All that matters is how we feel

[The Transcended Omniverse]

My feelings of happiness, love, joy, beauty, inspiration, drive, etc. which are all my good feelings, these are the only experiences that make my entire life and my composing hobby worth living for and they are the only experiences that give value and joy to my life and composing. There is no other form of happiness, love, joy, beauty, inspiration, value, worth, and drive in my life.

My chemical induced good feelings are the only source of those things since they are the actual chemical messages of happiness, love, joy, beauty, inspiration, value, worth, and drive to my brain. It is no different than physical pain. Without feeling physical pain, then it is quite obvious that you are not in physical pain. Your feelings of pain are the only experiences that can give you pain just as how it is only your feelings of love, joy, beauty, inspiration, value, worth, and drive that can give you those things in your life. Therefore, the only thing that matters in life is how we feel.

Our feelings are the only things that can determine the value of our lives. Or, at least, my life. Good feelings yield good value to our lives, no feelings yield no value, and the worst feelings such as depression and misery yield the worst value to our lives. I just don't agree with what some other people would say which is that there are other sources of pain, misery, joy, love, value, worth, etc. besides our feelings of those things. This is because, from my own personal experience, all other versions are mechanical and not the real thing. It's like thinking you can see when you are blind or thinking you can hear when you are deaf. That would not be any real sight or hearing; just a matter of deluding yourself.

Therefore, it is imperative that I have these good feelings at all times in my life. There are a number of factors and situations that can take these feelings away from me since these feelings are very fleeting for virtually everyone. Such situations could be those that cause brain damage to those feel-good areas of the brain such as lack of circulation, heart attack, stroke, autoimmune diseases, etc. Another type of situation would be those situations I've struggled with much of my life which would be traumatic experiences due to ocd induced worries. These good feelings are the most profoundly beautiful experiences in my life and it is, therefore, vital that such situations are avoided at all costs in my life.

When I don't have these good feelings, then I give up on everything in my life because I absolutely cannot stand living my life and doing my composing hobby like a lifeless machine/statue set in motion. My life and my composing needs to be worth living for and my good feelings are an absolute necessary condition to make that happen. I plan on fully dedicating my time and my life to composing like how any hardcore 10,000 hour rule musician would and I plan on becoming a great composer since that is my dream. But my good feelings are the only things that can make that happen.

 

[idav]

I'm just gonna quote Joseph Campbell's "The Power of Myth".

If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are — if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.
-Joseph Campbell

Discerning one’s bliss, Campbell argues, requires what he calls “sacred space” — a space for uninterrupted reflection and unrushed creative work.

How to Find Your Bliss: Joseph Campbell on What It Takes to Have a Fulfilling Life

 

[Valjean]

"A gramme is better than a damn"
?

 

[FunctionalAtheist]

Hypothetical; if you were lost in the wilderness in 38 deg weather without food for 10 days and without water for 3 days, would stumbling upon a camper with a skillet of fried fish and a bottle of water not bring you happiness?

 

[Deeje]

Feelings are transient. They come and go and cannot be relied upon to point you to the truth about anything.

I agree with the saying....."feelings are wonderful friends but terrible masters".

We should live by what we "know"....NOT what we "feel".

 

[Valjean]

Feelings are transient. They come and go and cannot be relied upon to point you to the truth about anything.

I agree with the saying....."feelings are wonderful friends but terrible masters".

We should live by what we "know"....NOT what we "feel".

OMG -- I'm agreeing with Deeje! (Cue Twilight Zone theme...)

 

[Aiviu]

My feelings of happiness, love, joy, beauty, inspiration, drive, etc. which are all my good feelings, these are the only experiences that make my entire life and my composing hobby worth living for and they are the only experiences that give value and joy to my life and composing. There is no other form of happiness, love, joy, beauty, inspiration, value, worth, and drive in my life.

My chemical induced good feelings are the only source of those things since they are the actual chemical messages of happiness, love, joy, beauty, inspiration, value, worth, and drive to my brain. It is no different than physical pain. Without experiencing physical pain, then it is quite obvious that you are not in physical pain. Your feelings of pain are the only experiences that can give you pain just as how it is only your feelings of love, joy, beauty, inspiration, value, worth, and drive that can give you those things in your life. Therefore, the only thing that matters in life is how we feel.

Our feelings are the only things that can determine the value of our lives. Or, at least, my life. Good feelings yield good value to our lives, no feelings yield no value, and the worst feelings such as depression and misery yield the worst value to our lives. I just don't agree with what some other people would say which is that there are other sources of pain, misery, joy, love, value, worth, etc. besides our feelings of those things. This is because, from my own personal experience, all other versions are mechanical and not the real thing. It's like thinking you can see when you are blind or thinking you can hear when you are deaf. That would not be any real sight or hearing; just a matter of deluding yourself.

Therefore, it is imperative that I have these good feelings at all times in my life. There are a number of factors and situations that can take these feelings away from me since these feelings are very fleeting for virtually everyone. Such situations could be those that cause brain damage to those feel-good areas of the brain such as lack of circulation, heart attack, stroke, autoimmune diseases, etc. Another type of situation would be those situations I've struggled with much of my life which would be traumatic experiences due to ocd induced worries. These good feelings are the most profoundly beautiful experiences in my life and it is, therefore, vital that such situations are avoided at all costs in my life.

When I don't have these good feelings, then I give up on everything in my life because I absolutely cannot stand living my life and doing my composing hobby like a lifeless machine/statue set in motion. My life and my composing needs to be worth living for and my good feelings are an absolute necessary condition to make that happen. I plan on fully dedicating my time and my life to composing like how any hardcore 10,000 hour rule musician would and I plan on becoming a great composer since that is my dream. But my good feelings are the only things that can make that happen.

We often reduce ourself to be everything but our positive feelings. Negative feelings are sometimes needed to teach our mind and to anticipate the direction of change our perception will take. But once did too often we reduce and judge everything from staying a friend to our own personal negative feelings.

Do you think that for good songs you need to be negative and critical? Is this why you feel pushed to have negative feelings? Are you focusing it with your music to change it that it'll be be positve? As if your default mindset you have to focus for music are your negative feelings?

 

[bobhikes]

Sure you should have good feelings and want good feelings but how you achieve those good feelings is just as important. How you achieve those feelings is what will give you the most problems because you actions will generate reactions that may not be positive.

 

[The Transcended Omniverse]

You could definitely define joy, value, worth, happiness, beauty, and inspiration any way you like to just as how you could define yourself as the sun if you were someone full of anger and rage. But that is different than wanting to literally be the sun. If you, as an angry and enraged individual, wanted to literally be the sun since it is something so profound and powerful to you, then you couldn't become that. You couldn't be millions of degrees, you couldn't be a ball of flaming hot gas, etc. Therefore, you would only be missing out and you would only be stuck with this metaphorical version of the sun that doesn't give you the actual properties (characteristics) of the sun. Therefore, this is what it is like for me.

Even though I could define my own personal value and joy in my life without my good feelings, that version would only be metaphorical and would not give me the actual characteristics of joy and value. These characteristics (good feelings) are what define actual joy and value just as how the characteristics of the sun define the actual sun. Another example would be that you could define love as some dead lifeless robotic machine sitting right in front of you. But that robot would not have the characteristics needed to make it actual love. Therefore, your definition of love given to that robot would only be metaphorical and not real love.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Our society is an interesting study in the widespread effects of ennui and long-term, easy living.

 

[The Transcended Omniverse]

I would also like to add this one last point here which I think is important. I think some people out there might try to disprove my whole idea that my good feelings are the only source of real joy and value. They might ask me:

"If you were in a state of complete depression and/or anhedonia (absence of all good feelings) and I told you that there was an eternal blissful afterlife that you can have all to yourself within a few days, but the only way to obtain it was to live your life and compose, then would your life and composing have real joy, value, and worth? If it does, then that obviously says here that your life can have real joy, value, and worth even when you don't have your good feelings."

My reply to this would be that I would think that this eternal blissful afterlife is well worth obtaining, I would think that it has so much value to me, and I would be compelled to live my life and compose even during my state of depression/anhedonia, but that is, again, a mechanical version of value, worth, drive, etc.

It is not any real joy, value, drive, and worth in my life. Just because I have the ultimate and greatest life right there in front of me within my grasp does not change the fact that any thought of value, joy, and worth in my life is still a mechanical experience for me. Therefore, my life would still not have any real joy, value, and worth. Others would then reply back and say:

"Of course it's real joy and value. You are living your life and composing in order to obtain something you want. Living your life like that is the very definition of real joy, value, and worth in your life."

My reply to this would be that there is a big difference between living your life like a lifeless machine set in motion regardless of what your reason for living is whether it is to help your family or to obtain something you really want as opposed to living your life and your life having real joy, value, drive, and worth. Therefore, even though I was living my life and composing to obtain that eternal blissful afterlife I really wanted, I was still that lifeless machine which means that my life still did not have any real joy, value, and worth.