We are here for a good time not a long time. Do whatever makes you happy content and satisfied and don't care what others think.

Atheistic Taoists hold we should treat everything we are given with delight and when it is gone give it no more thought. I say we should look upon growing older as an opportunity to love, cherish and identify with those things that will continue once your own heart stops beating. ?

The truth is, whatever is going to happen will happen, nothing can change that, so why worry.
Live each day with a smile.

Look at it this way.
Everything that lives will die, there is nothing after that no afterlife.
It is no different for believers, they will still die, they will not have another life after this.

So accept that you have been dying since the day you were born, your now is more important than you past or future because they do not exist. They have existed or will exist, but for now they don't.
Your death is part of your life as much as your birth was, they are like book ends.
Your life is the books and pages of books in between.
To quote Don Maclean,
the book of life is brief,
and once a page is read,
all but love is dead.

Life is a journey,
except you don't finish this journey and look back on it,
you end when the journey ends.
Nothing will or can change that.
Accept what life is,
accept the reality of it because you can't change it.
Accept it and enjoy it,
savour it, relish it,
LIVE it.
I have spent time with a lot of people even older than I am who are quite happy to shuffle off,
as you get older
life is less fun
I am noticing it myself,
I cannot do as much as I could and I still have 35 years and 23 days to go as of today.
When that is gone I think I will be content to shuffle off.
If you are around, the party starts 16th February 2053 and goes for 3 months.
When you fully accept your mortality, it is actually quite easy.

I worked as a fisherman for many years, I think once you have come close or pushed to the edge you learn to accept your mortality a bit better, I doubt many of us want to die and it's something we must all prepare our minds to work through..Try Skydiving or bungee jumping .. certainly give you the fear and once you experience that it should be easier..If all you do is sit and wonder that's all you'll ever do..confront it and smile at it then say see ya later..

I think that's all up to you my friend..However a fear of death isn't something to be ashamed of and there's probably not much to do about it anyways..I don't think about it often but the prospect is a bit unnerving for me..The trick isn't to not be afraid of death..The trick is now to let it ruin your day.

Why do you think you are compelled to believe any of that?

This makes me laugh on one level and makes sense on the other. Hope it works for you too ?

Know that nothing has changed, and strive to be proud and enjoy your time here. also, organically, we never die, just change form. Now you can appreciate all beauty unfiltered and know that you are good. Be your own judge, live & let live, lift others up and protect kindness. Be a hero

we always fear the unknown....treat it as any phobia...start reading all the ideas that people have as afterlife concepts and you won't be able to pick one after a while...I think it is how I began looking at it as 'the last door to open'....might be nothing there...or there might be unicorns and rainbows...or avon calling...shiver...

In the words of Steven Tyler," Life's a journey, not a destination". Enjoy the trip, everything ends one day.

Live for each day and do so fully. How can we fear after a full life of love and kindness has culminated into memory.

It takes years sometimes, to undo the indoctrination completely. For me, the study of philosophy and pondering questions like "what was it like for me before I was born?" helped a lot. Many of us have been on a similar journey, just keep on keeping on! You'll come to terms with it eventually, I have no doubt.

That day hasn't come for me - I fear death because my non-theist beliefs tell me there's nothing more. They say that following your death will be much like it was before you were born i.e., you weren't aware of the blackness or void. I get that but I also wonder "why learn the lessons that I did if there's nothing else afterward where I can employ what I learned". I recently read about a man that had lived in his parents' basement for 40+ years who was unmotivated, a lush and had never had a meaningful job nor had he ever been in a meaningful relationship, Well, at 45 he quit drinking, found a job and fell in love - 6-months later he was dead. What was the point? If there's nothing after we die what was the purpose? He learned all these things about vices, work ethic, relationships and none of it means a damn thing because despite whatever joy it brought him - he is incapable of remembering a damn thing after he dies - would have been better off drinking his nights away. What's the point of a bucket list? If there's nothing after we die, if life doesn't have a purpose that transcends our immediate circumstances - then life is a cruel sick fk'n joke and that scares me more than anything else. Because it means that you only get one chance and if you fk it up - even if it's not your fault you're screwed. And so perhaps the worst thing that happened to humans is self-awareness.

I was very relieved, once I determined there is no afterlife. According to my brainwashing, I was destined for Hell eternally, unless I was one of the Elect. Fuck that nonsense.
Since I realized this life is all we get, it has become much more precious.

Fully accepting my mortality enables me to be fully alive. It has taken time quietly questioning my thoughts about death to find acceptance.

I find it it be a huge relief to know that it will all end one day. When you are struggling but you know that if it going to be finite...WHEW! Suppose you believe in an afterlife (any of them)...you would have to wade through shit forever! You don't have to worry about eternal damnation or spend eternity stuck with those turds you didn't like here on earth. It is a win-win. You are. You will forever have been. That is pretty amazing. So just enjoy as much as you can of your time here and know that everything miserable will end so try not to get too upset by it. If that won't do it for you then know that there will come a day that you hurt so bad that you won't mind it ending - not trying to be obnoxious. I see elderly people all the time that are ready to go whenever it happens because the body starts giving out. They look back on their lives and appreciate the people that were a part of it and are ready to have it end.

Try living every day the best you can and learn from ypur mistakes and hopefully in time you'll be satisfied with your life and no longer fear death.

After I lost the love of my life, I no longer fear death. The best time of my life is in the past now. I still seek fun and enjoyment, but its not the same. If I die tomorrow I will be content with what I had.

I think fearing death is a natural thing. It’s evolutionary. We were ‘created’ to survive, at least for a while. But it’s also natural to die. I think Western thought has kind of taken us away from that awareness. In Western thought we’re taught that death is the worst thing that can happen to us, aging is almost death, and ‘living’ is based on material gain.

Fear is part of the human experience, and fear of death as well. And the idea that our existence just stops is a bit disturbing (and comforting at the same time). It’s something that’s going to happen and there’s absolutely no way to avoid it—which may help us make peace with it. But I don’t think we ever stop fearing it.

Stare into the void and let it stare back at you. That should dehumanize ya

Actually it a normal Human thing to fear death but know that you only got one life live. You can live it better and make smart choices .

That feeling varies from person to person, so there is no specified timeframe.

I've been an atheist for nearly 4 years now and I still struggle with this. There are a few things that I try to remind myself of when the dread starts to overwhelm me.

1. Stressing over it will not change it. I cannot will myself out of it. This helps to abate the thoughts but my subconsious will often hold onto the fear for a while.
2. What were we before we were born? were we dead then too? We show a lot less concern over that than the end of life.
3. consider that, from hundreds of millions of sperm and millions of eggs, you were born. Then consider all the possible genetic permutations. But, you are you. You are unique to a degeee that's nearly impossible to calculate.
4. Barrowing from Neil, we are made of star stuff. We ARE the universe. Not only that, we are the universe trying to understand itself. This is kind of fun to think about and helps to make me feel a bit more important.
5. Lastly, would you rather spend your time dreading about something you cannot change, or would you rather make this one life, this one amazing lucky life, worth something?

I know it's still scary, but you can worry about it tomorrow. 'Cause today you have shit to do.

The reason existence is good, is that it's fleeting... If it lasted forever, what's good about that? Everything would become lackluster after a while... It's normal to fear death.
Pack what you can into the time you have, and don't take your days for granted.