more important than meditation is just putting breaks gaps into the constant chatter going on your mind. whenever you get a chance, just focus entirely on your breath (essentially just Be-ing). pay particular attention to that brief moment at the end of the exhale where everything is completely still.

i remember a quote from tommy angelo's blog, something like: "i've never heard anybody say 'my current problem was made so much worse when i decided to just concentrate on breathing.'"

a lot of people think meditation is this crazy, out of body, surreal experience. it's not. it really is as simple as just existing, getting away from the stream-of-thought that's disrupting and distorting your reality and starting to see things clearly.

Probably one of the best advice you can find on these forums.

sadly, when we are losing, we can never do what op says... never...

OP must be a winning player.

Some good advice there!

terrible advice. if poker puts you at risk of being emotionally unstable with panic attacks and anxiety, the logical advice would be to stop playing poker

A+

Anyone remember the Phil Hellmuth meditation video from a few years ago?

Thanks OP, hopefully I can get myself to do this every morning.

NVG is still the wrong place for this.

great post, wp sir.

Taking this to heart, great post +1.

Yeah if you're multitabling tourneys it's going to be very hard to take a proper break during your play. In the very least I'd recommend getting up out of your chair and doing some stretches while keeping an eye on your monitor. As for ultra-brief exercises, really I think the usual suspects will work (push-ups, jumping jacks, squats, lunges, etc.). Remember the point is not to get a great workout, rather to get your heart rate up and relieve tension, which will help clear your head and allow you to regain focus.

Thanks for the post Steve.

Here's a link to Tommy Angelo's Meditation101 page:

http://www.tommyangelo.com/meditation_101.html

Some good stuff there for beginners.

Agreed, very sound advice, thanks for sharing! That's what meditation and any time spent in silence is for me, a chance for me to turn down the volume on all of the background noise in my mind. Once this occurs, all that's left is peaceful silence.

Nice post RE: Meditation and relaxation. It was truly refreshing to read. I intend to play full time for a year when i finish college (in a few months) and this is exactly the road I want to go down. I've also intentions to incorporate yoga, swimming and a positive diet.

Very good stuff there!

Books by other authors that have helped me tremendously include Ajahn Chah (who was a Buddhist monk in Thailand), Sharon Salzberg and Jack Kornfield (Americans who studied abroad under Buddhist masters and offer a unique Western perspective on Buddhist teachings), and Wayne Dyer (famed American writer/speaker, I have many of his books and highly recommend them all), and Deepak Chopra.

It was knowledge from works such as these and a few other resources that helped me in my own recovery from extreme anxiety and depression, and provided much of the inspiration for my book.

The reviews for your book on Amazon are stellar Steve. Well done.

That's why he recommends you do it BEFORE playing, just after you wake up.

I'm actually with you on this, once I get pissed, so long for "relaxation". All I want is to punch a hole through the wall. It would be very nice to change this, hope OP's ideas help.

[X] Multitabling while reading OP.

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I'm def giving this a try, just went bezerk today after bubling a couple sngs while on the biggest downswings at these sngs I was playing.

I've played 5/10+ for the last 2 years and hated pretty much every hand i played because of how pissed off it would make me, i didn't think anything bad could really come from it though, i just thought of it as an annoyance.

Then in mid october partly due to poker and other causes like MDMA, coke, coming off diet pills, not eating enough, sickness etc i had a huge panic attack whilst in Argentina and had to fly home a few days later to find out wtf was wrong with me. To cut a long story short, the panic attacks persisted and i spiralled in to what you might call burnout or nervous breakdown.

I am in the process of recovering from it now and should be back to full health in a month or so. Meditation is now a very big part of my life and i practice for around 1 hour a day though i'll likely start doing more. for anybody suffering with something similar such as generalised anxiety you MUST get "self help for your nerves" ("hope and help for your nerves" in the US) by Dr. Claire Weekes.

Anyway, nice post OP Meditation is invaluable for reducing stress/anxiety.

ill try this tomorrow and if i feel good ill play in the sunday million

some great FREE advice.......name of your book please....will buy

Thanks, great advice

click his username and look at his 2p2 profile

Glad you guys are enjoying the post, hopefully one of you will meditate your way to a win in one of the big Sunday tourneys, .

Cheers,
steve

Another good site for meditation info....

http://www.aypsite.org/

Advanced Yoga Practices
Easy Lessons for Ecstatic Living

FWIW after reading boywonders posts about mental game I've definately improved by taking his advice to heart. I relax, take things into perspective and meditating has helped me stay focused in a session and I continue to make better decisions.