My Life The Way I See It

So what is the aim of life? I suppose everyone has a unique answer to that. I thought about it a lot. I decided it was to feel as good as possible. I believe this is our one true purpose. It never changes, no matter where you are, who you are or what conditions you happen to be living in. It applies to every living thing in the universe. We feel as good as possible by continually trying to feel better. At any given instant your aim is to feel better. We all experience the world through our feelings, good and bad. We seek to minimise the bad feelings and maximise all the good ones. We do what we think will make us feel better. You might think I am labouring the point a bit. I suppose I am. But feeling better gives me my motivation. Without it I am completely useless. I collapse without form or function lik a jelly fish washed up on the beach. It underlies everything I do.

That’s all very well, you might say, but what do we actually do to feel better. I’ll give you a few simple examples. Firstly, hunger. As time passes, animals start to use up their resources of nutrients and energy. This generates a feeling of hunger in their bodies. Now hunger is a bad feeling; it makes you feel worse. The only way to diminish a feeling of hunger is to eat of course. This stimulates animals to look for food to feel better. Once the hunger has gone they can turn their attention to other activities until, in time, their hunger naturally returns. Secondly, pain. Pain is also a bad feeling, so we all avoid it if possible.

In practise, of course, things are much more complicated. Our nervous system transmits countless feelings, which interact with each other in complex ways to constitute the way that we feel at any given time. Of course a feeling can be generated in any part of our bodies, including the brain. What you think affects how you feel as much as what you do. Feelings are the common currency that drive the activities in the economy that, figuratively speaking, constitutes our living system. When trying to grapple with some difficult problem in your life, try breaking it down into the fundamental feelings at its roots. Start to see situations in terms of the way they make you feel. Then you can analyse them logically.