Restless Thoughts Are Like Restless Fish

It’s a fact that the mind is restless. It is constantly busy with thoughts. Are you aware of the restlessness of your mind and the constant movement of your thoughts?

If you could watch your mind, you would see that it jumps from one thought to another, never standing still.

The mind is always busy, too often with trivial matters. One moment, it might be thinking about one thing and the next moment, it might be thinking about something else. This deeply embedded habit constantly distracts the mind and prevents it from focusing on one thing at a time.

If you wish to succeed in anything, you must overcome the restlessness of your thoughts. It would be best to learn to filter your thoughts, accept the ones you want, and reject the ones you don’t want.

The key to every job well done and to every success is concentration – the ability to focus the mind on one thing, thought or activity.

Without Restless Thoughts – There Is Peace

Fish move in the water, creating ripples and stirring it, but the water becomes quiet when the fish stand still in one place.

In the same way, thoughts constantly move in the mind, disrupting focus and often creating endless thinking and worries. This is why the mind is restless.

However, when you can, at least momentarily, stop their movements, the mind becomes quiet and calm. There is peace, happiness, confidence, and joy in this calmness.

I want to tell you a short story that relates to this topic, illustrating the similarity between the behavior of fish and the behavior of thoughts.

The Restless Fish and the Restless Thoughts – A Short Story

A young man asked his teacher to help him gain peace of mind. To his amazement, the teacher sent him to the river to watch the fish swimming in the water.

After sitting by the river for some time, a revelation suddenly flashed through his mind, and he shouted excitedly: “My mind and my thoughts are restless too, exactly like the flock of fish. This is probably what the teacher wanted me to understand.”

He continued watching the fish, becoming increasingly aware of the great similarity between the fish’s behavior and the behavior of his mind.

The fish stayed in one spot for a while, then abruptly moved elsewhere. So did his mind. It focused on one thought for a little while, then moved to another thought, and then again to another one, and so on and on, restlessly and ceaselessly.

“My mind and thoughts behave exactly like these restless fish,” he said to himself, “constantly jumping from one subject to another, restlessly and aimlessly.”

“When the fish do not move, something that hardly happens, there are no ripples, and there is silence and peace in the water.

“So is my mind. If my thoughts, which are the mental movements within my mind, could stop, I would experience inner peace.

The mental activity takes away the peace, just as the movements of the fish disturb the tranquility of the water.”

The young man became very fascinated by the way the fish moved, by the movement of the water, and by the silence in which the fish lived. His mind became so absorbed in what he was observing that he lost awareness of the passing time.

The next day, the young man returned to the teacher and enthusiastically recounted his experiences and revelation:

“I understand why you have sent me to the river to watch the fish.

I have discovered that my thoughts behave exactly like the fish. Both are restless, never standing still. If I want to gain inner peace, I need to learn to calm down the constant and never ending chatter of my mind.”

Do You Wish to Calm Down Your Thoughts

Are you interested in controlling and calming down the constant movements of your thoughts?

If you want more control over your mind, more calmness and poise, and develop the ability to avoid worries and stress, I highly recommend the book reading “Inner Peace in the Busy Daily Life”.

“Remain calm, serene, always in command of yourself. You will then find out how easy it is to get along.” – Paramahansa Yogananda.