People who run, talk about a state called "runner’s high". A kind of trance where running becomes a pattern, and they can go on almost forever. I have sometimes experienced "angler’s high"
Runner's high is a state or a feeling that some athletes sometimes experience during and after an athletic effort – especially the ones that require some endurance like long distance running, biking, cross country skiing and such.
After having done their thing for a while, getting increasingly tired and exhausted, they get into a kind of elated or even trance-like mood, where their exhaustion disappears, the sense of pain is reduced, and they feel content or even ecstatic – and like they could go on forever.
It’s known as “runner’s high”, and seems to be triggered by long, but moderate physical work. It’s connected with the release of endorphins into the brain, but also with some substances called endocannabinoids, which do have a relation to cannabinoids – in other words cannabis.
So when it’s referred to as a “high”, it’s actually closer to the truth than many might imagine.
I don’t run much. Even before I lost the ability to do so due to MS, I didn’t run. Exercise has never been my thing. I have ridden a bike a lot, walked a lot, trekked quite a bit, but running, biking, lifting weights or working out in machines for the sake of exercise has never seemed attractive to me. So I don’t know much about runner’s high, and can’t say that I have ever experienced it under those conditions.
But I have experienced something that might be similar, which I’ll call “angler’s high” in lack of a better term, and because it might actually have something in common with what athletes experience.
Angler’s high is a kind of condition I have transcended into on occasions where I have been fishing for quite a while, have been alone and often have been in situations where the fishing has been quite repetitive.
With this I mean walking along a bank or a coastline in the water, casting over open water with few landmarks, one cast one step, moving along and just going on autopilot. When this happens, I often get into a kind of thoughtless, trance-like condition, where the casting and the mechanics of the fishing looses focus, and an empty mind takes over.
Casting becomes second nature, almost automatic, the cold water doesn’t feel cold, and sore arms and shoulders, freezing fingers, a running nose and other such mundane things slide into the background, and don’t register anymore. The mind wanders and I feel meditative or … “high”.
Even now, where I fish from a small pontoon boat and fish much less than I used to, I can sometimes get into this mood where I don’t think much about my disabilities or the situation I’m in, but just focus on the moment in a a state almost without conscious.
Whether I actually do feel high is something I can’t really know, because in spite of being well over 60 and having grown up in an environment where cannabis and other interesting substances were quite common, I haven’t ever tried any of them or ever been high on anything. Heck, I haven’t even smoked a cigarette in my life! I have been drunk, but that’s not in any way comparable to the way I feel when I’m fishing.
Martin Joergensen
I do imagine that the feeling is closer related to runner’s high than anything else. Sure I usually don’t feel tired or experience pain when fishing, and I sure don’t feel like I’m about to collapse or give up, but the sense of stepping outside the situation and having an empty mind is still there. I go on repeat and think very little. In many ways I imagine that it might be close to what people experience when they meditate – which I haven’t tried either, so again I’m not really qualified to judge.
Anyway, when I get home from such a trip, I feel good. I feel “cleansed”, rested and ... happy. My thoughts have been everywhere and nowhere, and typically I haven’t been thinking about anything specific, and definitely not about anything grave or worrying.
In many cases I realize that what occupied my mind before the trip about work, money, health – or whatever other issues I had on my mind – seem less important and less serious.
I know these issues haven’t gone away, but while getting them on a distance might not change them as such, it definitely makes me happier, less worried and altogether a better person. I get more energy and become nicer to be around.
Not a bad side effect of fishing, huh? Not bad at all …
Can you do it on purpose?
Yes and no. A lot of runners and other athletes have tried and some fail and some succeed. Scientists have tried to press athletes to achieve runner’s high, and it seems that it’s possible to get close and into a phase of runner’s high when you are under pressure.
Stress, pain and fatigue seems to be able to trigger production of that hallowed endocannabinoid neurotransmitter.
I don’t recommend fishing yourself into stress levels or pain to such an extent. That’s not why we fish!
Personally I don’t aim for “angler’s high” when I fish. It just comes sometimes. But I generally know when it’s been there, and I think I know what triggered it.
It seems to happen when I’m focusing.
Like when I have a really firm belief in that there’s fish around. I might have seen them.
Or when casting is just really easy and smooth because of perfect conditions.
Or the opposite: when I really have to concentrate on casting because conditions are poor and require me to concentrate.
It also happens sometimes when absolutely nothing happens, and I’m almost bored. My thoughts drift and my head empties and suddenly 10-15-20 minutes have passed without me having noticed or remembering anything from that period.
It seems to happen when I’m focusing.
In my current condition I sometimes do what I might best call “pseudo-meditation”, and I think the same method can be used to get into some kind of trance like state. I focus on my breathing. It’s generally known that concentrating on breathing is a really good way to gain control over your body, be it you are in pain, you are anxious, you have spasms (which it is in my case). A friend of min calls breath control “hacking the nervous system”, and there’s more truth to that than you might think.
So without being too weird or pseudo-scientific, I could recommend that you try breathing very controlled while fishing. I like to breathe in deep through the nose, hold my breath for a few seconds, breathe out through the mouth, really emptying the lungs, pausing again and then repeating.
I can do this while doing other things – like fly casting – and it puts me in a state where my brain is used for breathing, which is usually something you don’t have to think about, while other activities, like watching the water and casting, go into a kind of automatic mode.
It might not be runner’s high, but it certainly feels good.
Martin Joergensen
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