With panic/anxiety attacks, making you feel like you could die any moment, it breeds a familiarity with over thinking about the afterlife. I am about exhausted. I never fit in with christianity, yet living in the states, it is what I was force fed as a child. And it creeps up in my consciousness. I would like others thoughts on the matter.. I have one conclusion for now:
If God is truly all-knowing, he/she/it will know my heart when I die, and surely would judge me by the content of said heart, not which multiple choice answer I give on which religion I gave lip service to in life. The way to get rid of panic/anxiety attacks is to meditate, which is not, btw, a religious practice. It's scientifically recognized as 'The Relaxation Response' and found to be beneficial to the health in many ways. My sister was hounded by panic attacks every morning when she woke up. Then she started meditating, lighting incense and candles and sitting in the window and watching the sun rise. Now she does not have any more panic attacks and most of her life is not effected by the terrible thoughts that came with the panic attacks.
If you feel guilty when you meditate, with thoughts of guilt, then it's your conscience, so you do what Jesus said... go find the person you harmed and tell them you are sorry. If they forgive you, that's fine, but if they don't, don't worry about it anymore, because you tried wholeheartedly. That will end those thoughts.
If you have fear, don't pay attention to your fear thoughts. Pay attention to other thoughts which do not have fear in them. Your ego, the part which produces thoughts, does it's best to get your attention, putting up worse and worse thoughts if you pay attention to them. If you cannot get your attention off the fear thoughts, do something that consumes your attention, that you must do correct, so you have no attention left for fear thoughts. Put your attention fully on what you are doing.
This all ties into meditation, because you can learn what is really you, your attention, and what is ego, so you can, if you want to bad enough, 're-boot' your ego. It will then know it's real relationship with you, and it will not bother you so much.
That is what Jesus meant by being born again, not the manipulation and brainwashing now practiced in his name.
Sit quietly, breath deeply, pay attention to the air going in and out of your nose, putting all your attention on that. If the thoughts intrude, force your attention back to your breathing.
Contrary to those superstitious people who say things like 'if you do that, a devil will enter your body', the result of meditation has nothing to do with religion or religious beliefs at all. It simply makes you like Jesus said you should be, 'your eye will be single'.
Also, if the panic attacks continue despite meditation, then it's something purely physical. Go to your doctor and talk to him or her about it. There are some medicines which help, although not everyone is helped by them. My sister was not, and had to cope with it without medicines.
Don't worry about God. Just be the best person you can be, with a kind loving heart, moment to moment in the here and now all the time. That is what Jesus was teaching, above all else. The rest that passes as 'Christianity', especially that part that had 'Christians' torturing and killing people to 'save their souls' a few centuries ago, would make Jesus puke.
How do I know that? Because Jesus taught that it is by love his followers would be known. Not much done in the name of Jesus by most mind-blind bible idolaters contains any love at all. Look at history.
Worship of the bible is evil idolatry, and while Jesus's teachings are found in it, he didn't want people worshiping it, but doing his teachings instead. The most evil people I have ever met quoted scripture to justify their evil. Read what quotes Jesus directly, and ignore the rest of the book and the dogmas which have grown from it.
I wish you nothing but the best. Your life will decide where you spend eternity, so don't fool yourself into taking this matter so lightly.
That thought or idea may not be your consciousness, it could be the still, small voice of God speaking to you. Perhaps you are exhausted from running away from it. Why don't you stop and listen to it?
I did, and would not go back to the "old me" for anything, because I found that with God I have everything... internal peace and hope which is all that really matters.
I can help.... email me if you want to talk. I agree. If there is something out there it will decide my fate on what I have done in life, not whether or not I said the right words at the right time.
On a side note, I understand the thoughts of mortality due to the anxiety attacks - had the same thing for 15 years. Works wonders for making you philosophical about life... that's about all it's good for though. Your spirit remains in tact. You will become part of the ether and live on through your contribution to humanity. If you would like to believe in reincarnation and you will choose to return in another body and give it you soul then you could read up on reincarnation to ease your fretting head. God is all about living. if you die God won't really matter to you anymore. God is the life-force inside of you. Learn to identify it within and maintain it.
What this power is, i cannot say, all i know is that it exists.
BELIEF is the easiest and fastest way to satisfy our FEARS. RELIGION is all about beliefs.
Life is always abundant no matter what you think. Life will always gives you a chance. Life will always be around.
We always have 2 choices. Negative thoughts and positive thoughts. which one do you choose?
Think Life or Think Death. Thou art not far from the Kingdom of Free-thinkers...
Welcome to the family!
I used to be a strong Christian. Became an Agnostic, then, later, after I had figured it all out, I made the next logical step to Atheism.
It has saved my life.
What being is there that would judge me unfavorably for simply being intellectually honest?
If I am sent to Hell for living my life as I have, then to Hell with any unjust being who would dare send me there...
I would never wish to align myself with such a being. survival instinct + imagination = belief in an afterlife
insecurity + uncertainty = belief in god
fear + scapegoat = belief in satan Take it easy - You'll be OK |
