All animals, (save man), have but one way to do so  --  physically;
if there is not some action they can take which will make them feel better,
they will nap, which does so.
Man shares this approach, but has possibilities beyond the physical,
more precisely put:  that is his perception of his position.
Humans can certainly make themselves feel better in the same fashions as do
other creatures, through eating, sexing, playing, and sleeping,
but man’s routine description of himself is that of a being who has features
which are not simply instinctive physical functions;
his collective image of himself contains what he is given to call, higher qualities  --  commonly said to be such traits as: compassion, appreciation of art;
the ability to abstractly envision future problems and remember past events,
and the capacity to conceive of god and the supernatural,
and along such lines does man also, and alone, seek to make himself –
feel better.
 

From man’s own observation: no healthy form of life is constructed to engage in behavior that is detrimental to itself, but in spite of copious,  obvious evidence,
man finds himself the sole exception to this seemingly, sound arrangement.
Man says that he --  as an entire species  --  pursues activities which are not only damaging but potentially fatal to him as a species;
the most common manifestation of this is however,
his relentless insistence that on an individual level,
other human beings are constantly and inexplicably entangled in affairs which are irrational and serve no purpose other than to enflame in men,
quite dangerous passions.
The people being talked about however,
are doing what they do because it makes them  --  feel better,
and the man making the attack on them does so because it makes him  --  feel better.
 
 

If an outsider looked in on this planet, he would find that humans are the
only creatures who can say they are doing something that makes them feel better when, by direct observation, they are doing nothing, e.g.
reading a book; watching a movie; listening to a lecture; conversing;
meditating, day-dreaming, praying;
whatever is going on that is making them, feel better
is not visible in their physical appearance.
If something, by your own personal definition, makes you feel better,
and you can’t eat it, fuck it, or sleep on it,
then it occurs entirely in your brain,
and with the proper equipment it can, in a sense, be made visible
via the measuring of blood flow, and electro-chemical activity  --   but,
no such technical pictures can reveal what the messages in the measured media are --  the thoughts themselves, that is:
the strictly personally experienced and perceived words and images of which
the brain’s chemical activity is but a gross reflection to an outsider’s eye.
 

The power of a certain thought to make you feel better
cannot be extrinsically or objectively explained;
men try, (psychiatry), and fail totally, (but it makes those involved, feel better not to notice).
There is no scientific explaining why one man thinking & saying that
he is Catholic/Democrat makes him feel better, while the man next to him is made to momentarily feel better by the thought that pops into his brain
that identifies him as a Protestant/Republican;
that is simply how it is  –
and everyone knows it is –
and everyone knows that they do not know why it is –
--  they just aren't allowed to admit they don't and shut up about it,
(ordinary people feel better by not doing so).
 
 

Certain thoughts that magically appear in your brain which make you feel better,
(and which have been since your brain began running consciousness as a full time business),
have no explanation nor justification and search for such is a synaptic snipe safari;
the thoughts are just there  --
they came with you  --
not unlike the shape of your nose or your body type  --
and are as rooted in matters fleshy as are your propensities to certain ills.
All motivation to  --  feel better comes from the body, (where else?!),
but as undeniable as this be when put in plain words,
man’s brain is not programmed to handle this fact as a piece of
on-going, useful information,
and instead is driven to look for other explanations.
 

Hunger is obviously caused by a physical urge, and you eat in response thereto because doing so makes you feel better,
and just as surely, but not so apparent to common eyes,
is the fact that a desire to sit down and read a spiritual book,
or to go out and discuss politics, art, or sports with a friend,
all come likewise from a strictly physical urge.
Men enjoy thoughts about an all loving supernatural father, or political leader,
and an all pleasurable life after death,
not because such notions may or may not have any basis in reality,
but simply because having the thoughts makes men feel better.
 
 

In the normal course of all creatures’ lives, (including man),
they sometimes do not feel good;
in man’s nervous system, this information ends up in the brain,
and eventually in the cortex wherein thought is generated,
and in some fashion, gets turned there into.
A healthy human’s brain will direct him to take physical action, if any be available,
to relieve the, not-feeling-good feeling, (change of environment, or behavior;
medicine, rest),  same as with any other animal,
but much of man’s, not-feeling-good has no apparent, physical cause;
you wake up some mornings and you just don’t feel good; the blahs --  the yukks! --
the non specific fears and dreads that can inexplicably take hold of
a person’s nervous system and finally  --   their thoughts.
It is then that the brain will, through thought,
urge a man into such activities as reading a book:
a man feels depressed  --   strangely afraid, as though some vague specter is
darkly looming in his future;
he has no fever; no broken bones; all of his bodily functions are operating normally,
so from his perspective, he is not, sick  --  (physically ill)  –
thus no physical treatment is called for  --  or available,
so his brain directs him else where: to read a religious, or inspirational book;
something with thoughts written down which, when his eyes read them,
and his cortex processes them,
may make him  --  feel better!  –
not be better, but   --   feel better.

That is all your brain asks for, and yet................it does seem to ask for more.
When you do not feel good,
all that your body, nervous system, and brain wants is for you/them to feel better,
but when there is no apparent physical cause for not feeling good,
and the tack is taken of treating the condition by the various non physical activities available only to man   --   and only in his brain/mind,
just the, feeling-better that exposing your thoughts to the thoughts of another may bring is not enough for the brain  --
it will not leave it at that.

If a man has a physical ill and treats it successfully with a certain physic,
he and his brain are then satisfied  --   it worked! --
what works --  works –
what else is there to say?     --      nothing.
But when the, not-feeling-good has no diagnosable cause,
and the brain’s directed treatment consists of the ingestion  --  not of a potion,
but of --  thoughts, (the reading of an appropriate book),
even if the person does feel better as a result,
the brain’s mind will not simply then put the book away as it would a bottle of medicine after it had done its job  --  no,
man’s brain drives him on to attribute to the curative
a nature by no observation deserved;
in allegorical practice: he begins to worship the pill bottle,
and his thoughts string out fascinating dreams about where
such magical medicine may have come from.
 
 

Men and their brains want to learn new facts because --
it makes them feel better;
men and their brains like to argue & discuss matters of no real importance because  --  it makes them feel better;
men and their brains like to worship unseen deities & dead mortals because  –
it makes them feel better;
men and their brains like to believe that the particular thoughts that pass through
their mind are superior to those of other men’s minds; not that it is so, but because --
it makes them feel better.
 
 

A son said to a father:
"At one time when you would bring up a matter such as how a thought can make a man feel better even though his not feeling-good had a physical origin,
you would speak on it in great detail, explaining exactly how and why such a thing might be possible   --    now you don't (?!?)"
      "So you noticed."