to contemplate one's navel:
spend time complacently considering oneself or one's own interests; concentrate on one issue at the expense of a wider view.
Are you stuck in such a personal-comfort view that you caint see the big picture?
Regardless or "irregardless" (say the 2nd one with an olde British accent haha) of whether you have or don't have Beliefs, THEY HAVE YOU!
So your worldview...that teeny tiny little thing that hides in your subconscious and gives your brain the most important info and filters out other info BEFORE you have a THOUGHT IN YOUR HEAD! sheesh! If anyone could be your enemy it would be the subconscious. Talk about a TROJAN HORSE!
So humans can't intake all the stimuli going on around us, NOT EVEN CLOSE!
We filter for danger, so essentially what apprehends our consciousness is only a very limited view of ACTUAL reality.
This is why starting with the end in mind (what you believe about your death) definitely effects us more than we think.
What we believe about God, death, other worlds, good/evil, etc effects our every thought, by informing our subconscious which values to uphold in it's filtration system for your CONSCIOUS MIND.
I've recently taken a sabbatical from GOD for a few years since my husband is an Agnostic Atheist. I've decided that I'm Back to believing in God for good this time.
So a dilemma--something with 2 bad outcomes no matter what you get.
The opposite of that is what I have...
With my belief in God (not a belief in a judgy boring God who actually isn't that interesting--instead a belief in an unbox-able creative imaginative and super-intelligent interesting God is my view), with that belief, I have a situation where BOTH outcomes are great!
1. If i die and there is NO GOD: I will have lived a life full of honor, trust, hope, joy, helping people while protecting myself, being independent without being evil, being interesting without being dangerous, planning and creating a beautiful life, etc
2. If i die and there IS GOD: I will have lived a life in anticipation of an event which will happen (meeting the Creator and knowing the Creator is the only one who can truly understand me, and further me along my journey, meeting the teacher behind the veil, and seeing what is NEXT
So either way I'm good with that...and the inspiration and hope I have is UNDENIABLE compared with the DULLNESS and EMPTINESS that I can see in many close friends who are UNSURE of what to AIM FOR (so they fritter their time away on nothingness and entertainment, which never actually makes any difference, and instead traps your mind further into an unreality of mental slavery.
No matter what happens...NO PAIN NO GAIN..you can either dull your mind (that powerful weapon) or sharpen it. Dulling it seems pretty DUMB if you ever plan to defend yourself against an attacker...Sharpening it is useful during an ATTACK as well as just being EXCITING to live in a way of challenging yourself to greater mental ENDURANCE and HEIGHTS of creativity (and blowing past the old boundaries, impressing yourself beyond measure, and knowing that even if no one ever knows or cares, it was WORTH IT--being a beautiful self ALWAYS feels better.