From a post I made in a class about religion:

An interesting thought that caught my attention was that the focus on afterlife seems to serve as a motivater for attempts to live this life more fully and properly. Thus, it seems the reward must be external to the process in many cases. Some religions, though, use the process of this life itself as the carrot. Examples of the former include Heaven as a reward for a moral life vs. simple serenity as a reward for a mindful life as an instance of the latter.

I am wondering if the reward is the same in both cases, perhaps some effect in the area of diminished anxiety? And that if anxiety is a direct effect of a focus on future possibilities or rumination over past mishaps, then perhaps there is a clue as to why religion is human-centric? We have the brain that produces the survival tool labeled "ego" and thus we have the anxieties that require management.

Carried further, this train of thought leads back to mindfulness and similar present-moment skills as direct management of anxiety by turning attention away from dwelling on memories and scenarios. Could so much of neurosis be simply the effect of a commonly experienced dysregulation of our natural ability to consciously remember and predict?

It seems to me that this may be a case of Occam's razor.

D

Change

I think the confidence can come from accepting that we are always changing. Every moment of our lives, something changes. New air in, old air out; cells die and others divide; neuroplasticity results in changed brain function; opinions are formed, morph or are abandoned; people come, people go; we age a fraction more; we gain or lose height; we add one memory and lose contact with another.

I remember way, way back in time feeling that if I didn't continuously reinforce or cling to a certain attitude, belief or moral, I would risk becoming "somebody else." In retrospect, I find this phrasing humorous. I remind myself, however, of Erickson's theory and especially of the adolescent and young adult preoccupation with the search for identity. This brings another chuckle as it suggests the reason I am less worried about change nowadays might be related to the developmental psychological changes I've gone through as I've aged...:).

In any event, the result is that I accept that I will always be me even if I change. Erickson aside, some of this comes from a new perspective gained through meditation wherein I do not consider the chattering stream-of-consciousness to be me. I am the effect of all that has gone into me throughout my life and, like any tree or cloud or star or idea or creature, I change continuously.

Change is not scary - it is life. Stasis is scary...:).