I did meditation with a leader and a group at a local Buddhist, yoga and chinese herbal medicine complex. The yoga actually was more effective but it was needed to do both Yoga and Meditation together in daily or weekly life. But after about a year..i felt that i needed to put it into practice actively. So I took up a left side brain activity ..artistic hobby to allow the right side brain use to become more balanced. it allows you to drop the stock thinking, analytical thinking, trading thinking quickly at the end of the day. The hobby can be anything you actively do with your hands... motorcycle /car restoration, plant or garden artistry, painting/sketching, sculpture, music, working with animals etc.. I bought a piece of land way outside of the city and worked on a zen garden for a while. Then built a two car cabin there and started going indian motorcycle restoration. Now I am silk screen art prints. The keys for me was: Doing both guided meditation and yoga together. Then getting outta the city to nature Then placing myself inside of my artistic endeavor each day after work..i love the simplicity of Zen. The perfection of allowing things to be imperfect. To allow myself to create artistic creation without planning, without stressing This finally allowed me to let go of the grinding analytical side of the day.
This site is an excellent resource for audio talks. It includes talks about meditation practices, and also some guided meditation recordings. It is based on Buddhist thought and practice, but much of it is secular in nature, and adapted to the Western practice of mindfulness. Some talks are available in the form of a transcript, if you prefer to read. You can listen with livestreaming or download MP3 files. No cost. They accept donations. They are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit org. https://www.audiodharma.org/
I've been meditating for 30 years quite seriously. Probably 20k hours of total cushion time. I've read hundreds of books and done a number of solitary and group retreats. Main tradition is Tibetan. Just to say that I take meditation as the center of my life. The one thing I've noticed and learned is that most people don't know what meditation actually is or how to deepen it properly. Most people (including me much of the time) aren't meditating. They're thinking about various things and calling it meditation. Start with a proper definition of meditation: Placing your focus of attention (mindfulness) on an object of meditation (breathing, figure of Buddha / Jesus, visualization of some kind) and let it remain there without force. When it leaves, you are not meditating. Repeatedly bring it back to the object, firmly, but gently. When it remains on the object without wandering, you have begun meditating. This is called: STABILITY. When distractions become easily workable and the object becomes somewhat vivid, but somewhat unreal, you have attained a deeper stage of meditation: CLARITY. When the process becomes more and more blissful, when distractions become a form of play in how to work with them, when the mind is solidly in your control, you have attained the third key marker: POWER All this is part of the 9 stages of training the mind, an ancient methodology. The 9th stage is called EQUANIMITY. At this point, the mind is completely settled and the subject (your mind) and object (breath, image, etc) are non-separate. Here is a rather lengthy write-up on the process, with a lot more detail: https://tibetdharma.com/meditate-properly-9-stages/ Some say attainment of the 9th stage takes 6 weeks of rigorous practice - talking 8-10 hours a day. Some say it requires 6 months. Just to say: it takes time to get good at it. I am happy to answer questions.
Sometimes the market (most days NQ) has a way of pulverizing my past meditation techniques. I know the market is moving in my favor, but it's taking 3 plus hours to hit profit! I've learned in those situations, it's better to walk away from my screen, read a book or play chess puzzles. The best trades are always very uncomfortable.
%% YES. BUT remember mind is a muscle . NOT a racial statement LOL, but Dr Gary Small said on radio reading [music, puzzles[]helps the white matter in your brain/mine 2 LOL So except for maybe a rest day on Sat or Sunday, keep mind active. My mom loves crossword puzzles good for brain; but i would rather reading trading books + Proverbs+ charts LOL I KNOW what you mean about when hell freezes\, snow turns black we may a have a down week\ but could easy happen this week + SPY. Good small comment by Dr Small/reading\music....................................................[Edit 30 minutes to market close]
%% By the way\ when i heard Dr Small \ mention reading helps brain on the radio today\ i knew i better not trade 2 BIG today LOl/true.Proverbs + charts help$ a lot. Strangely i saw my well behaved TM 4 cylinder auto temp light dip from 57 degrees \to 55 several times \never had done that EVER. Did not know if it would be a down\ day week LOL; but I knew dr Small was on target on reading helps brain LOL. I know my data has sometimes messed up like that TM temp gauge; but SPY did have down week\down day.Stared out with long spy/sso\ they did so poorly did better with SH + SPXU ....................................................
Meditation in lieu of spiritual aspect is merely a wolf in a sheep skin. Unfortunately, many western authors of mindfulness (as incongruent as that might sound) only want to concentrate on the physical. ("Yeah, we'll keep the yoga without all the other Hindu bullshit", which would be no different as saying to your partner, "I wanna get to know you, only physically but not anything else".) Just emptying your mind and uncluttering your thoughts won't cut it IMO.
Another alternative is binaural beats with trading subliminal messages. Google some binaural beats that you prefer and embed your own trading improvement messages. Try for a few weeks and see if your trading performance improve.
%% 1] YES, David's faith, on your question+ Mr Schizo is right also,[Scizo post #17,here amazingly] because $2million +$ 2 million =$4 million truth , no matter what the new math liars say. 2] It may have sold better naming it ''Best Loser Wins''LOL But like he noted in that book , JPM had a winner with letting ''traders work as many hours overtime as they wanted '', so really ''Best Wise Worker Wins'' I like my own company , but truth wins anyway Cant really argue the title much his book maybe sells better titled his way/its his book ,2 LOL 1a]] So, on ''letting go of emotions ?'' or managing them in a wise way OK; I listen to helpful music while trading, headphones.[Like Jessy Dixon/ Destined to Win@ BBC, Mandisa, Overcomer, free on Youtube+ He Set me Free ,Russ Taff Video..............] 95% of the time i listen to them\not watch them......................... I give away 10 %+, not as much as Bill + Melinda Gates Foundation but I have given since i was kid also, so maybe i beat him on time, maybe LOL 2] ''Calming down ?'', same as #1a, but i also am carful to keep my hand busy writing down trade numbers, profits losses, things to do list addition. I re-read David taking down Goliath of Gath again Sunday [! 1st Sam 17,again good picture, Davids faith 3] Your inner animal, ? Maybe that mans in line with you personality ?? I was in home + business improvement for > 33 years. I make sure to do my metals business also/ metals profits are not fragile like SPY[or SH=SPY inverse] can be . [777.778] I read 40+ of your posts, David's faith, you most likely know European markets better than me, I live In USa.