Read about Alex Honnold, the reigning free climber in the world. He climbs 2,000-3,000 foot walls with no gear; Just shoes, chalk and his mind.
I have been dealing with anxiety for the last year and a half. For a while I had uncontrollable panic/anxiety attacks every day for a few months, followed by a few months of constant head aches. A few months after life started to become more normal but still the odd migraine. I still feel anxiety over things that use to excite me, like flying or heights or even theme parks.
Everyone has messed up thoughts of dying or conceiving of trauma but those thoughts never affected me before, however after being off Accutane for 4 months, all hell broke lose on my nerves. Is it from the accutane? who knows, I have the same thoughts and perceptions as I always have, but never before in my life did I feel this sort of anxiety/panic/loss of control. I finally knew what millions of people go through that I once thought should be a simple mind/reality control. I had no perception of control and that made it worse.
I believe that no matter how bad you think your nerves are you can still control them, but that just means you have to actively try harder. To be honest, I believe the only thing that sets poker players apart is their focus, their control of the mind. If your nerves/stress/anxieties are too strong they will block your focus in making the most correct play.
When I see Alex Honnold climb up a cliff with no regard for his life, I see Jungleman/Galfond, climbing up the stakes. It's their focus that allows them to make emotionless plays, knowing that if they play correctly they will win.
What helped me the most with my anxiety/panic attacks was focus that I got from starting yoga and reading about mindfulness from a Buddhist. It's has only been 9 months that I've been feeling better'ish, still struggling at times, still struggling to keep my fears low enough to play Midstakes poker. I'm at one of the highest points in my life and yet these last 2 years have been my hardest to live through.
I have been in the pursuit of fearlessness and I believe one day I will find the inner peace to live fearlessly. The process towards this outcome drives me, through genuine intrigue. I hope anyone else struggling at life, or in poker, can find within themselves what they are looking for.
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I have learned from poker that being at the table is not a grind, the grind is living and poker is how I pass the time
There are a lot of things that will help your anxiety/panic attacks or nervousness. You can try marijuana for example. There are certain strains containing cannabinoids that are proven to help with anxiety and stuff like this. However, there are other ways too. Like transcendental meditation. Take a look at this guy explaining what it is all about and the different studies made on TM. He compares it with different methods, shows graphs and so on. TM also helps increase IQ and moral.
Zep: When I said I feel obligated to troll, it was a figure of speech
Just had a rough session this morning, down 1100e, and I been trying to get around to go back at the table all day, but so scared I'll keep on losing, it's annoying.
Now my flatmate got over visitors and I can hear them drinking in the living room, and it's even more starteling, I just want to game and grind lol.
meditation, is what you need.. i cant imagine my life without it. its just so useful and yet so not used or even mentioned in western culture (I ctrl+f your post hoping you'd mention it but, nope)
start by sitting for 10 minutes and putting your attention on your breathing, whatever happens outside just keep doing it, your attention will be shifting to other things constantly but thats the deal, you _gently_ put it back where you want it. i also like to sit and think that i'll do 30 deep inhales, however long does that take..
gl
And what does self awareness have to do with anything you retard? srsly stfu. - baal
Yes thank you for the talks on meditation Dsmart and Tapa. That is what my hot yoga was about, yoga is for preparing the body for meditation and mindfulness is a part of 'awake' meditation. I do not have a daily routine yoga or just meditating however, it was Yoga that kick started my return to normalcy. I agree 100% with you guys and understanding your body/mind is very important to being healthy.
I have learned from poker that being at the table is not a grind, the grind is living and poker is how I pass the time
El_Tanque United States. Oct 11 2011 00:52. Posts 360
Wow, I really want to watch that document but I don't have enough time.
I would, however, like to try and help you the best I can. The way I can do this is to try and tell you how I deal with fear/anxiety/pressure in my career, and try and make it to where you understand for your life.
I am a baseball player. I play college baseball. May 10th, 2010, I had Tommy John reconstructive elbow surgery, which put me out 16 months. The injury occured in February of that year, so I had not pitched for 20 months. I feared I might have forgotten how, and it showed in my second appearance in our scrimmages.
Basically, for whatever reason, I felt like when I had a runner on base and pitched from the stretched, I felt like I had to try and pick the runner off. I don't know why. Well, there were runners on first and second, so the first baseman was not covering...
Dammit, I can't find the video, but Justin Verlander did the exact same thing as I did, it make headlines and everyone was like wtf is that guy doing.
I was embarassed, but it made me think: Why do I have this fear of just coming set and not doing a pick play? and how do I fix it?
Baby steps. That is the answer. I broke my mechanics down so that after I get the sign of the pitch to throw, I moved just my arms. Once I conquered that, I would move my arms and then slightly move my legs. Once that was accomplished, I just progressed little by little until my motion was smooth again. This worked so much for me.
There was also a lot going through my mind as to how I would perform after the surgery. It's the type of surgery that makes or breaks you, and I had a fear that I would completely suck. The last thing I wanted was to go from the #1 Ace on the team to some bullshit clean-up bullpen pitcher.
You just have to dive in. Stay confident. It's all in your head. I know it sounds simple, but it's true. The best way to do it (in my opinion) is to take small steps and gain confidence. I didn't go out and pitch 7 innings+ my first outing. I got 3 outs. The next week when I pitched I got 6 outs, and left the game. The next I got 9 outs and left the game. The next I was scheduled to get 12 but due to sickness I got 6 again. I've given up 3 runs (one earned) in 12 innings; quite an accomplishment I feel like.
My confidence in my ability has been through the roof, and I am scheduled to be the #1 pitcher for my team in the world series. I am throwing the same velocity as I did before my injury (89mph tops) and I have great movement and location on my fastball.
It takes time. Don't be afraid that it is not working if it takes longer. It took me two years to totally gain back all the confidence. I went through so much anxiety and depression wondering if the only thing I loved since I was four years old would be permanently taken away from me due to lack of performance and a bad comeback from injury.
Please feel free to message me if you have any questions, I really want to help buddy.
And also I hope you follow/understand baseball or this entire thing is rendered useless lol
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Brasil. Oct 08 2011 14:17. Posts 5230
