(
BONUS Breath taking strategy inside)
After 14 more hours of poker, bankroll is at
342% (
-35%).
The past two months have been the roughest by far this year. I hope things turn around sooner rather than later. So let's take a break together:
When you check in with your body from time to time, you may experience an unpleasant surprise. Many poker players do too much of several things, but let’s mention two and focus on one:
Shallow breathing and bad posture.
Shallow breathing - A really good breath goes like this:
Breathe in for 5.5 seconds, breathe out for 5.5 seconds. That’ll be 5.5 breaths per minute. You can even try breathing as slowly as you can. Can you manage to take just six, five, four and finally three breaths per two minutes? Good.
Taking a break requires (Step 1) that you make a plan to take a break (When?) and then (Step 2) follow through by actually getting up to take that break at the aforementioned time. It then requires (Step 3) you to fill the first minute with a break taking exercise of your choice and gradually work your way up from there. Three new steps, taken somewhere slightly beyond your comfort zone
exhaust a certain part of you, so take three steps and rest, then take 4 steps and rest, …, and so on until you can fill a 15 minute break with useful things. At which point, maybe in a week or two, you may ask yourself (But not yet): “So what types of useful things could that be?”
Eat - Sleep - PLO (minus PLO) is a good starting point. If you enter a
Social Dilemma when you take a break (You know the usual suspects: Youtube, Facebook, Twitter), it’s a break from
this for
that, that’s true, but then you know full well that you need a break from
that too (Because for most people, that
that is exhausting and getting more and more exhausting with each passing day) and
this (meaning work) isn’t a good break from
that, or anything for that matter, if you’re learning efficiently (Deliberate Practise) while you’re working, which would be useful.
So if you want to get a break from doing this, your that needs to be refreshing. What’s refreshing for you? How about starting with a cool drink and working your way up towards taking a cold shower in one, two, three or even six months?
That’s refreshing. Even the thought is refreshing. So is thinking something that you can use to refresh yourself? It depends what you think about, of course…
And how do you know that you’re thinking of something nice? Because you can feel your body react. Even when you read about new ideas in a sort of light and playful way you feel good about it.
So let that be your little piece of newness for the day.
Have a good weekend and stay humble!