CHAPTER 8: IMAGINING
The adrenalin worked as an afterburner but after running for five kilometres, Somerai was sweating. She must have lost the troop by now, she stopped to take a breather. She looked around to see if she could find some water.
After a bit of walking she finds a deepish stream and remembers the fishing hooks that she still had in her backpack. She thought back to a National Geographic episode she had seen about the African catfish. Legend had it that a starving fish in a drying, mud plain had come across a lost kitten taking a sip of water and managed to ambush it, giving it amphibious qualities.
Known to be an industrious species catfish could adapt to almost any conditions. These fish didn’t survive, they thrived and even invaded new waters to outcompete indigenous species. They reached lengths of 1.4 - 2 metres and could even get up to 50 kilograms.
The amazing thing about the barbel as its called due to it’s cat-like whiskers, is it’s ability to breath bi-modally through it’s gills as well as through a specialised air-breathing organ which it had evolved. This allowed it to survive both on land for short periods as well as in almost oxygen-depleted water.
In light of geo-storms that had become commonplace as a result of climate change, the catfish would find a way to outlive similar species in it’s natural habitat. Like the catfish she had to be highly adaptable and flexible to survive in the African bush, she had to evolve according to the needs of her environment.
Somerai thought back to the list of items in the backpack that Dharma had read out on the first day. She still had the fishing hooks and para-cord.
She would be ready to lunch in a few hours and catfish were known to be decent table-fish so she thought she may as well have a few casts with hand-line.
Somerai sensed there were fish in these waters. She felt like it was her lucky day.
She willed it by visualising herself hooked into a five kilogram catfish breaching the surface giving her the fight of her life. She felt the adrenalin and connected to the joy in her heart as she pulled it out of the water.
From the documentary she’d watched, she deduced that catfish were nocturnal bottom-feeders. They were also opportunists and just couldn’t resist worms, their favourite meal.
Somerai cut the paracord in her backpack exposing some thinner threads which she then threaded through one of her hooks.
She dug into the soil on the riverbank with her hand-spade and found a wriggling, sacrificial earthworm naked and surprised. She carefully attached him to the hook.
Somerai walked towards a deeper looking part of the stream with an overhanging branch and some reeds along the bank. She concluded that this would be a good spot for catfish to feed of insects and fallen organisms.
She could even see some bubbles on the surface suggesting there could be fish below.
She then attached a weight to the end of the line and swung it around in a circular motion, lobbing it into the middle of the stream below the branch and near the reeds.
On the river bank she saw a rather angry looking but colourful crested barbet foraging on a tree stump.
This woodpecker was known for it’s aggressive nature and was even believed to kill mice and small snakes on occasion.
All of a sudden she felt a sharp bite and pull on her line.
She pulled hard and felt the hook set in the barbel’s mouth.
The fight was on!
The fish pulled aggressively to the right and she walked along the bank following its movement. This was a strong fish, she felt a sharp burn on her index finger. She pulled out some slack and let the line go. This would let the fish run freely so it could tire itself out.
After ten minutes of trading tugs-of-war, the fish finally swam towards her. She could see it’s silhouette approaching below the surface.
A large catfish with long whiskers broke the surface, a face for radio but what a whopper! He was at least four kilograms, a mighty fish to be taken on hand-line.
After snapping the spinal cord, she began gutting him with her knife and returned the entrails to whence it came.
From the bank she could see his relatives hoovering up the remnants. After having grilled the fish over an open fire, Somerai stared into the flames and reflected strategically to extract new learnings from her experience of catching the barbel. She always reflected after an experience and used her metacognition to stand outside of her thoughts and think about her thinking.
She broke her thinking down into a sequence of steps and checked if she’d executed the correct sequence according to the needs of the situation.
Through continuously self-assessing how she had reacted in each phase of strategising and executing the catch, she looked for gaps and ways to improve her thinking.
As she’d done before, she replayed the scenario in her mind’s eye from beginning, to the middle and the end, asking what, why and how the fish had taken the bait.
Think along with Somerai now and break down the fishing scenario into three phases.
Why had she been successful?
She applied critical thinking when reflecting by asking specific questions, recalling the relevant information from the experience and comparing it to previous knowledge.
After asking why she had been successful, the critical point she believed was her decision to target an area below the overhanging branch.
This decision had had the desired effect but there could have been multiple factors at play and alternative consequences that she had not planned for.
She imagined that catfish could have been roaming elsewhere at that time of the day or could have already fed in the morning.
What do you think, had luck played a role or was it purely good analysis and decision-making?
The bubbles in the water that she’d noticed had indicated there were fish in the vicinity feeding of fallen insects.
She had not checked this assumption, it could have also been a duck diving for food below the surface.
Despite this she formed the conclusion that there were fish around and moved ahead.
She remembered her cast below the overhanging branch, she took the perspective of the catfish and imagined the earthworm wriggling at the bottom of the stream, a rare delicacy enticing him to strike.
As he took the first bite, she needed to jerk the line sharply to set the hook. She’d done this successfully and been rewarded with a nutritious meal.
As the situation had unfolded she had to continually re-assess the problem to adapt her actions to changing variables, in real-time.
When the fish pulled her strongly to the right, she gave him slack to let him run and tire himself out.
She linked together each phase to develop a logical sequence of events in her head based on reasoning, to explain what had happened and why.
She would save these new insights in her mental folder titled “Fishing techniques for catfish.”
Somerai realised she could use her imagination to not only reflect backwards on past experiences to recall and learn from them by replaying them in her minds eye, but could also use it to mentally practice a skill or procedure through visualization.
Awareness of visual cues and rehearsal would strengthen muscle memory and help her react faster when the situation actually happened in real-life.
She thought back to her Muay Thai lessons she had had when she was younger. She remembered the left kick, right hook combination followed up with an elbow strike. She remembered how the lionesses attacked Shanti from behind, pouncing forwards with their front paws bearing sharp claws to latch on to her, the ferocious canines like daggers puncturing the flesh.
If she could find a way to disable their weapons they would be mere pussycats. She had had a good view of the attack on the baobab tree. Based on what she saw when they attacked Shanti, she re-enacted the scenario and imagined a lioness attacking her from the rear.
Like an intricate Kathakali dance, she strategised and practised each specific step with deep thought and contemplation, anticipating what would happen and why.
Due to the lionesses’ momentum from the right flank, she planned to side-step to her left and follow up with a left blow to the front teeth and jaw to aim for a concussion.
A lioness without teeth was not be feared. She practised this mentally in her minds eye over and over again, creating a mental dojo where she could re-enact different variations of the scenario.
She added in different variables like the lioness attacking from a different angle whilst also considering how to respond if they attacked as a group.
Her mind was racing from multiple, simultaneous cognitive operations. She was overthinking now and the mental effort had drained her considerably. She felt all this use of logic, reasoning and critical thinking had caused her to lose touch with her intuition.
Out in front in her line of sight stood an inviting baobab tree providing welcoming shade for an afternoon siesta.
She hadn’t slept well the night before so she decided to take a nap up in the arms of the majestic. She dropped her backpack, climbed up into the tree and nestled into a comfortable spot.
Amidst a hazy afternoon snooze just before she was about to enter deep sleep, Shanti re-appeared in a day-dream.
The towering mass of power and elegance pointed her trunk towards a rocky outcrop on the top of a mountain resembling the outline of a monkey.
“Keep calm Somerai.
Remember to calm the waters of the monkey mind to listen to your true self” she said.
“Read Chapter 3 of The Guide, it will help you regain focus.