Maybe belief and emotion are one and the same. Or at least different ways of expressing or observing the same thing. Probably not, but maybe!

I'm still curious how you came to see belief as a requirement for emotion. I'm definitely deep down the hole into time being quite different than how we have understood it. The last dangerous place I found myself was wondering how easily memories can be replaced, and how much of our "past" is just an on-demand construction / imagination. I think I'm beginning to write a book. Did about 3600 words the other day. It included a nice discussion on what it meant to feel 14 degrees Celsius, maybe I'l dump that onto nostr.

How confident are you that beliefs precede emotions? I would counter that beliefs are based on remembered experiences, and that memory is largely emotional responses. Emotion informs our sensory sysyems as well, further impacting our memories and thus our beliefs.

Why would you expect anyone to be honest, unless honesty aligned with their incentives? I would counter that anyone's capacity to "be honest" with another is dependent on a coincidence of wants. That coincidence may come as a corrolary of shared ethics, but I doubt you would expect to share ethics with the person you describe.

I've also gone to less caff - 1 pod (12oz) of full-strength in the morning, then 1 pot (12-cup) of brewed decaf. Definitely improved sleep. Now I get bummed when I'm out and about and there's no decaf option offered.