Emotion: Paul Simon and Processing Grief

Paul Simon performing in Santa Monica, 1975, by Harry Chase, Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Want to feel less grief? Listen to this.

The Boxer has a narrative invention for helping your brain process grief.

Do you feel it?

The song doesn't do away with grief or failure. Instead, it catalogues it, stanza by stanza, prompting your brain to pause and reflect on your own grief.

Then it leaves you with the image of a man who feels his grief — bitterly— and stays to fight another day.

You can learn more about the narrative techniques that help heal grief in chapter 8 of Wonderworks.