How Fishing Makes You A Better Person

By Mila Foster

If you are looking for a new hobby that will make you more active, plus allow you to spend a lot of time outdoors, there is no better hobby than fishing. 

Fishing is very beginner-friendly, but is welcoming to any age or skill level. Also, fishing will make you a more self-aware person, because it is more on the slow side of sports with a lot of free time to let you wander in your thoughts and self-reflection. Here are some more ways through which fishing helps you be a better person.

It teaches you to enjoy nature 

As an outdoor sport, fishing will make you fall in love with nature. Suddenly you will find yourself enjoying every moment you get to spend outside. All the time, you will be surrounded by water and greenery, and you will learn to respect it. 

Another great thing is that you get to experience more than just sitting by the water every day. If you combine your fishing trip with a family picnic, not only will you and your family spend more time in the fresh air, but it will also be time for bonding with your children. It may be an unforgettable event for them, and maybe they even fall in love with fishing themselves. 

Looking for a picnic backpack? Try the most comfortable backpack for a picnic you can find. 

Apart from enjoying your time with family, being outside in nature can help improve your mood, but it can also help you recover more quickly. A study done in the early 80s found a connection between having a ‘green’ view and recovery times. 

You probably did not know that nature can also help you to lower your blood pressure. It takes only 30 minutes per week to improve your blood pressure and overall health. But you are probably going to spend a lot more time out in the open.

It keeps you active

Although you may think that fishing is a very slow sport with not a lot of movement, you are mistaken. Fishing can burn up to 200 calories per hour if you are actively fishing. The repetitive movements of walking down the shoreline, casting, and retrieving can trigger a lot of muscle movement, which is very beneficial to your physical health.

If you want to be more active, going out in the open water by paddling a kayak or a small boat will make you sweat even more. 

It gives you the opportunity to relax and think

We are a fast-paced society, and we rarely ever get a chance to stop, breathe, and enjoy the present moment. Fishing allows you to spend some time alone and relax with the calming sounds of nature. With a lot of time at hand, you will be practically forced to think a lot, which may have a calming effect. 

Sometimes, fishing is a way for you to get away from all the worrying and thinking. Locating fish, and thinking about the creative strategy to catch it can make you forget about your stress and anxiety for a while, and it is not just postponing it. Because being in nature has such a positive effect on our mental well-being, it helps us to fight stress and depression. So after a fishing session, you will feel like a brand new person. 

Research involving war veterans, done to measure how a weekend of fishing changed their cortisol level (cortisol is a hormone linked to stress) produced an outcome that was self-evident. Not only were they able to fight their depression, but they also slept better and were less likely to experience the symptoms of PTSD or a traumatic event. 

No matter if you are only a beginner or a master fisherman, being outside in nature has a lot of benefits to your overall physical and mental health. If you try to include your family in your fishing adventure, sometimes it can be an excellent opportunity to spend some quality time with them. But if you choose to make the shoreline your sanctuary, you will end up a changed, better person. 

 

Mila Foster

Editor in Chief & Writer on Gear We Are site.

I take care of my flowers and my cats. And enjoy food. And that’s living.

Photo by Alan Bishop on Unsplash