I've mentioned in a few posts that my day job is being a psychologist. It's been a tough year for a lot of people, which means I've been busy, and things have been really stressful. To help me manage, I've tried to practice what I preach. I've dabbled with mindfulness meditation in the past, and while I could lead this kind of meditation, I didn't do it regularly enough to get more than a short term benefit. However, I decided in December to make a change and do at least 20 mins a day, every day. It's not been easy, and there have been several nights where I've realised just before bed I've forgotten and had to go and do it, but I have noticed my mood and stress tolerance improve over the last couple of months.
What surprised me though, is that my attitude to investing also changed. Fair enough, it's only been a couple of months, and the market has been ok for me, so maybe this new calmer mind hasn't been properly tested yet? However, I've also been running a new, more focused cap gains portfolio (alongside my long-term income portfolio), which requires a closer eye kept on the shares in it and is higher risk than I'm used to.
Previously, the more I'd look at my portfolio, or at a share price, the more I'd stress. I'd obsess over the details of my rules, price fluctuations, analysing the news and market reaction. Now, I'm finding myself feeling much more....sanguine? Calm? Relaxed? about it all - even compared to when I was just running my income portfolio. I'm still following my rules for buying and selling, I still like seeing shares go up and dislike then going down, and I still have the same thoughts/questions/worries about my shares (sometimes they are useful, other times less so). However, I'm finding it much easier to not get too wrapped up in my portfolio, either intellectually or emotionally, which is making investing easier, and hopefully leading to better decisions.
Its still early days, so in three months I might look back at this post and laugh at how naive I was. However, I thought I'd see if anyone else here is practicing mindfulness meditation, and if/how it has altered their mentality or approach to investing?
