I wanted to share how this is helped me in my trading, which is a lot.
I made a half-ass attempt to meditate for years, and would tell people I did it 4 or 5 times a week. I tried to, but rarely did I sit for over 5 minutes, and I didn't really try even when I was doing it.
A thread on this forum about a meditation challenge got me interested again, and I ended up doing the meditationshift program which I highly recommend. It takes you through 21 days of ramping up your meditation time, and for me it allowed me to stick with it and now I have been meditating every day for a minimum of 20 minutes, and most days I do 40.
What is critical though is I finally get what it is all about, and that is how it has helped me with my trading. Make money or lose money, I'm a bundle of nerves. I carry that stress way beyond the close, and it affects how I treat others (esp when I have a bad day). I've learned to really watch my thoughts now - I don't just go on "auto-pilot" and react to what I'm thinking, which just ended up having a snowball effect until I was mentally spent.
Now I see the thoughts that lead to the stress, I see the feelings and emotions, I see the urges to get mad and pissed, and I don't have to go along with it. I'm not perfect, but I have improved tremendously. And, it affects my trading in a positive way. I want to say I think clearer, but I don't know if that is right. In fact, I don't think I can really explain it - I would not have fully understood until I actually did it and stuck with it. Anyway, I'm rambling. Check out mindfulness and meditation - I highly recommend meditationshift, but you can also just do some general research on the topic. It is amazing.
I made a half-ass attempt to meditate for years, and would tell people I did it 4 or 5 times a week. I tried to, but rarely did I sit for over 5 minutes, and I didn't really try even when I was doing it.
A thread on this forum about a meditation challenge got me interested again, and I ended up doing the meditationshift program which I highly recommend. It takes you through 21 days of ramping up your meditation time, and for me it allowed me to stick with it and now I have been meditating every day for a minimum of 20 minutes, and most days I do 40.
What is critical though is I finally get what it is all about, and that is how it has helped me with my trading. Make money or lose money, I'm a bundle of nerves. I carry that stress way beyond the close, and it affects how I treat others (esp when I have a bad day). I've learned to really watch my thoughts now - I don't just go on "auto-pilot" and react to what I'm thinking, which just ended up having a snowball effect until I was mentally spent.
Now I see the thoughts that lead to the stress, I see the feelings and emotions, I see the urges to get mad and pissed, and I don't have to go along with it. I'm not perfect, but I have improved tremendously. And, it affects my trading in a positive way. I want to say I think clearer, but I don't know if that is right. In fact, I don't think I can really explain it - I would not have fully understood until I actually did it and stuck with it. Anyway, I'm rambling. Check out mindfulness and meditation - I highly recommend meditationshift, but you can also just do some general research on the topic. It is amazing.
