How best to fight the mental game...

[notouch]

Definitely a healthy body is the way to a healthy mind. Sitting in front of a computer all day is not physically or mentally healthy. I go for jogs by the beach to relieve tension.

[walterw]

	Quote:	PYenner
	Sounds like a nice life Walter. Yeah, the air around trees is special, a good place to be.

Oh yes, Pyenner.. God is very good with me... I also enjoy having some large trees here at my home backyard and frontyard... been able to interact with nature I asume might stimulate some brain chemicals.. could that be the case Doc ?... the same happens to me when I interact with God, it stimulates my Spirit... cheers Walter.

[thetradingdoctor]

Yes, Walter. You are getting good negative ion charges from interaction with nature, especially away from pollution in the city. This is one reason why clean air seems to energize body and brain. Exercise is a wonderful way to relive stress and to keep strong in body and mind. Even if you do only 30 minutes a day, it is quite beneficial. Just today, I read a report that regular exercise is very helpful in early -onset ( age 30 or so) Alzheimer's disease. It appears that exercise in this situation improves mood and memory. It makes sense that anything which brings blood flow and oxygenation to the brain will help with mind and mood.

Prayer and meditation are wonderful ways to bring us closer to the source of our beliefs and to ground us. A grounded trader is almost always a better trader.

Thanks!

Janice

[brownsfan019]

Hey guys,
Sorry if I detracted from the thread earlier. While the forum can obviously provide a nice resource, as cooter and myself have stated, it's hard to stay motivated to keep sharing when it's just a handful of us actually doing it and then when that doesn't seem to be enough, you just take a step back and say why bother...

Good to see the discussion continuing, I'll try to jump back in after catching up.

[brownsfan019]

Oh yeah,

Make sure to vote for me in the trading quote contest!! Hurry before time runs out!! http://www.traderslaboratory.com/for...otes-1879.html

[BlowFish]

	Quote:	PYenner
	My frustration comes largely from impatience, forex moves a turtle speed. Yes it is all in the mind isn't it?

Maybe not all :-) I am a little loathe to say this as you have identified the most important thing (the mind). This is a point it takes many traders (me included) years to get to.

Having said that from your original post it does sound as if you where trying to 'force' a non trending market. Now there is nothing wrong with trading congestion but it requires a pretty different approach to when the market is trending. Quickly identifying whether a market is trending/non trending or put another way whether the direction is up down or sideways.

This may be the mind again of course - I know that sometimes I suffer perceptional bias. But it might also be a more easily dealt with 'tecnhical' problem.

Cheers.

[PYenner]

Hi Blowfish

Yes the mind is the greatest friend and the greatest liablity.
Doc has just opened my eyes to the fact that I treat myself worse than I would treat a slave, so much for my mind.

I was running a long term trade for the first time.
A month in the stalking, a week in this final rise.
The steps were coming about a day apart but being used to following my trades I insanely attempted to track a continuous trade continuously.

I think in future I will have to do as others do, set a timetable and to hell with what I miss. That or just get used to leaving a trade running "blind".

I seem to have made enough mental adjustments to read the market ok.
That has been the first priority.
But have failed totally at managing myself, don't even have a plan for that.
It was more myself that I was forcing, I had actually waited for the market to come to me, but then all the sideways nonsense was doing my head in.

Thinking about what Doc said, I began to realise that the bulk of my life has been run by instinct rather than reason, kind of driven but to what real purpose or gain? Only rarely have I stepped back and chosen to set my instinctive nature aside and take a more deliberate approach.

I see many here talking of the deliberate steps they take to ensure quality of life, or mind. I have to start managing myself much more sensibly.

In the last 15 years, Xmas day is the only day off I have had.
A few years had months of 80 hr weeks, the record was a 120 hr week.
That is the sort of nut I have been, but it had been the only way to get ahead and out of a hole.

Now I work part time but the mental slave driving thing still goes on.
The last time I tried to have a walk on a beach it failed, the schedule in my head just kept on reciting what needed to be done.

Somewhere down the line life somehow got too serious.
A lack of alternatives had a lot to do with that.
Time to make myself smell some roses.

Can I just say thanks to some really decent refreshing people I have encountered here. I think I have just passed the 5% test if you know what I mean Very exhausted but very happy to finally have found a vocation, next priority may be a vacation. Cheers to all.

[thetradingdoctor]

Hi PYenner,

Trading can become a trap if we do not monitor ourselves. There are some clear analogies between addiction to trading and addiction to other things in life. That said, trading is a very difficult and demaning profession. There are not many traders who are able to step away, look at their lives ( body, mind and spirit) and make a conscious choice to live life to the fullest. When you think about it, how much harm are you doing to yourself and to those you love if you do not take time for rest and relaxation? What is that doing to your body and to your relationships? I hear from burned out traders a lot. Some of them get really sick. A couple of months ago, one of the younger traders had a heart attack sitting at his screen. He is 35 years old. I think that it is always good to strive for balance in life and in trading. It is the most difficult thing you can do, because there is something about trading that "calls" us to it. I don't know if it's the money or the challenge or a combination of both. In any case, it can be "addicting." Any respite from the game ( even something as simple as learning to breathe properly or taking a night off to go out or taking the weekend away from the study) will allow your brain and body to regroup and refresh. I learned the hard way about the absolute disaster of trying to be superwoman and working myself nearly to death. It was not a pretty picture, I assure you. It took several years for me to reconstitute myself and to really understand that when I lose myself, I lose everything. Keep on keeping on and please consider taking some down time?

Thanks!

Janice

[walterw]

Nice reflexions Pyenner... certainly that change will enlight even more the quality of your trading.. cheers Walter.

[thetradingdoctor]

Have a wonderful weekend, All! I am going to take some time off this weekend to do an aerobics benefit. It will calm me, clear my mind and hopefully raise money for a good cause. Please take care, and try to do something wonderful for yourself and for someone you love. Time is all we really have.

Namaste

Janice