I took a weekend workshop in my late twenties, and one simple little exercise from it had — and continues to have — a remarkable impact on my life. The workshop was led by Ken Keyes Jr., who wrote Handbook to Higher Consciousness, and the little exercise is called “the core belief process.” It’s something I’ve done hundreds of times, and continue to do at times.

All it involves is asking ourselves eight questions, and answering them honestly. When we do it, we become far more aware of the deep beliefs we have, many of them unconscious.

Once we see what these beliefs are, they can be changed. There are countless different ways to change our beliefs, including therapy, prayer, meditation, walks in nature, talking things through with a friend, twelve-step programs, and a zillion other things. The best tools I have found over the years are prayer and affirmation — simply repeating some simple words that directly contradict and counteract the limiting beliefs I have.

Because what are these beliefs? They are thoughts we have in our mind, a neural pathway. And what are these affirmations? Other thoughts we have in our mind, through other neural pathways that can lead us to a far more wonderful life experience.

Once we become aware of the deep beliefs we have unconsciously accepted as being true, we can consciously change those beliefs that prevent us from being successful and fulfilled in our lives.

The rest of this is excerpted from The Greatest Secret of All:

The Core Belief Process

This little activity can help you deal with any difficult situation or problem in your life. All it requires is answering these questions  as honestly as you can, in your head or on paper or screen:

1. What is the problem? Just describe the situation, for a minute or two.

2. What emotions are you feeling? Just name them, in a word or two. Is there fear, frustration, anger, guilt, sadness? Sometimes just the act of naming the emotions will be enough for you to let at least some of those emotions go. At other times, you have to go through all the steps of the process before your emotions shift.

3. What physical sensations are you feeling? Take a minute to tune in to your body. Briefly describe what you feel happening physically.

4. What are you thinking about? Take a few minutes and say out loud or write down  what has been going through your mind. Is there a repetitive stream of thoughts you’ve been having lately? What are those recurrent thoughts? 

5. What is the worst thing that could happen in this situation? What is the worst-case scenario that you can imagine? If that happened, what would be the very worst thing that could happen to you? It is good to shed some light on your deepest fears, because you come to realize that the chances of those deep fears actually being realized are very slim indeed.

6. What is the best thing that could happen? What would you like to have happen ideally? What is your ideal scene for this area of your life?

7. What fear or limiting belief is keeping you from creating what you want? Now we’re getting to the core of the problem: What fear or limiting belief can you identify? State it as simply as you can — the simpler, the better. I’m a fool with money…. I don’t have what it takes…. It’s so hard to succeed…. It’s all so stressful and unhealthy….

8. What affirmation can you come up with that counteracts that negative or limiting belief? Put it in directly opposite words, if you can. Play with it until you find an affirmation that feels good to you and speaks to you in your own unique way. I am sensible and in control of my finances…. I am creating total financial success…. I am now creating abundance in my life…. I am living the life of my dreams, in an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way.

9. Say or write your affirmation repeatedly, over the next days, weeks, and months. Write it down and put it in places where you see it often. Repeat it — or repeat them, if you have several — in the mornings and throughout the day whenever you remember, especially when doubts and fears arise, as they almost surely will. When you repeat it enough, it will become more powerful than your doubts and fears.

When I went through this simple process, startling changes started to happen almost immediately. I didn’t have to believe the process worked because I saw it working in my life, in an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way.

This secret is told simply and clearly in the Bible, in the book of Job:

And you shall decree a thing, and it will be given unto you. And light will shine upon your ways. 1. Job 22:28

We have heard so many of these things over and over. Now these ancient truths are beginning to be realized in the lives of a large portion of humanity. Once we see the power we have to affect our own beliefs, we see that we can change our lives — and change the world as well. We see, in fact, that we have everything we need in this moment to realize our greatest dreams. We find that we have within us the ability to dream a lofty dream, affirm that it is coming true, and take the steps necessary to realize it.