Happy New Year
First, I would like to wish everyone a safe and Happy New Year.

Hopefully all of your resolutions are really well thought out goals and 2010 is both a happy and successful time for you.


Needing a Vacation from my Vacation
I apologize for being MIA for the past week, my original intent was to be around over the break and make a few blog posts, troll the forums, and hammer out the last of the content for Episode 6 of the Tilt series. Unfortunately the best laid plans…

I woke up feeling *blah* on Christmas Day, but figured it was something that I would shake off after an hour or two. So I hit the shower and then ate some breakfast while surfing the Leggo Forums and posting a couple of blog comments. As the day wore on we did the normal Christmas type activities and I just steadily felt worse and worse. At 2PM I went upstairs and have been in bed pretty much from then until late yesterday.

Of course the only thing worse than being sick over Christmas is being sick over Christmas with a one month old and being worried about getting her sick. My wife and I have both been on high alert and have hands that have been washed so many times we look like poster children for OCD. Our lizard skin appears to be paying off though as she has not shown any signs of being sick – ship the healthy infant!

As far as what I had? No clue; some virus that wasn’t H1N1 or the regular flu as I was vaccinated for both and never had a fever (just unbelievable joint and muscle pain). The worst part symptoms-wise was that I wound up with this unreal cough that caused me to subluxate almost every vertebra in my neck and upper back, compounding the sick feeling with unbelievable headaches, shooting pain, and sensitivity to light. Four days at the chiropractor and MD coupled with a week’s worth of prescription pain killers/anti-infamm’s are finally getting everything back together again.


Promised Update on Tilt – Episode 6
As you might imagine I did not get much of anything done on closing out the material for Ep 6. I should be able to get into it this weekend though and will give another (more productive) update next week.


And some content…
In order to ensure that this post is not just me riding the Waaaaaahmbulance! through the Leggo town square, here is a link that was forwarded on by a Forex Trading colleague:

Stocktwits University - Steenbarger

The video is from stocktwits.com and features Dr. Brett Steenbarger, a well respected trading psychologist talking about "Getting off Tilt". Actually most of what he discusses in the 30 minute video are things that we have discussed in the Tilt series or other places here at Leggo. A few items that bear mentioning:

Staying Process Oriented. This is actually one of the topics I am considering for the next series after the Tilt series. What I have found is that we, as poker players, do a decent job keeping from being results oriented from pot to pot, but typically stay product/results/final outcome oriented in our learning process and game approach, which is a detriment.

Biofeedback (15:40) Something discussed briefly in a recent blog post. I actually got hooked up with the emwave-pc for Christmas, so once I get it fired up and figured out I will post some feedback (pun intended).

Shifting Hands with Controlled Breathing (16:50). This is what I really found interesting; it is is a cool twist on the controlled breathing that we discussed in the Tilt series. Dr. Steenbarger instructs that while performing the controlled breathing to actually start with your hands out in front of you at different levels, then as you inhale you slowly shift your hands (so the hand that is up shifts down and the hand that is down shifts up) pausing at completion of inhale, and do the reverse upon exhaling.

Results do vary from person to person and appear to be based upon how well you are already implementing the breathing. Everyone that I reviewed the technique with who is comfortable with their breathing (myself included) did not notice any huge difference. However, the few people that were kind of hit and miss with implementing the controlled breathing said that the physical shifting of the hands was the missing piece and they are much more consistent. This in turn has helped with refocusing themselves and more effective us of tilt control measures.