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Familiar objects can give us a spot to return to when daily responsibilities feel overwhelming all at once.

A significant image may help us observe our thoughts without reacting to each one as it comes along.

Remembering a personally significant object may help us reconnect with an earlier sense of steadiness.

Returning our attention to a familiar object can renew its significance as our circumstances and needs change.

One morning, I woke up with the semester already pressing on me. There were papers to grade and a conference presentation to prepare. Rejected manuscripts needed revisions and new journals to consider. Committee work required more reading and evaluation. New paper ideas, which usually excited me, had joined everything else waiting for my attention.

I was still in my bedroom, and I already felt behind.

Then I looked at a painting on the wall.

A friend had given it to me when I lived in Pennsylvania more than a decade ago. A pale lighthouse stands on a rocky shoreline beside a small building with a red roof. Turquoise waves break against the rocks, sending white spray into the air. The sun sits low on the horizon, spreading yellow and peach across the sky. Light glows through the curve of a wave. Birds glide above the water.

I had always loved its colors. That morning, my attention settled on the lighthouse.

I began imagining everything a lighthouse encounters. Waves rise and fall around it. Weather changes. The sun heats its surface, and night brings cooler air. Through all of this, it remains there.

For a moment, I thought about its strength. Then even the question of strength seemed unnecessary. The lighthouse was simply standing. I could look at it without asking........

© Psychology Today