The Fishbowl Analogy

Letting the Muddy Water Settle

You might have heard me talk about eh muddy fishbowl.

Here’s what I mean by that.

Picture a fishbowl filled with muddy water. There’s a goldfish in there, but you can’t see it. You keep stirring, thinking if you just look harder, ask more questions, Google one more thing, you’ll spot it.

But the more you stir, the cloudier it gets.

That was me.

After my diagnosis, I was frantic - trying to make sense of it all, find the one missing piece, the perfect plan, the right doctor, the best article.

But the more I searched, the more overwhelmed I became. It felt like I was suffocating in all the things I should be doing to ‘cure’ this disease…just like the sediment in the bowl, it whirled around my head and caused complete chaos.

Nothing was clear.

And when we stop chasing, looking, frantically looking for the magic, just like the sediment, it settles and sinks to the bottom of the bowl.

And guess what, you can see through the bowl, and yes, the gold fish was there.

Not because I figured everything out, but because I finally made space to see.

That’s the power of stillness. That’s what serenity does.

It doesn’t fix everything or anything. But it clears the water so you can see your next step.

This isn’t about doing nothing.

It’s about doing the right thing - after the sediments settles and the panic subsides.

So if you feel like your bowl is cloudy, try this: stop stirring.

Sit. Watch, and trust yourself to ‘see’ the right solution in front of you…not for next year, but for just now…the next step.

Your goldfish - your next right step - is right there, when you allow yourself space to find your serenity.

Let the water clear. It always does.