I'm endlessly fascinated by the impact of our beliefs on our life experience and emotions. I'm talking about our core beliefs here—the deep assumptions we hold about ourselves, other people, and the world.
Most of us think of beliefs as conclusions we've drawn from experience. We've observed reality, collected evidence, and formed beliefs that summarise what we've learned. Makes sense, right?
Except that's only half the story. And arguably, not even the more important half.
Beliefs Don't Just Describe Reality—They Shape It
Here's the part that doesn't get enough attention: our beliefs actively filter and shape our experience. They direct our attention toward certain information and away from other information. They influence how we interpret ambiguous situations. They even affect how we behave, which in turn affects how others respond to us.
This creates what I call a "closed loop"—a self-reinforcing cycle where any experience we have gets interpreted in a way that reinforces our existing belief.
When you believe something strongly enough, you'll find evidence for it everywhere. Not because the evidence is objectively there, but because your belief is shaping what you notice and how you interpret it.
A Case Study
I once worked with a woman who had experienced significant trauma earlier in her life. Among other things, she had developed a deep belief that she was fundamentally incompetent and worthless.
She decided to return to yoga, something she had been quite good at before. In class, when the instructor corrected her posture, she interpreted this as confirmation that she couldn't do anything right.
The next week, the instructor didn't correct her at all. She interpreted this as the instructor having given up on her—further proof of her worthlessness.
Correction meant she was failing. No correction meant she was beyond help. Either way, the belief won.
When I asked her what would have to happen in that yoga class that could meaningfully challenge her belief about herself, she paused. After thinking about it, she realised: nothing. There was literally no outcome that her belief wouldn't absorb and reinterpret as further evidence.
That's a closed loop. A mental framework so airtight that reality can't get in.
Finding Your Own Loops
Here's a question worth sitting with: What would have to happen for you to meaningfully change a negative belief you hold about yourself?
If the answer is "nothing" or "I can't think of anything"—you've identified a closed loop. You've found a belief that has become disconnected from any real-world evidence, running on its own logic.
This isn't about whether the belief is "true" or "false" in some abstract sense. It's about whether the belief is still responsive to evidence. Can new experiences update it? Or has it become self-sealing?
The Good News
Closed loops work both ways. Just as negative beliefs can create self-reinforcing cycles of confirmation, so can positive ones.
If you believe you're capable of learning and growing, you'll notice your improvements. If you believe people generally like you, you'll interpret their behaviour more generously. If you believe good things can happen to you, you'll recognise opportunities when they appear.
Practices like gratitude exercises, setting and achieving meaningful goals, or simply noticing what's going well can begin to establish healthier loops. Each positive interpretation becomes evidence for the next.
Breaking Free
The first step is awareness. Simply recognising that you're caught in a closed loop can begin to loosen its grip. The belief loses some of its power when you see the mechanism.
The second step is deliberately seeking disconfirming evidence. Not to prove yourself wrong, but to open the possibility that reality might be more complex than your belief allows.
And the third step, often, is getting outside perspective. Someone not caught in your loop can sometimes see what you can't—the evidence you've been filtering out, the interpretations you haven't considered.
Our beliefs are powerful. They shape not just how we see reality, but reality itself. Choose them carefully.