Emotional Landscapes

  Throughout my life, I have been trying to articulate different 'models' for looking at emotional life, particularly focusing on holistic approaches. One of the most attractive ideas is that of reframing emotional life. Emotions tend to follow a kind of hydraulic metaphor, as though feelings were fluids. For instance, one says that anger is 'pent up', or I 'blow off' the steam of anxiety, or I feel 'drained' emotionally. Has anyone ever stopped to wonder why so many emotions are viewed as 'liquids'? Of course, one interesting side effect is that, like any fluid, emotions can be thought of as consumable.
     One alternative I have been trying out recently is that of regarding emotions as landscapes, somewhat akin to landscape paintings. Now, what would it be like to see emotions in this way? Well, one thing is that emotions would start to be less located in the body and more found diffused throughout experience. I think this would make emotions seem less like invaders and more like the stuff of art, or part of the way things are configured in the present situation. It would also help to allow people to pause for a bit and fully appreciate the landscape of their experience, rather than treating the emotion as something that needs fixing in some way or another.
   There has to be some way that we can sit alongside our emotions and not see them as part of who we are or as threatening in some way. I think this is a large part about meditation practice, and in some regards I take it to be a phenomenological approach to life: to start with the structure of one's feelings to determine if that's a good enough structure to sustain our actions and optimize meaningful life.