Unpacking Your Core Beliefs: What ‘Inside Out’ Can Teach You

One of the most important things to consider when addressing mental health challenges is focusing on what’s within your control—namely, you. You may not be able to control how your parents, siblings, or others behave in your relationships, but you can take steps to better understand yourself and your thought patterns.

A great place to start is by exploring your core beliefs—the ideas you hold about yourself, others, and the world.

Inside Riley’s Mind: How Childhood Experiences Shape Our Core Beliefs

If you’ve ever seen the movie Inside Out (and if you haven’t, you should!), you might remember the main character, Riley, and her collection of core memories—glowing glass orbs stored on shelves. Each of those memories reflects formative experiences that shape her beliefs.

Riley’s core beliefs influence how she sees herself, others, and the world. Those beliefs then shape her thoughts, which impact her emotions and actions.

When Riley was younger, many of her core memories were joyful, allowing her to see life in a positive light. But as she grew older and faced new challenges—puberty, a big move, even her first crush—her perspective began to shift. She started to question the beliefs shaped by earlier, simpler experiences.

Through emotional ups and downs, Riley eventually realized that it’s okay to feel “negative” emotions too—and that growth often comes from accepting all our feelings, not just the happy ones.

How Different Experiences Can Lead to Different Core Beliefs

In a similar way, our own core beliefs shape our thought patterns. For example:

• Person A has a negative experience speaking in front of a class.
• Person B has a positive experience doing the same.

Person A might develop beliefs like:

• “I’m not good enough.”
• “I always mess things up.”
• “If I fail, people will reject me.”

These beliefs can lead to avoidance of public speaking, harsh self-talk (“Why did you say that?”), social anxiety, or perfectionism. They might hold back opinions in relationships, feel anxious in groups, or over-prepare to avoid failure.

Person B, however, may build confidence and a positive belief in their ability to succeed in similar situations.

This shows how important it is to challenge negative core beliefs and reflect on where they come from.

Questioning Your Core Beliefs: The First Step Toward Healing

Here are some prompts to help you start:

• What are 2–3 memories that shaped who you are today? (They can be positive or negative.)
• What beliefs came from those experiences?
• Are those beliefs helping you today—or getting in your way?

Just like Riley, we all experience a wide range of emotions—and that’s completely normal. What matters most is how we understand and respond to those emotions. Becoming more self-aware helps us trace our feelings back to their roots and decide whether our beliefs are still serving us.

Here’s a personal example: For years, I couldn’t listen to the song Amazing Grace. It was played at my great-grandmother’s funeral when I was ten—the first funeral I attended, and the first time I saw my dad cry. I associated that song with grief, and it triggered a stress response every time I heard it. For others, it’s a beautiful, comforting song. But for me, it carried a deeply personal, painful memory.

Everyone experiences life—and builds beliefs—differently. The good news is that we can learn to recognize, challenge, and reshape the beliefs that no longer serve us.

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