StillIce sessions

A playlist of mental drills for quiet ice days

Each card is a small ritual you can run in fifteen minutes: to arrive, to stay with the hole, to leave the ice lighter.

Soft light inside an ice shelter with rod, notebook and thermos — One shelter, many ways to train your head.

Small breathing protocol card on a box lid — Warm-up: breath & shoulders

Top view of a single round ice hole with rod across it — Focus: one hole, one frame

Warm-up strip

Three short sessions to leave the shore behind

You can run them in the car park, on the walk or while drilling the first hole.

01

Boot steps count

Count twenty slow steps from the car to the ice. With each set of ten, drop one worry from home.

02

Bag weight scan

Feel the strap on your shoulder and note three things: where it presses, where it does not, and how your breath reacts.

03

First crack listen

When you hear the first ice sound, stop for one breath and name the feeling before moving on.

Boot prints leading from the shore onto clean snowed ice — Steps from shore to ice as the first quiet counter.

Shoulder close-up with the strap of an ice fishing bag — Bag weight as a quick way to notice tension.

Long thin crack in early season ice with soft light — First crack: sound check for both ice and nerves.

On-ice focus

Three attention lanes so you do not drift to the phone

Sight lane

For five minutes, watch only the nod and the rim of the hole. Let the rest blur.

Sound lane

Count clear ice noises and tent flaps. Everything else is background.

Body lane

Check your hands, jaw and shoulders. Soften one of them with each exhale.

Close view of a nod and line over a dark ice hole — Nod lane: one tiny movement becomes the whole frame.

Tent fabric gently moving with wind in soft light — Sound lane: wind and fabric instead of notifications.

Hands resting loosely on knees while sitting on the box — Body lane: relaxed hands show the real session result.

Zero-day strip

When nothing bites, the session still counts

Three tiny drills you can run on a blank day so it does not feel wasted.

Mood check

Scale the storm

Rate your irritation from one to ten. Breathe until it drops just one point.

Story

Rename the day

Give the session a title that does not mention fish at all.

Next step

Tiny win

Decide one micro-skill you just practiced: patience, listening, posture.

Calm ice hole with rod resting and no visible bite — A quiet hole can still mark a good mental session.

Notebook resting on a knee with simple notes about the day — One line in the notebook is more than zero.

Angler quietly packing gear into a sled at dusk on the ice — Packing up slowly becomes part of the ritual.

Ice & nerves

Short trust drills when the ice sounds too loud

Sound check

Name what you hear: crack, wind, fabric, voice. Guessing less already lowers fear.

Body check

Notice where fear sits: hands, jaw, stomach. Relax just one of them for three breaths.

Decision check

Ask: “Do I need to move now?” If yes, you move. If no, you say “I choose to stay” out loud.

Company rhythm

Micro-sessions that keep peace in the group

Fast driller

Walk them a few meters away and agree when they report, not comment.

Quiet watcher

Give them a “no small talk” window where nobody pushes.

Story maker

Ask for one shared story at the end, not ten during the bite.

Log keeper

Let them note moods and spots so others do not argue from memory.

Rhythm loops

Use lure movement as a quiet metronome

Three simple loops you can repeat when mind starts racing.

Soft tap

Three up, three still

Lift the lure three times, then freeze for three breaths.

Glide

Slow draw

One long raise, one slow drop, one full pause.

Reset

Rod on the knee

Let the handle rest and feel the weight of the day leave your hands.

Rod tip moving in a small arc over the dark ice hole — Tiny arc of the rod tip as a metronome.

Hand holding a small ice lure between gloves — One lure, many ways to steer attention.

Concentric rings on the water surface inside the ice hole — Rings on the water show how calm the loop really is.

After the ice

Two short ways to land the day softly

On the spot

Boot edge pause

Before you step off the ice, stop and recall one clear sound, one feeling and one lesson.

Later

Lamp note

At home, write three short lines: weather, mood, one thing you would repeat next time.

Session mode

Switch between solo and company without losing calm

Solo

One hole, one chair, one phone on silent. You treat every thought as a guest that can wait.

Company

You agree on short chat windows and long quiet stretches, so nobody pulls focus all the time.

Micro checklists

Two tiny lists that ride with you every trip

Instead of big plans: two rows, two images, six quick checks.

Small handwritten checklist card taped to an ice box lid

Before-ice three

Phone on silent or airplane mode.
One sentence intention for the trip.
Quick breath check: short or long?

Phone screen showing a simple list of three ice session points

Zero-day three

Name one good thing besides fish.
Notice one skill that got better.
Decide one thing to repeat next time.

State line

One simple line to remember how the day felt

Hand drawing a simple line graph in a small notebook — One line after each trip builds a quiet archive.

Before

Tension from work still loud. Mark it high.

On ice

Noise slowly fades. Mark where it drops.

After

Check if you leave lighter than you came.

Row of small mood icons from stormy to calm on a card — Simple icons help when words are hard to pick.

Tiny experiments

Change one detail each trip and watch the head react

Two ice holes drilled a few meters apart on a wide frozen lake — Two fixed holes turn movement into an inner experiment.

Spacing

Two holes rule

Fish only two holes for an hour and watch how your urge to “run the field” behaves.

Light

One lamp color

Keep the same light inside the shelter and see if your mood remembers it.

Ice shelter glowing with soft warm light against the dark ice — The same light every trip becomes a mental anchor.

Company

Silent pair

Sit with a partner and speak only every fifteen minutes.

Breath map

A simple column that keeps your breathing honest

Arrive

Notice how your breath sounds inside the shelter: short, broken, silent. Mark the start without judging it.

Settle

For ten casts, match the lift of the rod with the inhale and the drop with the exhale.

Stay

Every time you want to change the hole, take three slow breaths first. Then decide.

Leave

On the walk back, count ten calm exhales and see if they feel different from the first ten of the day.

Table rituals

Two quiet strips for the box lid or kitchen table

Ice gear laid out on a table in warm evening light

Evening pack strip

Before the trip, lay out the essentials and say out loud what you expect from the day that has nothing to do with fish.

Morning box strip

On the ice, open the box and touch three things you are glad you brought. This grounds the head before the first hole.

Open tackle box on ice with a few carefully chosen items

Quick questions

A tiny FAQ for the head, not the gear

Gloved hand turning a phone screen face down on a box

Do I have to go offline completely?

No. Try one “offline window” of fifteen minutes where the phone is face down and out of reach. You can always extend it if it feels good.

Two chairs facing the same direction inside a small shelter

What if my friend does not care about “mental sessions”?

You do not have to convince them. Just agree on one quiet slot and one chat slot. Your experiment can stay yours.

How often should I run these drills?

Even one focused session per month changes how you remember the season. The point is repetition, not perfection.

Card routines

Turn sessions into a small deck you shuffle on each trip

Three simple cards: before, on ice and after. You can print them or keep them as photos.

Card 01 · Before

Read once at the car, then put the phone away until the first hole is drilled.

Card 02 · On ice

Pick one focus: sound, sight or body. Stay with it for ten minutes, no matter the bite.

Card 03 · After

When you pack, name one thing you are taking home that is not in the sled.

Session playlist

Treat your ice days like a series, not single episodes

You do not have to run every drill at once. Pick one before, one on the ice and one after — that is already a full mental session.

Choose 1 warm-up, 1 on-ice lane and 1 closing ritual.
Keep the same trio for a few trips to feel the pattern.
Then swap just one element and notice the change.

The rest of StillIce Studio — printables and logs — is here simply to make this easier to repeat.