Mindfulness + cryptocurrency? Mindful advice for bearish times

This normie got REKT. I tried to make a quick $50 buy pooling my one bitcoin (about $300 at the time) into Litecoin. Didn’t work out. Two years later, Litecoin just wasn’t catching up with Bitcoin, so, in massive frustration, I gave up the Crypto game – unpinned Mintpal exchange and coinmarketcap.com from my browser as well as unplugged my miners from my computer. Game over, F this.
..Until early 2017, when someone randomly told me that bitcoin broke 1k again. I thought, “hmm, maybe I should really cut my losses and pool my measly LTC back into BTC as well as sell all of my Vericoin and Blackcoin.” To make a long story short, I got about 75% of a Bitcoin out of that.
If I had held instead of buying into FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) and FOMO (fear of missing out,) I would have, at their height in 2017:
• LTC - $13,505
• VRC - $8,360
• BLK - $2,700
= $24,565

Waaa?! Yes. But, I sold everything back into BTC for a grand total of around $800, which, at its height, would have yielded not more than about $15,000…

Moral of the story: If you’re going to “go long,” GO LONG. If you’re going to “short,” then just SHORT. What’s the problem?

Enter patience and discipline

Easier said than done, right? A very wise teacher of mine once said, “We are constantly holding our mind to something, every moment, therefore, it can be said that we are always “meditating,” or getting the mind familiar with its object of focus.”

The crypto sphere is still so blisteringly new, that, together with the speed and drive of social media, is creating a whirling frenzy of speediness in our experience, which rarely ever equates to contentment. If we are constantly popping open Blockfolio, to check our crypto balance, or checking Coinmarketcap 20 times a day etc, we are training our mind with discursiveness. Furthermore, instead of holding our attention to objects that allow us to relax and have clarity; we get perpetually hijacked by FOMO and FUD. Such objects of meditation debilitate and hinder our sense perceptions from simply relaxing, connecting and opening. We actually begin to create a culture of fractured multitasking, which agitates our sense of being.

"Letting go" doesn’t mean "getting rid of"

If we could learn to release from the heavy fixation in the crypto realm, we’d be better off. It would give us more strength and perspective to make sound financial decisions. It seems that “grasping” becomes the main culprit here. We want either more of the good thing or less of a bad one. Instead of not getting wrapped up in the ebb and flow of the market, we try to manhandle the waves. How is that working out for you?
I think riding a surfboard would be a good model for illustration. How can we ride these crypto waves without falling off? The answer ultimately is up to you, but there are many opportunities for balancing our allegiance between conceptual activities and perceptual ones. This seems to be key.
I personally like to Nordic Walk. I live in the Nordics now, and enjoy taking my walking poles and going off into the woods. I simply allow my sense perceptions to rest into the sights and sounds I come across, without grasping. This recharges my being and allows me to FEEL my existence. When I get back home, I’m more capable of fully addressing the next bullet point on my agenda.

Mindfulness is a natural tendency we all have

Another practice I do is the formal sitting practice of mindfulness. It's essentially exercising our natural capacity to let go of past and future, as well as hopes and fears – worries. I think I can speak for everyone, when I say that this arena of mind could use some “weight training," right? But how?

1. Sit upright, with your back straight and your front welcoming the space in front of you, gently. Your eyes can be gently open with a soft gaze out in front of you, or closed.

2. Your breathing is normal, in and out of the nose and mouth, naturally. The breath acts as an anchor to the present moment, where our life actually is taking place.

3. We practice simply being with this posture, gently focusing on the breath – just being with it. When thoughts, feelings and emotions arise, notice them, accept that this is currently your experience, and come back to the present moment, which is indicated by your breath.

You can try this out for 5 minutes and see how it goes. Repetition is important, because that’s the key element in training the mind.
The more we practice training our mind in this way, the more we will be able to stay with any object of meditation, whether it be in investing or being fully present and available to our loved ones, without getting so thrown from that moment into random heavy distraction.
Furthermore, we might just wake up one day, on our “surfboard,” appreciating and surfing not only the bull markets but the bear ones too.

About the author
Cryptoloaf is business communications and focus training consultant, with over 20 years of experience. He brings the culture of mindfulness into companies. In his spare time, he makes ambient synth-wave and surfs the silence of Finnish forests. He can be reached @cryptoloaf for any further training support or questions. He is not a financial adviser and this is not financial advice. Just his personal opinions and experience.