So I was reading a book recently and a certain section sparked my interest and inspired me to start this blog.

It reads:

“If you’re like most people, you think of yourself as having been born. But if you look at this notion carefully, you’ll see that you have no immediate experience of having come into existence at all. Trace it back. Follow your memory. Do you remember coming into existence?”

This made me question the difference between consciousness and existence, when does life begin… and when does it truly end?

Normally these questions pop into my head as fast and often as they leave but this time I decided to take it further. The aim of this blog is to research these questions, analyse them and draw conclusions to educate myself and hopefully others.

Physicists tell us that matter is motion, every atom of every cell reveals nothing but ceaseless coming and going. Our bodies are literally re-made moment by moment. So of our thoughts… thoughts, feelings, emotions are in constant change, they bloom and fade away and people change.

In this complex world of change, how can we pinpoint a definite beginning and end?

Even the first law of Thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, the total quantity of energy in the universe stays the same. So how can we be created, when do we start to exist?

So think of your experience. I would say that I exist because I was born, and because I have memories, and have a consciousness. But what say we of someone with a brain injury or alzheimers, someone who cannot remember themselves or their life. Sure, we could say that that person’s life started when they were born, but why is our consciousness and reality any more valid than someone else’s. The point is, there is no definite beginning… and no definite end. Consciousness comes and goes but life still exists, we don’t ever stop.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.