Yesterday I revealed to you for the first time, how meditation - part of my daily routine - has been directly responsible for my success in day trading.

I’ve never talked about this before, for three primary reasons:

1. People don’t generally like to hear that “head stuff” (getting control of your emotions) is so important to success in trading.

2. Although I use it daily, I’ve never really felt comfortable trying to offer advice on the subject of meditation. Just like I can drive a car, but wouldn’t know where to start teaching someone else to drive, so it is with meditation.

3. The structured meditation program I use myself, hasn’t been available to the public, so there was little point in me telling you about something you couldn’t get.

The third point is what is about to change though, as the program I use is going to become publicly available on Monday next week.

I’m going to tell you a little bit about it, then I’m going to give you a meditation exercise you can do right now.

MEDITATION FOR THE LAZY

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m naturally a very lazy person. I like shortcuts. Anything that avoids effort sounds good to me. The meditation program I use is right up my street.

You see the trouble with a lot of these kinds of exercises, the ones you find in library books, is that they require quite a lot of mental effort and discipline. You have to learn the exercise, then actually do it. My trouble is remembering the right steps, doing them in the right order, maintaining concentration, and all of this without falling asleep!

The meditation program solves these issues. It’s an audio system - in other words - something you listen to. And if we want to keep things simple, that’s basically all there is to it. I stick the CD into a player (or select the track on my iPod if I’m using that), sit back, relax, and listen. No effort involved - wonderful!

3 TRACK MIND

Of course, below the surface there’s quite a lot going on. Feel free to skip this explanation if you’re not interested in the technicals…

The audio tracks in the program have been designed to synchronize your brainwaves to specific frequencies - which is the basis of all meditation. There’s nothing scary or unnatural about this, we all do it all the time without knowing it - especially when we sleep, or daydream. Using a meditative technique just takes control of the process.

In basic meditation, with practice, you can train yourself to slow your brainwave frequency. This has a massive calming effect, and gets the logical and emotional sides of the brain working in harmony. It’s a very beneficial process, and actually has positive health effects as well as mental ones.

The audio program goes further though. It takes you on a journey through different frequencies. It gets different areas of the brain relaxed and calmed. It’s a kind of mental workout, but in reverse. Instead using energy, it fills you up with energy!

The audio uses three different techniques to work its magic. Firstly, it uses a system of “binaural entrainment”, which is a fancy way of saying you hear different things in each ear.

Secondly, it uses “rhythmic entrainment”, which uses rhythm to relax the mind. Thirdly, it uses “temporal entrainment”, a way of focusing the mind on the other entrainment techniques being used.

All this is wrapped up and “hidden” within a relaxing ambient soundtrack. You might have seen some CDs that use one or other of these methods, but as far as I know this is the only program that uses all three at once.

TICKLING THE MIND

Unlike basic meditation, listening to the audio is a totally passive experience. You don’t need to do anything. No exercises, no visualization, nothing that requires action. Just listen.

The result is something that’s difficult to describe. The first time I used the program, I could only liken it to someone gently tickling the back of my mind. I know that’s probably a really bad description, but that’s how it was!

The first five minutes or so nothing much happened. But then quite rapidly I felt myself falling into a surprisingly deep meditative trance. As I mentioned yesterday, I had already been doing some basic meditation before trying this program, so I was no stranger to this state of mind. But to reach it so quickly and effortlessly was a real revelation for me.

There are a number of audio tracks in the program, and in all they amount to what I can only describe as a a six month brain entrainment program. But don’t be deceived, the results start to show almost immediately.

THE BOTTOM LINE

What this all comes down to is this. Trading successfully requires a solid strategy, and a clear and focussed mind. Only when you have both can you truly reach your full profit potential.

The best way I know of getting your mind clear, is to regularly practice meditation. You can either do this on your own, using time tested exercises, or you can use a program that does the heavy-lifting for you.

Either way, if you meditate for about 30 minutes a day, I guarantee you that you will see a significant increase in your trading performance.

30 MINUTES = $???

How much is 30 minutes a day of your time worth? If you increased your profitability by just 10%, how much would that add to your bottom line each day? Each Month? Each year? What about if you increased profits by 25%? Or more?

And if you’re not yet profitable, do you think 30 minutes a day to turn the corner and start making money is a worthwhile time investment?

AN EXERCISE

As I promised earlier, here’s a simple meditation exercise you can try right now. Please bear in mind that this relies entirely on you, it’s not like the audio system with it’s clever use of technology to do the heavy lifting for you. This exercise will require some mental effort. But the reward should be a great feeling of mental relaxation and clarity. Ok, here goes:

Start by finding a comfortable position. Sitting is good, lying down better. Be somewhere you wont be disturbed. Close your eyes, and count down slowly, from 25 to 1. As you count down each number, try and visualize it in your minds eye. Concentrate on each number.

When you’ve finished the countdown, start to concentrate on your feet. Feel your feet become heavier and heavier, as if they were made of lead. Focus all your thought on those feet. When you feel they cannot become any heavier, move your concentration to the bottom half of your legs. Imagine them becoming heavier and heavier.

Move slowly up your body, repeating the process - your knees, thighs, hips, belly, chest, hands, arms, elbows, shoulders, neck, chin, face, to the top of your head.

The whole exercise should take around 30 minutes if done right. When you’ve finished, you should be in a deep state of relaxation. You can bring yourself out when you are ready, by opening your eyes and saying to yourself “I am wide awake, relaxed, and my mind is clear and focussed!”

Don’t worry if you break your concentration, this is after all just an exercise, and you’ll get better with practice. Also don’t worry if you fall asleep the first time you do this - I did! Again, with practice you’ll slowly gain control.

YOUR CHOICE

I really hope you give this a try. These posts have been a radical departure from my usual videos and charts, so I hope they help!

On Monday, the audio program launches to the public. I’ll put up a post on Monday, with the link to the website. If you decide to give it a try, do let me know how you get on, I’d love to hear from you. And if you decide to just use the exercise above (or any other you might know of), let me know how that works for you as well.