The influence of religiosity on the aging process and on the awareness of finitude

Abstract

It is known that, as we age, the human being as an individual intensifies their internal dialogue with death, often requiring the psychological work of anticipated mourning of himself. Based on this, this article aims to reflect on how adherence to religious beliefs/religiosity, which encompass a whole framework of ideas around death and post-death, can help the elderly to deal with the awareness of finitude and, consequently, with the passing of the aging process. For this, in methodological terms, bibliographic research was carried out, taking psychological approaches (existential phenomenology and psychoanalysis) as theoretical references, bringing their views on coping with such events in the lives of the elderly, in addition to knowledge about how the different religions (Christianity, Spiritism, Buddhism, and Candoblé) face death and the life after death. In the end, it is concluded that such experiences regarding finitude and the aging process, on the part of the elderly, who are supported and supported by various religious/religious beliefs, can be permeated with greater lightness, as it promotes hope of continuity of his existence after his death. With this, religious beliefs are one of the healthy possibilities in facing old age, taken by the elderly who have the freedom to believe in a larger dimension than they can understand, providing them with a less threatening and repulsive view about finitude.