I had a friend once who had a veritable library of self-help books, and she always seemed to be on the lookout for the next in the hope that it might be the one to deliver what she was looking for in life―happiness, fulfilment, purpose, belonging, relationship, wealth, or in other words, a good or brilliant life. I also had another friend at the time who, somewhat annoyed by the sight of this giant pile of books, rolled her eyes and stated that there should only be one really good book available that could deliver what all ‘seekers’ were looking for.

This idea has stayed with me since my friend first mentioned it, mostly in an amusing way, but it also made me wonder. If such a book did exist, what wisdom might it contain?

All these years later, I realise that I am now able to be the author of this book. And here it is:

Feel good.

That’s it. That’s the title and entire content of the book. Because if you examine and distil the reasons why people read books on ‘how to improve their lives’, or indeed the reasons why people seek any activity, process, or teaching on this subject, you will discover that what is being sought is to ‘feel good’. For example, if you are moved to read a self-help book, it is because you want to understand or improve something about yourself or your life, which is that you want to feel better about your life. To feel better about things is to feel good. Similarly, the desire to feel good is the impulse behind reaching out to a friend, counsellor, psychiatrist, or spiritual teacher when you need help or have questions about life and living.

Another example would include the impulse in people to read books or attend seminars on how to make a lot of money. To examine this would be to see that people want a lot of money so that they can obtain the things or experiences in life that they think will make them happy, which is, of course, to feel good. Further, anyone who wants to learn how to meditate, do yoga or breathwork is doing so because they want to relax and find something deeper within themselves; a peaceful, easy, empowered feeling, which is a good feeling. And then, if you go and see a doctor and are prescribed a drug to fix a problem, or if you take recreational drugs, in both cases, once again, it is to heal yourself or feel better, which is to feel good.

It is true that if you examine and distil the reasons behind why people do anything in life, at the core of it is that they are doing what they do because they think it will make them feel good. Of course many people are horribly lost in this pursuit and might argue, for example, that they have to do a job that they dislike immensely and therefore the reason behind it is not to feel good at all. Nonetheless I would challenge them on their resolve, because with sufficient examination they might discover that the initiating impulse―no matter where they are in life as a result of it―was toward feeling good.

Everything we do in life is towards feeling good. And the reason for this is because feeling good is our rightful, natural state of being. It’s ours, and we want it, any way we can get it.

Seeking to find a good feeling through reading books, doing activities and no end of other stimuli can be helpful. But ultimately the key to living the brilliant life you want and deserve relies solely on your ability to find and feel the ‘good’ feeling that is there within you in varying degrees, always. And then as an extension of this, to give your attention to what is good in life and the things that you want. It really is this simply.

However, if it were this easy to do, then everyone would be doing it and there would be no need for self-help books, healing modalities, or life teachers of any kind. People would be continuously connected with their natural state of inner joy, and the world would be a perfectly functional, beautiful place. So, what then makes it so difficult for us to simply feel good and enjoy a wonderful life?

The simple answer is this. It is the existence of your self, in the way that we have defined the ‘self’ in this work, that stands in the way of you becoming the all-powerful, creative, vibrant being that you are, and claiming your rightful place in a divine world. As I have mentioned several times already, but now in a slightly different way, the dissolution of the self is your journey home to the divine and natural state of this Universe.

Using the information that has been revealed in this work as the basis, I will now help you complete this journey home. I sincerely hold the space for you to be successful in this process.

In the next section I will explain clearly what a good feeling is, what ‘feelings’ really are and how they arise to affect us in our experience of daily living.