How Meditation Can Make You a More Disciplined Bettor

If you have gambled for an extended period of time, in any form, then you know that this world is filled with emotional peaks and valleys. Such highs and lows are also typical in sports betting, and the only way to mitigate the rollercoaster of a ride that wagering on sports is – is to stay disciplined. Unfortunately, many of us struggle with this as we see opportunities that may not be as big as we perceive them to be. We want to recoup losses, and we fall prey to tilt betting or poor bankroll management. All of these are things that can lead us to accumulate sizeable financial losses.

So, how do we avoid that? Well, practicing emotional control and maintaining focus can go a long way with this, and they are cornerstones of self-discipline, something that meditation should be able to help with.

According to psychologists, by practicing mindfulness, we can train ourselves to remain calm under pressure and make more rational decisions. Of course, meditation and the mindfulness exercises that come with it will not guarantee sure-fire betting success, but they can still help bettors cultivate the mental resilience needed to stay on the right track. This is an activity associated with relaxation and stress reduction, but its benefits extend far beyond these two aspects. Below, we go into how meditation can aid in developing better decision-making.

The Role of Discipline in Betting

What is discipline in the context of sports wagering? It is the ability to stick to a betting budget, avoid reactionary bets, place wagers based on analysis, and understand that long-term profitability comes first. Only a select few shall get rich overnight, and no one will do this in the betting arena without betting the house or overcoming jackpot-like odds.

The problem with maintaining discipline is that usually, our emotions and adrenaline want to take over, and stopping them from doing so is not so easy all the time. It takes great self-control, especially in states of frustration, which usually come about after bad losses. Impulsive gambling behavior almost never generates positive outcomes, and the same holds for being overconfident.

How Meditation Can Improve Betting Discipline

Few people are actually aware that the word meditation derives from the Latin – meditatio, whose verb form translates into—to ponder/think. However, what most know is that this practice, which trains the mind to stay present, has roots in Eastern spiritual practices, in particular Buddhism and Hinduism.

It is an activity that aims to help people not get overwhelmed by their emotions. By having such a skill, bettors are able to acknowledge frustration or excitement and how these feelings can dictate their actions. Thus, they can recognize what is going on and try to stay patient when influenced by emotions, seeking to make only calculated decisions.

It goes without saying that meditation strengthens attention control, allowing for better focus. Studies have also shown it lowers cortisol, the body’s stress hormone, assisting us in staying calm under duress and pressure. Regular meditation will go a long way in helping anyone become more self-aware, allowing them to be more real about their bad habits. Per the available research, it strengthens the prefrontal cortex, called the executive center, or the part of the brain responsible for decision-making and impulse control. Therefore, those who practice it should, in theory, be less likely to place spontaneous, emotion-driven bets. The science we have read on this topic backs this up, as meditation has been shown to reduce emotional reactivity and enhance cognitive flexibility. It has also been linked to reduced activity in the default mode network (DMN), which is the part of the brain associated with mind-wandering and self-referential thoughts.

Top poker players such as Daniel Negreanu, Tommy Angelo, Fedor Holz, and many others have admitted to meditating in their off time, incorporating it into their daily routines to improve decision-making. Hence, we think it is time for most sports gamblers to do as well.

Practical Meditation Techniques

Veteran practitioners of meditation advise sitting in a comfortable position and closing your eyes. Then, you should focus on your breath. Note every inhale and exhale you perform, and acknowledge thoughts/emotions that come to you, but do not react to them. If your mind begins to wander, bring your attention back to your breath.

When betting, you can reduce anxiety and promote clear thinking by inhaling deeply through the nose for four seconds, holding your breath for seven, and exhaling slowly through the mouth for eight seconds. You should repeat this cycle four times, and it may be beneficial for some to imagine different betting scenarios that reinforce desired behaviors, such as visualizing yourself walking away from an unfavorable bet without regret.

Body scanning meditation is also something that we have heard can help, and it releases physical tension that builds up from stress. Consequently, if you find yourself in a long betting session, all tense, then go to a quiet space, lie down, shut your eyes, focus on your breath, and gradually scan your body from head to toe, looking for tension areas. That is why they call it body scanning. In this process, you consciously relax each muscle group as you move down the body and keep doing this until you feel relaxed and focused.

Guided meditation apps like Calm, Headspace, Simple Habit, and Waking Up are also handy tools to make you a calmer, more disciplined bettor.

Excuses & Extra Tips

In the past, meditation has, no doubt, been an often misunderstood practice, seen as something only enjoyed by spiritual seekers. Now, this erroneous belief has dramatically changed, as most see it as a mental training tool, one that is noticing wide adoption in various fields, including pro sports and even military training.

Accordingly, meditation is for everyone. Another common excuse is that it requires too much time. But the reality is that doing it for even five minutes per day can lead to noticeable benefits, and a simple way to incorporate it is to use it as a transitional activity.

Starting small is probably the best way to go about it, with simple five-minute sessions before your gambling session begins. Over time, you can bump this up to ten or fifteen minutes and then also begin reflecting on a finished session in a calm state, doing this instead of obsessing over wins and losses. While in this process, you should ask yourself: How did bets make you feel when you made them? Did you make them based on analysis or emotions? What did you learn that will improve your future decision-making?

To measure the impact of doing all this, it is best to keep a journal tracking your emotional states and decision-making improvements. Over weeks and months, this journal will help you identify patterns and recognize attained benefits.  

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