How Fishing Can Benefit Your Life
There is an old saying, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” Fishing is as old as human civilization, being used as a source of food and more recently, as a sport. But fishing provides many more benefits than serving as a way to put food on your table, and here is a look at a few.
Bonding with Friends and Family
Fishing is an excellent way to bond with your friends and family. It is often a pastime shared by a father and son, with the skills being passed down from generation to generation. It is also a way for friends to bond, with camping trips that involve spending a weekend together fishing, laughing and enjoying each other’s company. There are many benefits to socializing like this, including a sense of belonging, which can boost self-esteem.
Stress Relief
Fishing is excellent for relieving stress, getting away from the hustle and bustle of daily life and into the countryside with fresh air and nature. It’s one of many reasons why around 45 million Americans go fishing each year, spending time with loved ones, enjoying plenty of time to clear their minds and be one with nature. Included in these 45 million Americans are several professional athletes who find themselves under great physical and mental stress as part of their work. Taking up fishing has helped to reduce these stress levels. For instance, it is currently that time of year when the NBA playoffs are underway, which for the players involved can be a stressful period. One of these players is Paul George of the Oklahoma City Thunder, who competed in a professional angling tournament in 2018, having taken up fishing as a way to wind down.
Developing Self Reliance
Twenty-first-century living means being surrounded by an abundance of almost everything that we need. Provided we have the funds to pay for it we’re never far from clean water, meat, fish, vegetables and all the comforts of our modern lifestyles. That means that we have lost many of the skills that were essential to staying alive only a few generations ago, including navigating, survival in the wilderness and sourcing our food. Fishing teaches you these skills in a hands-on way.
Increase Your Patience
As well as providing an abundance of everything we need, our modern environments provide us with everything on demand. If we want sushi at 2 a.m., then an app can have it delivered in minutes. If we can’t wait to watch the next episode of the TV show we’re currently obsessed with, then a plethora of streaming services can pipe entire box sets instantly. Want almost any product you can imagine? It’s now deliverable to you with two-day, next-day or even same-day shipping.
However, we don’t always notice this “always-on” environment until we have it taken away from us. Have you ever found yourself getting frustrated when you have a poor mobile signal and no Wi-Fi? Or have you ever found yourself longing for your new gadget that’s on a five-to-seven-day shipping service because everything else comes in a day? Fishing is a lesson in patience because unless you’re lucky, you won’t catch a fish as soon as your line enters the water. In reality, you could wait for hours if not days. You might not even catch anything on a trip. That’s character building and helps to develop your patience, which, according to author M.J. Ryan, can improve your health and make you calmer.
All in all, fishing is a sport that will make you into an all-around better person. As well as the physical benefits of being out in the fresh air, developing your balancing skills, strengthening your upper body and giving you a cardio workout, it can also improve your mental health. Spend enough time fishing, and you’ll come back more self-reliant, more patient and more relaxed. And in doing all of this, you’ll get to travel, seeing places you might not have otherwise.
