So I rarely talk to people about who and what I believe in.  Its because I don't think worrying about the life after this is meaningful.  If a creator spirit is going to reward me for being the best me I can be, it doesn't change this life, nor does the idea that I'll be punished for not performing some religious ritual on a timely basis.  I strive to be the best me and I don't worry much beyond that.  

My logical self says that this reality is all that we have.  If brain damage can change who we are, what does the removal of our brain do to us?  

My instinctual spiritual self  on the other hand has always believed that when something is born it has a new spirit but the spirits of lifeforms past can choose to be reborn.  In that sense either we would be old souls or young souls.  With the number of humans increasing steadily most would be young souls, and many would be animals who no longer have new lives of their own kind to be reborn in (imagine a waiting list for a new cheetah baby soul and the cheetah goes off and is reborn as a panther, a lion, or a human instead).  But ultimately it doesn't matter, its just thoughts running around my head when I feel like doing some introspection.

As part of my being the best me I can be, I strive to improve myself many ways, from going to the gym regularly for my physical me, to drawing, writing, etc to improve my artistic self, to intellectual pursuits, sexual improvement, and, spiritual enlightenment.  I'm a spiritualist , which is a vague way to say I look for things in the world and specifically in religions that seem healthy and "feel" right.  

In my last relationship I felt spiritually stagnated, its hard to explain the need to sometimes be alone and enter meditation for hours, or heck fill a small room with steam to create a little modern steam lodge, or to make the loud but deep humming/vibrating sound that helps focus the spirit.  I don't know if its real, or if its just a means to enter a deep state where my subconscious and my conscious minds can communicate and take advantage of unused brain power to solve problems, but once again, I don't think it matters, it only matters that it improves my willpower, my drive, and helps with my decision making ability.  

I'm better in every way than I was the same time last year, of course thats relative, but I feel like I'm meeting all of my needs except my emotional ones, and when everything else is so right, maybe that one will be met soon enough as well, and if not, I can take a year off, I'll live. ;)