The question is pretty straightforward. I can't tell you how I play as much as I wish I could. I typically play SNGs online and 1/2 live. I've gotten stronger overall at the game from a technical perspective (I'm always looking to grow of course). My mental game is improving too. None of these aspects are perfect and I'm always working to improve, but it seems that self-awareness WHILE I'm playing seems to be tough for me to discover. I'm self-aware in the sense of knowing when I should and shouldn't play based on my emotional state. But when I'm playing, I want to be able to figure myself out more often. How can I go about improving my self-awareness?

It always starts with the breathe. How long can you stay focus on your breathing. Starting out, maybe 10-15 seconds before you start thinking about the need to focus on your breathe, and your mind drifts from there. The next time may be 11-16 seconds, and so on. It's like bench pressing, just keep practicing. You don't get upset when you burn out on bench press, so don't make a big deal of your mind drifting. Get back on and do another 'set'. Slowly, your mind drifts less, and you become more aware.

If you want it hard enough, you must stay discipline and exercise. The good news is that you can exercise and play poker, and probably better as well, because you will really be Observing.

It's great that you have brought this up. An intelligent person understands the importance of this. That is the seeing of things as they actually are and are happening in the moment.

Unfortunately there isn't a simple prescription for what it is you're after. You can either take my word for it or try and test all the many methods people prescribe (yoga, following the breath, cold showers etc.).

Whatever method one prescribes one finds that they're not complete. They're not complete because they never quite get to the root of this lack of self-awareness.

So what is the root of it?

Surely it is the way the mind automatically operates. And it something that has to be looked into carefully and in depth.

Also, for some people, taking minute doses of pain medication or marijuana can not dull the mind while helping remove a lot of the emotion that clouds judgement. The difficulty there is you can sometimes take a little too much or then someone starts buying rounds for the table and that valium you took then kicks into overdrive.

Nothing will kill action more than being the one guy at the table who doesn't get a beer with the rest of them.

So it does come with some risk, even if dosed appropriately

A simple intervention is to sit out every 30 or 60 mins for 5 mins. Get up and make a coffee or whatever. While you are doing this, Ask yourself if you are in the right mental/emotional state to continue? Ask yourself if you are confident that if you got a really bad beat, you would be able to shrug it off without it affecting your play?

It's always important to take regular breaks during sessions as it's a lot easier to quit a session when you are not actually playing...

I think it depends on what it is about your game your trying to be self-aware about. Some people have mentioned tilt, I will mention focus.

I have a little trick I use to keep me present and to measure my current focus level. I try to count every consecutive hand I have dealt to me. I have to count the hand after the dealer has dealt it to me, but before it is my turn to act. If I miss a hand or am not sure what number my current count is on I reset my count to 0.

What I have learned is that on days where it is easy to count into the 20s, 30, 40s+ I'm pretty focused in all areas of my play, but on days where getting to 10 straight hands is difficult this correlates to poor focus in other areas of play.

I've noticed that I play online better than usual when I have had a couple of drags of weed. Not a lot. Just a couple. Keeps me from being distracted or emotional. I also tend to analyze situations much better when I've had a little. Emphasis on "a little."

Can you be a bit more specific about how this lack of self-awareness is impacting you and your play?

JK signing out

I'm not sure I can answer that question as well as I'd like to simply because of my lack of self-awareness. For instance, I'm positive I have tells but I struggle to figure out what they are. My only self awareness I have is of my emotions but in regards to my tells, I dont know.

Be aware of ‘yourself’ now, passively without effort, and start finding out.

Be as mindful as possible about your body and your presence in the room. Focus on your breath and the physical sensations around you. Practice meditation every night before sleep.

slow down in all things, wash the dishes more slowly and presently, brush your teeth slowly and presently,
take walks while playing, slow walks not trying to get it done but trying to be there for every step

Self awareness is the conscious knowledge of one's own character, feelings, motives, and desires. As you experience the game of poker, you are creating expectations of how you want things to happen. Like you desire to get a playable hand 1 out of 4 hands or if you are very patient you desire a playable hand 1 out of 20 hands. You might not be conscious of your desires but they exist. Our desires are endless. So if self awareness is the conscious knowledge of one's own character, feelings, motives, and desires. I would estimate that all anybody wants is to feel good/happy. So we make decisions to create outcomes that produce good feelings. Drinking alcohol is a decision to create good feelings. Being self aware allows you to separate yourself from the sensations of good and bad and just appreciate that fact that you are alive and you feel something. But you can also swim up stream, not necessarily a bad thing, and create positive emotions by creating positive thoughts.

So one approach, is to release all judgements, desires and appreciate everything for what it is, as it is, and what it is teaching us.

Another approach is to Think about what makes you happy, then either do that thing or somehow interact with it.

ice bath

Bro those are str8 facts