What’s alive in the world? What’s alive in me?

Anna Edgar

Feb 14, 2025

The process of setting up a new aquarium is a beautiful example of how life is the only mindfulness app you’ll ever need.

Mindfulness is simply present moment awareness. What’s alive in my world right now? What’s alive in me? Living these questions provides infinite richness for our daily “Living Mindfulness” practice.

The process of setting up a new aquarium is a beautiful example of how life is the richest and most abundant mindfulness app you’ll ever need.

The more I see in the aquarium, the more I see in me.

Life offers plenty opportunity to meditate on what comes alive in the mind when we mull over decisions, for example, “should I buy an aquarium?” In the space that meditation opens we notice thoughts. Thoughts about benefits “It will bring x into my life”, “I will enoy y”, and “It will be interesting to try z”. Thoughts that block us “I won’t be able to x,” “It will be too difficult”, “It could all go wrong..”, or “It’ll be too much y” or “what if..z”.

Sitting as the observer we notice what happens in body and emotions in certain environments, for example mulling around the aquarium section of the local garden center. “When I’m here I feel x”, “I notice my emotions are y”, “My body feels z”. Exploring all the possibilities amongst the options on sale, it all feels alive with excitement, and uncertainty, which makes for a magical mix!

“Being with” these thoughts and feelings for weeks, or even months, offers rich insight into our own inner process. After all, buying an aquarium is a luxury, and there is no rush, even if the impulse is there, the impulse itself is a richness for abundant mindfulness and insight. So, after mulling it over for seven years (indeed), I finally decided “the time is now!”.

Chasing the gold at the end of the rainbow

Of course, one thing leads to another, and whatever new project we start, for example, buying an aquarium, this opens up awareness of how quickly things can snowball.

Within that space between excitement and uncertainty everything comes alive. This is how life becomes our abundant mindfulness app.

If we can live life as our mindfulness app, we can see how excitement and uncertainty drives us into “doing” or “fixing” or “need to know more” mode. The four or five weeks that a new aquarium takes to cycle and stabilise is perfect opportunity to “sit with” that whole range of human experience that exists between wonder and despair.

Beyond the obvious basics, we realise how attachment to outcome drives our behaviour. In our heart and mind we form this idea that the aquarium will give us what we are looking for, but only if it has certain parameters in place, subect to personal taste or individual goals.

With awareness we can see how this attachment to outcome drives all the impulses to buy up this, and that and the next thing. There are the infinite impulses to scroll social media, YouTube or Google for “instant expertise”. Every time we test the water there are infinite questions “Am I doing this right?”, “Do I need to add some chemicals?”, “Did I add the right chemicals?”, “Is this cycle doing what it is supposed to?”. And, we can be aware of how everything we put in as decor or substrate or planting “feels”, and how the heart drives our impulses too, that need to “feel good”, or to “indulge” our cravings.

And, of course, living life as a mindfulness app delivers us into the present moment. But, as we know, the present moment can be a tricky place to be. Setting up an aquarium is a metaphor for life. Every day there is something new, a challenge, a joy, a difficulty. One thing happens, we notice it makes us feel good or “successful”. Another thing happens, we notice resistance, or displeasure or a sense of “failure”.

It is all to easy to get caught up in the pH, Gh, nitrites, nitrates, algae, bacterial blooms, water temperature, as if we can actually achieve perfection if only we tinker with this, or that or the next thing.

It is so easy to get tangled up in life like a dog chasing its own tail. It is too easy to hang our “happiness” on external factors, to become attached to outcomes and reduce our possibilities to “success” or “failure”. For example, if the aqurium looks all fresh and clear, it is so easy to feel happy. If we notice bacterial bloom, or algae or a snail, it is too easy to feel “unhappy”.

Alternatively, once we notice this very human tendency and observe how attachment to outcomes offers only “success” or “failure”, and how this can drive us to constantly fixing, doing, worrying, chasing the gold at the end of the rainbow, and how this is a recipe to infinite unhappiness, we can use this experience as our living mindfulness app and explore how to find our own inner peace.

Peace in me, peace in my aquarium.

And within this, we can find something more real and more humble. Maybe we can, mindfully, step out of all that and instead of worrying if the plants are growing ok, or if the level of nitrites or ammonia or whatever are “exactly right”, we can instead watch the tangled mess of what is alive in us, with kindness and compassion, maybe even a smile, and maybe take a breath.

We might find a way to let go of the impulse to “fix”, “adust” or “change”, let go of the impulse to “judge” and “find the answer”, and instead enjoy the process of “allowing things to be.” Set it all up, do the basics. Then allow the aquarium to do its thing, in its own way. Let go of the search for “perfection”, and let go of the entanglement of self in the process.

Rest in awareness. Let the aquarium be my mindfulness teacher. Breathe, sit, observe.

Thich Nhat Hanh teaches us: In The Heart of Understanding

“When you produce peace and happiness in yourself, you begin to realize peace for the whole world. With the smile that you produce in yourself, with the conscious breathing you establish within yourself, you begin to work for peace in the world.”

Peace in me. Peace in my aquarium.