3 requirements to experience feelings

There are 3 basic requirements that Damasio suggests, a complex nervous system, consciousness, and life regulation. The nervous system is probably the most basic requirement as consciousness and life regulation would not exist without the necessary connections. It is required for the brain to process large amounts of information at once with incredible speed. Consciousness is something we haven't totally figured out because it is the concept of the "self". How we are able to see, hear, touch and feel with the perception that "I" am the one that is seeing, hearing, touching and feeling is the main idea of consciousness. Life regulation is found in every living organism as it tries to strive for healthy or for better health. This is the idea of homeostasis and it is an essential part of emotion and for feeling, because feeling arises from homeostatic reactions. The nervous system is part of a mechanism that allows us to sense internal and external changes. For example, when we get a cut, the pain (signal sent to the brain) allows certain reactions to occur both biologically and physiologically so we don't lose too much blood. This creates a pathway to feeling as somatosensory is activated from changes. All these reactions strongly suggest evolution because it helped humans to survive. It is self-explanatory why the nervous system and life regulation is important to human survival and link to evolution. But I can't understand why and how consciousness can help with human survival. Maybe it naturally developed over time as humans are gifted physiologically (hands and fingers) to manipulate the environment around us. Maybe by slowly changing the environment around us to suit our needs, we wanted to protect it from others and start to distinguish what is mine and what is not.