MINDFULNESS

[loyek590]

Waking up early has been the one activity that has allowed me to do the things early in the day that have made the most positive change in my life. I moved away from this practice but Robin Sharma, Hal Elrod who wrote "The Miracle Morning", and countless others have spoken about the power of waking up early. I have re-started this practice and follow this prescribed routine:

SAVERS

Silence - Meditation
Affirmations
Visualisation
Exercise
Reading
Scribing (Writing a journal or thoughts)

I wake up between 4:30 and 5:00 in the morning but will know by the end of the year whether the changes were substantial and worthwhile. The feeling though is positive and mind focused.

Mindfulness in my opinion depends on one's ability to have focus. I have started to practice with memory and focus training to enhance this ability. My objective is to give myself 100 random 2 digit numbers (00 to 99) and remember them in order in one go. I'll be giving myself initially 5-6 seconds per number. So in 600 seconds I want to be able to remember and recall at least 50% accurately by the middle of June. Afterwards I'll keep increasing the speed and the amount. I want to see how focus helps with the mind and it with trading.

Considering my negative emotions are already reducing fast I am hopeful the new routine will help me rise to another level as a human being. This is also a more practical and quantifiable way to see whether there is improvement.

Gringo

the way I did it
start off with Hatha Yoga, which is focused on the body
then breathing excercises which are focused on energy and the chakras (energy points in your body)
and then the hardest of all, which today I define as just sitting doing nothing, but back then Mediation was defined as concentration on God.

and just like a fat woman who gets into an exercise program and loses 100 lbs, I got my spiritual life together, and that was coming off some serious substance abuse and a very worldly wild lifestyle. And there were many progressions and regressions until it finally became a daily part of my life.

I thought it would take a whole lifetime to know God, and yet I found it in just a few short months.

 

[Frederick Foresight]

On the subject of mindfulness and meditation, I found this book interesting:

View attachment 152640

http://www.amazon.com/Fully-Present...&qid=1431541130&sr=8-1&keywords=fully+present

The two authors have interesting and complementary backgrounds. They both work at the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC).

MARC's website:

http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=16

If you go to the Free Guided Meditations link, you will have several audios to choose from, ranging in duration from 3 to 19 minutes:

http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=22

I like the 19-minute "Complete Meditation."

Here is one of the authors, Diana Winston, giving a TED talk:

She is a former Buddhist nun. Her co-author, Susan Smalley, is a behavior geneticist. Together they make a good case, pointing to compelling research regarding the benefits of mindfulness and mindfulness meditation, as well as describing its simple practice.

 

[jimmiebarton]

no rest
is worth anything
except the
rest that is earned

 

[marketsurfer]

Here is one of the authors, Diana Winston, giving a TED talk:

She is a former Buddhist nun. Her co-author, Susan Smalley, is a behavior geneticist. Together they make a good case, pointing to compelling research regarding the benefits of mindfulness and mindfulness meditation, as well as describing its simple practice.

WHile there is nothing wrong with these mental games, it's important to note that they really have nothing do with successful trading. In fact, I would argue that unless you are already wildly successful like Dalio, these exercises actually hurt your progress as you are learning to trade.

Rather than focusing on finding true edges, which do exist, hoping patterns repeat and working on mental states blocks your rational mind from finding solutions--- all it is is another distraction from your losses.

Don't get me wrong, these things are not bad, its just the reliance on them that will lead to self destruction in the trading game. If you are good at it, your account will die from a 1000 cuts, if you suck at it, you will suffer a quicker demise.

When you combine the navitivity of pure price action trading with the mental fog of Buddhist tactics--- it spells a big mistake. You don't want to turn into a parrotbot like we have all over this site today---- think for yourself.

You can either listen to this gleaned from picking the brains of 100's of traders and hedgies or follow the " test dodging" ,question avoiding, zero evidence of anything including even existig outside of elite trader, parrotbots that make you feel good with platitudes and average joe talk. It's your choice-- I hope you make the right one. surf

 

[dbphoenix]

It's your choice-- I hope you make the right one.

Indeed.

 

[heypa]

This from an old non mystically educated man,
The world does not revolve around you,contrary to what you learned as a child.Your world does. We become the sum result of how we reacted to life situations not the situations.
It's the journey not the destination that is important. Peggy Lee had a song entitled I think "Is that all there there is?". That song and the death of my father cemented the previous destination belief for me.
Never make an important decision while you are emotionally involved with it or something else.
There's more but getting old (89) has robbed me of some recall ability. Writing that has recalled to me a quote from Einstein as follows."Reality is an illusion, a very persistent one.".
Each of us will interpret the statement differently based on our life experiences.

 

[loyek590]

This from an old non mystically educated man,
The world does not revolve around you,contrary to what you learned as a child.Your world does. We become the sum result of how we reacted to life situations not the situations.
It's the journey not the destination that is important. Peggy Lee had a song entitled I think "Is that all there there is?". That song and the death of my father cemented the previous destination belief for me.
Never make an important decision while you are emotionally involved with it or something else.
There's more but getting old (89) has robbed me of some recall ability. Writing that has recalled to me a quote from Einstein as follows."Reality is an illusion, a very persistent one.".
Each of us will interpret the statement differently based on our life experiences.

if you wait long enough, someone will make up your mind for you

 

[heypa]

If you wait long enough you're dead. Timing is paramount. Not a good method.

 

[loyek590]

If you wait long enough you're dead. Timing is paramount. Not a good method.

yes, fear of death is always a problem, it can control your whole life, you may even be afraid to wait, and if you wait long enough, someone will make up your mind for you (just one of the many luxuries you can afford if you wait.)

 

[Blueline]

fear of death is always a problem

You know there is no such a thing as birth and death when one meets the deathless.....death is only true when we attach to the self (I-am) perspective.....which is an illusion.