Trading Chaos by Justine Gregory-Williams & Bill M. Williams

Author:Justine Gregory-Williams & Bill M. Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2012-06-08T16:00:00+00:00

FOCUSING ON THINKING

The Thought-Counting Meditation

This exercise will help you start withdrawing your attention from the content of your thoughts and begin looking more closely at the process of your thinking. First, set a timer for one minute. Now close your eyes, and begin to count your thoughts. As soon as a thought appears in your mind, count it, but do not get into the content of that thought. If you do, you may only end up with a count of one thought for your entire minute.

Compare this with a bird-watching competition. Competitive bird watchers go out with binoculars to try to identify as many species of birds as they can in one day. They do not study each bird. As soon as they see one, that is it—on to look for the next one. You, in a similar way, are a thought watcher for the next 60 seconds. If no thoughts come up, say to yourself “no thoughts,” which is perfectly valid thought and should be counted, or else just relax and enjoy a moment of spontaneous mind clearing.

Keep a count of your thoughts, including thoughts such as “Gee, I haven’t had many thoughts yet” or “uh-oh, was that thought number seven or eight?” If you get a thought that you just cannot let go of, try to remember what thought it is. That information will be useful later. Fear thoughts and desire thoughts seem to be the hardest to let go of, for most people. But remember, it is not the fear or the desire thought that is the problem—it is the inability to control your reaction to that thought that may create a problem in trading.

Although this exercise is not easy, there is no way to do it wrong. Its sole purpose is to learn to look, for this moment, at your thoughts as objects, like birds, or rocks, or other people. Nothing to take personally, just thoughts.

The next time you do this exercise make a brief mental or written list of the types or categories of thoughts commonly featured in the movie of your mind. Some of mine are planning thoughts, in which I try to decide specifically what to do. Desire thoughts include wishes for anything from sex to profitable trades to world peace. Fear thoughts include any type of worry: money, work, retirement, you name it. Happy, thankful, or appreciative thoughts are the sun on my face, the smell of potatoes cooking. Judging thoughts are those in which I approve or more likely criticize anything or anyone. Righteous thoughts are those in which I am right and someone else is wrong. Angry thoughts could be those directed to myself, in which case I consider them as falling into the specialized subcategory of self-hating thoughts, or at anybody else.

Now sit comfortably and observe each thought as it swims into awareness. Observe it long enough to decide which one of your categories it fits into, then go on to look for the next. If no thoughts seem to be coming forth, then just relax and enjoy a few seconds of effortless mind clearing.

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