The attempt to make the self permanent and safe against change is the very act that produces anxiety, because it sets you against the flux that is actually happening. The feeling of insecurity is the result of trying to be secure, so the more you grasp for solid ground the more the ground dissolves.
There is no separate thinker standing behind thoughts or feeler behind feelings; the supposed inner self is just the ongoing flow of experiences themselves. The division between a controlling 'I' and the life it observes is an abstraction, not a fact of direct experience.
Belief is clinging to a wished-for version of reality, whereas faith is the willingness to stay open to truth whatever it turns out to be. Fixed beliefs are defenses against uncertainty, so holding them tightly cuts you off from what is actually the case.
Past and future exist only as present memories and expectations; life occurs exclusively now, so attention fixed on tomorrow drains reality from the one moment that is actually alive. Living for a future reward means never actually arriving, because the future is always a 'now' not yet experienced.
Suffering doubles when a separate observer braces against a sensation, trying to escape or suppress it; the resistance, not the raw sensation, is the added layer of torment. Letting awareness merge completely with the pain, without the recoiling 'I', removes the secondary struggle.
Words, symbols and measurements are a convenient map laid over reality, but we come to live inside the map and treat it as more real than direct experience. Chronic anxiety grows because we relate to abstractions about life (plans, ideas, reputations) rather than to living itself.