the inside.
Ruqyah, bi’idhnillah, can disrupt and remove the spiritual cause. But the beliefs that were installed may remain, as habitual patterns in the mind, even after the affliction has been treated. This is why the inner work is necessary alongside the spiritual treatment.
Identifying Your Core Beliefs: The Downward Arrow
One of the most powerful CBT tools for uncovering core beliefs is called the Downward Arrow technique. Rather than challenging surface thoughts directly, it follows the thought downward, asking “and if that were true, what would it mean?”, until the underlying belief is revealed.
Here is an example:
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Situation: A business proposal is declined. Surface thought: “This never works out for me.” → If that were true, what would it mean? Next thought: “It would mean I am not capable of building something real.” → If that were true, what would it mean about you? Deeper belief: “It would mean I’m not good enough. That I don’t deserve success.” → And if that were true? Core belief revealed: “I am fundamentally not someone who succeeds. Good things are not for me.” |
This core belief, “good things are not for me,” is not supported by evidence. But it feels like truth. And because it feels like truth, it generates a constant supply of ANTs that make it behave like truth.
Once a core belief is identified, the work shifts. Now you are not just challenging individual thoughts; you are examining and rebuilding the foundation from which all those thoughts emerge.
Challenging and Rebuilding Core Beliefs
Changing a core belief is not quick work. It requires patience, consistency, and often the support of a skilled therapist. But there are practical steps that create real movement:
Step 1: Name the Belief
Write it down, explicitly. “My core belief is: ____________.” Seeing it outside your own mind, on paper, often reduces its power immediately. What felt like an obvious truth about reality can suddenly look like what it is: a belief, formed under difficult circumstances, not an established fact.
Step 2: Examine the Evidence
Ask, methodically: What is the actual evidence for this belief? What is the evidence against it? A person who believes “I never succeed” often discovers, upon examination, a significant list of things they have achieved, which the belief had systematically filtered out.
This is the mental filter distortion operating at the belief level: only information that confirms the belief makes it into awareness. Deliberately searching for contrary evidence begins to loosen the belief’s grip.
Step 3: Identify the Origin
When did I first start to believe this? Was there a specific experience? A message I received from someone? A period of sustained difficulty? Understanding where a belief came from helps you see it as a response to circumstances rather than a revelation of truth.
For those with spiritual affliction: acknowledge honestly that some of these beliefs may have been installed through waswas and jinn influence, not formed through your own reasoning. You did not choose them. You do not have to keep them.
Step 4: Develop an Alternative Belief
What would a fair, balanced, Islamic-grounded belief sound like in its place?
- “Good things are not for me” → “My rizq is with Allah, and He has promised not to leave any believing soul without provision.”
- “I am fundamentally broken” → “I am a human being in a process of growth and healing. My worth is established by my Creator, not by my circumstances.”
- “Nothing I do makes a difference” → “Effort is my responsibility. Outcome is Allah’s. I do my part and trust His.”
- “I am cursed” → “I may be under spiritual affliction, which is a test, not a permanent verdict. Allah heals. I am in treatment. Change is possible.”
Step 5: Act from the New Belief Before It Feels True
This is the hardest step, and the most important. Core beliefs do not change because we argue them into submission. They change because we act differently, and the new actions produce new evidence that supports the new belief.
If you believe “I can make progress,” even slightly, even tentatively, and you act on that belief by sending one email, making one call, taking one step forward in your studies or your marriage process or your financial planning, and something comes of it, even something small, that small result begins to feed the new belief. Over time, consistent small actions produce the evidence that rewrites the story.
This is the wisdom of the Prophet ﷺ’s teaching: “The most beloved deeds to Allah are those done consistently, even if small.” Small, consistent action is not just spiritually valuable. It is neurologically and psychologically transformative. It changes the belief.
What the Prophetic Du’a Teaches About Inner Struggle
The Prophet ﷺ taught us to seek refuge in Allah from hamm (anxiety) and hazan (grief), from ‘ajz (incapacity) and kasal (laziness), from jubn (cowardice) and bukhl (miserliness), and from the burden of debt and the overpowering of men. This du’a is striking because it does not only mention outward difficulties. It names inner states that weaken a person, restrict action, and quietly shape the way they move through life.
When looked at carefully, these states overlap strongly with the consequences of unhealthy core beliefs. A person who deeply believes they are powerless may fall into incapacity. A person who expects failure, rejection, or humiliation may hesitate, withdraw, and avoid action. A person whose inner world has become shaped by fear may struggle with courage, initiative, and steadiness. What appears on the surface as procrastination, passivity, or emotional heaviness is often connected to something deeper beneath it.
This is one reason inner work matters. The problem is not always just the visible behaviour. Often, it is the belief system underneath it: the assumptions a person carries about themselves, about other people, about life, and sometimes even about what change is possible for them. These beliefs may be formed by painful experiences, upbringing, repeated failure, chronic stress, or in some cases intensified by spiritual affliction. Over time, they can produce paralysis, fear, avoidance, and a reduced ability to act with confidence and clarity.
Making this du’a is not a substitute for that inner work. The two belong together. We ask Allah to protect us from these states and to remove their burden from us, while also using the means He has placed in our hands to address them. That includes reflection, honest self-observation, and learning to identify and challenge the distorted beliefs that keep feeding the problem. In that sense, du’a and inner work are not in competition. One is an act of dependence on Allah, and the other is part of taking the means.
A Word on Patience With the Process
Core beliefs formed over years do not dissolve in days. This is not failure; it is how growth works. The tree that grows slowly is the one whose roots go deep enough to withstand storms.
Be patient with yourself. Be consistent with your tools: the Thought Record, the Downward Arrow, and the Evidence Examination. Return to your adhkar and du’a. And when possible, seek the support of someone trained to help, whether a CBT therapist, a knowledgeable counsellor, or a trusted Ruqyah practitioner who understands the psychological dimension of healing.
In the next post in this series, we will bring everything together: the practical tools, including the Thought Record, Behavioural Activation, the Double Standard Technique, and more, showing how each one can be used immediately to create movement in the areas of your life where you have felt most stuck.
— Risalatul Khayr