Have you ever wondered how two people can see the same situation in wildly different ways? Perhaps you’ve wondered why some people tend to take a half-glass-full view of life, while others take a glass-half-empty view? Maybe you’ve been curious about your own thinking patterns, such as your tendency to jump to conclusions in your relationships and where those thought patterns came from?
Why do we all see things so differently and why do we react to situations the way we do? Psychology tells us that one of the reasons is we are all looking at the world through different “lenses” that colour our experience.
These lenses are commonly referred to as our core beliefs or “schemas”. Schemas include our beliefs about ourselves, other people and the world around us. They influence how we think, feel, behave and relate to other people. The problem is our schemas are not always accurate.
Our schemas form early in childhood and continue to be built upon throughout our lives. Schemas can be positive, such as “I am lovable” or “I am capable”, or they
