Fly Fishing Rx : The Cure for 2020 and 2021
For most, 2020 will be remembered as Covid-19, mass economic disruption, an endless onslaught of confusing news rooted in half truths, and a polarizing election. 2020 gave a healthy dose of macro-anxiety to everyone, and the byproducts of 2020 just produced micro-anxiety. Like most my friends and family, I handled the Great Year of Stress as prescribed. I quarantined for months, worked the volatile stock market, tried to navigate the biases of news for facts, and just generally tried to stay away from people while drowning in Instagram stories. Luckily for me, I was already super stressed and deeply unsatisfied pre-Covid. I was a Vice President of Corporate Development for a public cannabis company going through “growing pains”. Basically, I put together and executed on investment and acquisition strategies on behalf of said public company. It sucked and the beginning of 2020 was a lesson in energy based, diminishing returns. I am not going to bore my readers with what is probably very relatable career complaints . However, the job masterfully prepared me for stress and anxiety management. Over the years, I have had to do some trial and error work. You know, real research for this article. I wouldn’t actively suggest dedicating oneself to drunken Friday nights, or smoking weed at 2pm everyday, but they have their places in the tactics and playbooks of stress management.
Of all the various forms of stress management there are a few I really fell in love with, skiing, video games, cooking, writing, and most of all: fly fishing. People used to love to ask me what I did in my spare time when I was working the job/company I mentioned above (I quit that death sentence to follow my dreams of writing hollow fishing based articles), my answer was always some variation of those activities. I’d make some comment about doing activities that required focus and shut out the world around me in hopes of seeming more interesting and cerebral than others. There is some truth in it though. When skiing I noticed that I only cared about the 10 feet in front of me. Those 10 feet seemed to carry all my concern and concentration. I could easily get lost in those 10 feet and forget about projects, social expectations, or various relationship pressures. I realized that those 10 feet were the same reason I loved video games, or cooking or writing. I needed things that sucked my thoughts away from concern. Turns out, there is some science behind this.
Herbert Benson, MD, the Mind Body Medicine Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School says humankind has learned how to turn stress off by “breaking the train of everyday thinking”. Of course, it helps that you don’t find wild trout in shitty places, they seem to thrive where cell phones don’t. Benson was really attached to this idea, so I cant claim it as my own, he did some serious work trying to help people understand the stress relief value in fly fishing. “What better example of this than fly fishing,” says Benson, “with the repetitive back-and-forth motion of the rod and line and fly? You’re focusing on where that fly is going to land on the water and that breaks the train of everyday thought.”
To me, the beauty in fly fishing is in its variables. Robert Pirsig said, “For every solution there is an infinity of hypothesis.” I think of this quote every time I go fishing. Start with the solution and work backwards. Where are the fish, are they feeding, what are they feeding on, what is depth, how do I present it, hows my cast, mends, and timing? What am I doing right? What am I doing wrong? Where is my shadow, how are water temps? Knots, more knots, tying, untying, knots. Have I covered ground? Should I look under a rock and try to identify bugs like they do on YouTube? What is around that bend? I should throw a streamer. Is that a rise? See what I mean here? There is no time to lose yourself in the daily thought, the fish doesn’t care how much money you have in your account, and for the first time in a long time, neither do you. Fly Fishing and its many variables do a magnificent job of saving us from ourselves. Fish can’t vote.
Beginners worry not, the less answers you have for these variables, the more time you will spend “breaking the train of everyday thought”. You might not catch as many fish, and it may become frustrating but I can promise you’re managing stress, you are scientifically giving yourself some relief from 2020 and at this rate, possibly 2021. So, for all you anxious balls of stress, meandering through 2020 wondering what the prescription is for a wonderful 2021, head over to your local fly shop (Shout out to Trouts Fly Fishing in Denver) speak with the pharmacist about conditions, and work your way on to the water. It is time to heal and take control.
