Identifying

I have found that identifying and naming how I’m feeling helps me process my emotions. I try to be still and quiet and allow the words associated with the feelings to present themselves. Sometimes the first one is general, but even that is better than an unknown or unnamed sensation. In a process not dissimilar to meditation, if I’m patient, oftentimes, the words become more specific, and then the feelings locate somewhere physically in my body. Breathing—simply focusing on the inhale and the exhale—also helps. Like most things, all that has already happened, or is currently happening, benefits from our awareness, even if we can’t change our circumstances.

Eric Fischl paints people. They are often engaged in scenes I imagine occurring if not in his real life, then surely in his mind. Seeing Late America 2 (2020) now, early in the morning (after already being up for hours), makes me feel both better and worse—the complexity of art washing over me. Art and life are complicated: hopeful, enduring, seductive, heartbreaking, and myriad other things, simultaneously and all without pause. There is no reason for or gain to be had from fighting against this inclination. Identifying with the art in front of us can activate a cascade of thoughts and emotions, and there is no need to do anything about it except allow it to happen.