Article written by Harry Nozicka
I love to fish! I love not knowing what will be drawn to my bait and what rises to the surface as I reel the fish in. I especially loved a recent trip to Siesta Key in Florida where my brother and I spent wonderful relaxing hours fishing together. The cool thing about fishing in Florida is, you never know what you might pull in. This trip we caught so many variety of fish including Lady Fish, Snook, Catfish, these Puffer fish (creepy), Snapper, and, I even caught a small Stingray and a baby Hammerhead Shark! The Jack fish were beautiful things and such great fighters.
So, how is this like Mindfulness Meditation? In meditation, we sit still and watch what surfaces, what comes up into our awareness from moment to moment, never knowing what’s going to get us hooked next. Each time I had a bite I would say, “I wonder what you will be this time!” Meditation is like that. We sit in detached wonder and curiosity, observe the pool of our mind, watch what gets our attention, catch it for a moment,( “catching” here really means we simply notice it), then release and come back to the groundedness of our breath. We also watch as we get “hooked” by some thoughts and observe how the mind often does not want to release the thought. Some of these thoughts that we get stuck with, like the fish, are ugly things, like catfish. Some are fast and jump all over, like Lady Fish. Some are beautiful and we just want to get lost in the pleasure of it and hold onto it. No matter what comes to the surface, the practice is to notice, name it something like “thinking”, and release it, and watch what surfaces next.
It’s simple in theory and very challenging in practice! Well worth the discipline though, as it helps us be in the moment of grounded presence more of the time, with daily practice. Mindfulness awareness trains our mind not to get so hooked by our thoughts and stories, which are often the source of much suffering. We come to appreciate more internal spaciousness and less claustrophobia within our mind and body, as we just flow with the awareness. Kind of like watching a twig in the current of a stream as it just goes with the flow, bumping up against things, twirling and spinning lose, not resisting the natural current. Allowing the “what is-ness” of our moment to moment experience. How refreshing and open to not be trapped by our thoughts and preoccupations, and to recognize the resistance to the reality of the moment.
By the way, we also know that regular meditators actually are changing the structure of their brain! It’s very clear, that what our mind focuses on effects the neuro-pathways in the brain! More on this another time, but pretty cool info.
So if you get curious about meditation, there is tons of info on the internet and lots of places to learn about it and practice. It’s especially useful to have a group to practice with as it keeps you on track and the group support is so important in this discipline.
If you’d like more information about Mindfulness Meditation, just let me know through email at harrynozicka@sbcglobal.net. Until then, just think about Catch and Release when you get stuck in your thoughts and cultivate an attitude of curiosity and wonderment, as to what surfaces next from our amazing mind/brain systems!!