A Simple example of belief.   Suppose you were asked to make a public speech at an important occasion.  How would you act and feel?  Would you be nervous, frightened or would you be excited - confident - dynamic ? Have you ever noticed that if a group of people have to stand up and make a speech, some will be nervous, anxious and frightened to death while  others will be relaxed, confident and even looking forward to the experience ? And yet they are all human beings - they all share the same neurological system - i.e. they are all affected the same way by external stimuli.  They are all speaking to the same audience on the same subject and lets assume they all have more or less equal public speaking experience. And yet they will all feel and act differently.  Why.....?  ......Because they will all have different beliefs and expectations about the experience. Some will have a 'strong emotional certainty' that they will be no good - that things will go wrong - that the audience won't like them. If you had beliefs like that how would you feel and act ? And yet other people will have a 'strong emotional certainty' that they will be very good.  They believe they know the subject inside out and they believe the audience will like them and respond warmly to them.  If a person had those beliefs how do you imagine he would feel and act before and during the speech. In reality, the only core difference between the speakers is their different belief patterns - what they believe, really, really feel  will happen.   KEY IDEA The extraordinary thing is that if you could change their belief patterns and they could accept these new beliefs, their whole world of experience would change immediately.