That is treating only the symptom not the root cause of stress.It is similar to patching a cancer patient with pain killers.It kills the pain for a while , but the underlying problem remains.
insomnia, people who don't have it can't understand what it's like to be so exhausted you can't produce one constructive thought, yet when you try to go to sleep nothing happens, and nothing works, not drugs, not sex, not food not alcohol, not excercise, not reading, not mental tricks. And when you do finally fall asleep it only lasts 40 minutes or two hours at the most. You are tired all the time but never sleepy.
there was a time when I was young that due to some good fortune I didn't have to work and lived alone in a quiet neighborhood and cleaned out. No drugs no women no nothing but yoga walking and music and reading. I still smoked pot and cigarettes but only at night. It got to where just like clockwork, at 10:00 pm I fell asleep and with no alarm awakened at 6:00 am to start my new day. My body became so pure that on the rare occasions I had any kind of sickness, I could just go the the herb lady and she would give me some tea and that's all it took to get me back right again. When I started working again I got sick and tried some tea and said, the heck with this, I need something stronger.
What kind of stress are you exactly talking about? Sometimes stress is an indicator that something is really wrong and needs to be fixed.
"SOMETIMES"? Stress is always a way of letting you know something is wrong. And it's usually deep. It aint just a matter of excersice. Usually it's a false belief that if you just do something right someone will like you. Or worse, you think you are doing it right and they still don't like you. What the hell does a guy have to do just to be liked? I'm under so much stress I just can't take it anymore.
"Sometimes", because stress can be a matter of neurotic or other disorder, kind of a "bad habit" to say in normal humans (as opposed to us, shrinks ) language. But yes, in most cases, especially applied to trading, stress can be within normal boundaries (subjective term, but everyone usually know what is "the norm" for him/her) or, if it is not, it usually means there's something wrong with your trading. Probably you are not confident enough about your signals, taking too much risk etc.
When I opened this thread I assumed the question was more specific in relation to stress during trading, but it seems yours is more of a general problem. Certain individuals are more prone to stress than others. Some are calm in most situations while others worry about everything. I have always been very calm, but I used to have trouble sleeping when I worked very long hours in a physical job right into bed time. My physical body simply needed a long time to switch gears from forward to neutral. Your problem is likely a combination of physical and mental factors. Like mentioned, there is no excuse to not do at least some training on a daily basis even if it is just a walk. HIT cardio takes less than 15 minutes. You mentioned exercise being a big part of your life. Did this problem occur after stopping working out? If so, you know why. Not a problem for me any longer even when working with problem-solving, but try to avoid working the last hours of the day and see if it makes a difference. Unwind with something that takes your mind off your daily "worries". Spend some time in the sack with your girlfriend, read a book, socialize with friends, listen to beautiful relaxing music (I like classical), a walk in nature, watch a movie, etc. Further, I suspect that you may be troubled with an over-active mind like very many in this day and age. Personally, I was very heavily into meditation a few years back and it changed me profoundly. Unfortunately for me, the mediation was related to a religious practice at the time, but you certainly do not have to be religious or sit with your legs in a cross and chant in order to practice. In it`s most basic form, mediation is a method to practice concentration and a focused mind grounded in the here and now. You can start with relaxing your body completely from head to toe. This is an exercise in itself and you may get very sleepy. After achieving relaxation, practice meditation by focusing on something. Personally, I think a candle light is very good because it is moving and dynamic. The goal is to simply observe the flame without THINKING. What you will find, is that it is extremely hard to do this even for 5 seconds. Your mind will be overflowing with a constant flow of thoughts. At this point, you will truly realize how much bullshit is going through your mind at any given moment without having any BENEFIT whatsoever other than agitating you. Keep re-focusing after losing concentration. Try to hold your attention for 10 seconds. What you will find is that you will drift away in daydreams for minutes without even being aware of it. As you keep practicing this, 10 minutes per day, you will find that you eventually start experiencing long periods of focused concentration and that your mind will start calming. Extend it to your daily life and practice awareness there also. I have not practiced dedicated meditation for a while now, but it changed me permanently and I try to practice awareness all day long. For the first 20 years of my life, I kept living long into the future and daydreaming all day long. Now, I rarely think ahead at all.
"not confident" even though when you were of sound mind and body and you accurately predicted the hard times to come before the reward, when the hard times come and you start asking, "are you sure I'm as smart as I thought I was?" Man, that can stress you out.