I recently did an online course that helps you correct dysfunctional beliefs from early childhood like "I'm not good enough". It has 19 beliefs and 4 conditionings that you go through - there's a video for each one, you listen, answer questions as needed, and work yourself through the logic. It costs money but you can do one for free here to try it out: http://www.recreateyourlife.com/free/?u ... 15486811-6
I think it made a difference, so was worth the money I paid for it. (I got it at half price ($95 USD) for some reason - maybe being on the waiting list for a while but not having signed up yet? I couldn't afford the full price.)
At the same time it was really aggravating. I kept having to hit the pause button so I could keep up, sometimes had to backtrack to figure things out, and when he asked how I felt about each statement I usually couldn't tell. The ideas fly fast and thick and it was tiring to keep up. Some of the most key statements were written on the screen but a lot wasn't. I suggested subtitles for those that need them - no idea if they'll do it or not. Also I found myself wanting to throw popcorn at the screen from time to time in frustration. If you try the free one you'll see. The belief "People aren't interested in what I have to say" made me laugh, because even the researchers say that about us.
You need to do it somewhere you can do it in private, so you can listen and talk out loud (and throw popcorn as needed). Library won't work. Also, expect to take many sessions to get through - I found it very tiring and needed to take a lot of breaks. Each belief is about 30-40 minutes not counting pauses; the conditionings take less time.
I think what the method does is revisit beliefs that are formed before our teen years, when we are still too young and unsophisticated to analyze what we believe as we learn it, and allows us to take generalizations ("I'm not good enough") and see that we may have felt that in specific situations but it was never generally true and may not have been true at all, since there are always multiple interpretations for any particular event. It felt like taking a scalpel and separating my beliefs and feelings from the events that led to them in the first place - giving me a layer of perspective I didn't have before. You can do that any time you want for beliefs you form in your teens and later (formal operations, aka abstract reasoning) but you can't really do it for beliefs formed before then because you don't even remember forming the belief.
Anyway, I thought I'd describe it since it isn't described here already, just so people can get my opinion. I found it worth the money I paid even though I found the format really hard to use. And I found that I really had to go through each belief in detail, especially the strong ones. Just knowing what the beliefs were wasn't enough. It'll take a while to really see the difference (and I'm doing so much self-help right now it'll get mixed in with the other stuff), but I did notice a shift. Plus I found the format they went through became recorded on my brain, so it became an automatic reaction to beliefs as they came up later.
20 Dec 2012, 1:34 pm
