Follow Reason, not Impulse

"Follow reason, not impulse." A maxim I feel is central to my philosophy.
  By reason, I mean objective thought directed toward some goal. By impulse, I mean the motivation to action that comes with most emotions.
  Action by impulse brings us suffering. This, I think, is what Buddhism means by 'desire is the cause of suffering'; the 2nd noble truth. How, though, does following emotion lead to suffering?
  By how emotion works. Fundamentally, all sentient beings are just acting by 'Avoid pain, seek pleasure, survive'. Our desires as such 'punish' us with negative emotion for not having the state of affairs we have in mind. Fulfilling these desires gives us release from this suffering. Momentarily. When one desire is fulfilled, another eventually and inevitably arises, and we're back where we started. This is how all sentient beings live, but especially humans. No matter how much you believe that getting that super epic thing or circumstance will make you forever happy and satisfied, you're always wrong. When you fulfill that desire, another will arise, and dissatisfaction is back again. From the poorest people, who desire things that are relevant to their very survival, to the richest, who desire yet another swimming pool or helicopter, we are all suffering under desire.
  In a more indirect manner, emotional impulse can screw us in other, external ways. People follow the desire to gamble, or smoke, eat unhealthy food, drink a lot of alcohol, or whatever else, and spend away all their money. Next thing they know they're struggling to survive on the pittance remaining. Anger is a perfect example of an emotion that hurts one through the external world. In fact, I have first hand experience. My father becomes angry when everything doesn't go exactly as he wants it. Constant irritance is something I become very irritant about myself, so when, for instance, we're on long family trips, his expression of that anger (which is inevitable from him) grates on me for hours, or even days on end. I urge to shout at him. To shout him down into submission so he'll just shut up and drive. But looking at the situation rationally, we may recognise - if I got annoyed by expressions of anger, perhaps (in this case, definitely) he would too, so expressing my anger would simply escalate the problem, potentially infinitely, bringing me, him, and everyone else in the car even more suffering.
  I think this cycle of desiring is brought about by a certain kind of delusion. When we have our impulses, we only see the external circumstances and our suffering from their perceived inadequacy. We suppose that external circumstances are causing our suffering, that they alone can change our emotional state. But, as I said before, this is merely temporary. The 'true' (for want of a better word) cause of this suffering is the desire itself. If the craving's not there, neither is the suffering.
  How to be rid of one's desires? One way is not to act upon them. That's where reason comes in. To think about your actions, and how they might create an outcome with the least suffering, is to refrain from acting upon your emotions. The reality is - what you want isn't always good for you. Reason, applied properly, will lessen your suffering not just through your actions, but more directly as well. Every time you refrain from acting upon your emotions, you make them just a little bit weaker. And as I discussed last paragraph - that's the best possible thing you could do to lessen your discomfort.
  It's all easier said than done, of course. I'll describe certain practices that help me to clean up this big ol' mess in my head later on.

The End to all Means

  I say this with almost no doubt; happiness is the absence of suffering. Yes, pleasures can be enjoyed, but fundamentally, being rid of discomfort is what we truly want.
  However, we don't always act in accordance with this. We're not very efficient, in body and mind. No life is. Emotion makes things difficult. Emotion makes us do silly things. We eat unhealthy food. We hate people. We spend all our money on booze, and other such things. We may want happiness, but our subconscious mind does a shitty job of getting it for us. But considering the theory of evolution, that can be explained. If satisfied, we stop striving, meaning we do not eat, drink, reproduce, or do things that facilitate those 3 things. That is, unless we have reason.
  Reason is key. Where emotions drive us to do all these foolish things, reason has undone its mistakes time and time again. Reason takes in the input of the senses and turns it into action toward the goal it has been given. Action which succeeds. You see that being cold is suffering, and being warm means being free of that suffering. We realise clothes keep us warm - so we create clothes. This is but one, fairly mundane example of when reason has helped us. Now of course, our emotions can use reason for its own ends. Some people have applied reason so that you can get tasty food at McDonald's all over the world, even though it's bad for you. But if we apply reason to the lessening of suffering as a whole, regardless of what we do or do not feel, we can significantly reduce that suffering.
  Notice, though, that I say 'suffering as a whole'. I'm not just talking about a personal freedom from suffering. I'm talking about suffering full stop, regardless of what sentient being it might occur in.
One of the scariest questions to be acknowledged is "Why help anybody else? Why not just shit on them for my own pleasure (or in this case, freedom from suffering)?". My answer isn't so scary. To illustrate, I will explain how I came to the conclusion I have.
First, I asked the questions. "Why worry about others' suffering?" and then "Why worry about my own suffering?". Both positions, selfishness and altruism, seemed arbitrary. There seemed to be no reason to accept either. But then I remember that to make the distinction between self and other is entirely arbitrary. If you stop thinking "I work for myself" and look at things completely objectively, stepping out of your 1st person perspective and take a 3rd person perspective. there is no reason to prioritise your suffering above anybody else's, just because it's happening in that place you call "I" or "me". If there is no reason to do something (in this case, 'make a distinction'), then we do not do it.
This does not mean you have an obligation to go out and help all 7 billion people in this world. That's impossible. But what IS possible? The Stoics helped me answer this question.
To conclude. though, I must admit something. I can give no reason why we should avoid suffering. But that's probably why I think it's the basis of all action, and only a direct experience of it is sufficient to truly understand it. At least, for now I think so.