feelings are powerful; and we can become
overwhelmed and swallowed up -

as is the Ponderer in the picture below



he is thinking,  “I am depressed”

but given the power of that state, he is beginning
to feel as though he were depression itself
 


although we can become swallowed up by a feeling,
we can decide to step out of it -

step out by consciously adopting an
alternative perspective -

one where we seek to see ourselves as being HERE,
and the feeling as being somewhere outside us  - THERE

and, with this separation, we try to dispassionately
observe rather than painfully experience the feeling
that had swallowed us



this alternative perspective has been called such things
as Witness Consciousness by philosophers and
The Observing Self by social scientists -

but whatever you call it, it's one to consider
the next time you are overwhelmed, mired
and sinking into the quicksand of a feeling