Maintain both physical and emotional health for successful trading
Paula Rodriguez
This post is written byEarn forex. With a team of qualified writers, coders and editorial staff, Earn forex offers assorted tools and information to help forex traders become successful. These include forex education, forums, current market news, free forex videos and many more.Most traders take special care to maintain their physical health. However, emotional health is largely discarded. In fact, both are linked to each other. Lack of emotional health would lead to physical symptoms such as an increase in pressure, diabetes, and fatigue. This article looks at simple, proven techniques to keep the emotional health in great shape.
1. Have quality friends
Research has shown that good quality friends will positively influence the emotional health of a person. It will greatly reduce the chances of depression, cardiovascular and immune problems. Since Forex traders are generally exposed to a high-pressure work environment, it is vital to spend time with friends who will stave off emotional isolation. A trader who is less prone to stress would be able to make smart trading decisions.
2. Maintain good health
Physical and emotional health is closely linked to each other.Studies conducted by the American Psychological Association in 2005indicated that deterioration in physical health causes psychological breakdown and vice-versa. Furthermore, lack of emotional health will lead to decrease in memory, negatively impact concentration, increase the anxiety level, and make a person irritable. Thus, we can argue that a trader must have good emotional health to concentrate on the price movements and remember chart patterns. A balanced diet, as explained in one of our earlier topics, provides the brain and body with the requisite amount of vitamins and minerals to stay healthy. Following a good diet regimen would enable a trader to accomplish the objective.
3. Exercise regularly
Physical exercises, such as cycling, swimming, jogging, and walking, increases the blood flow to the brain. Exercise forces the body to release a chemical substance named endorphin, which makes a person feel positive. Ultimately, this decreases anxiety and depression. Furthermore, physical exercise boosts self-esteem of a person. A Forex trader who is not prone to stress and has good self-esteem would be able to remain strong emotionally, which is very important while trading in the market. A Forex trader who is not strong emotionally will make costly mistakes during periods of high volatility.
4. Have a hobby
A hobby provides an outlet for releasing stress. Furthermore, medical research has shown that hobby creates eustress or positive stress in mind. The eustress fills the mind with excitement and happiness, and normalizes blood pressure in the body. Eustress also motivates a person, increases cognitive skills, and improves performance. All these qualities are much needed for trading successfully in the Forex market. Thus, it is vital for a Forex trader to have a passion or develop an interest in another activity unrelated to work.
5. Food habits
We have already mentioned that a healthy diet would keep the brain and the body physically and emotionally fit. However, it should be noted that too much of anything is bad for health. A person should not eat to satisfy his cravings. Medical studies have shown that food high in sugar/fat may result in neurodegeneration. It is because both addictive drugs and food high in fat/sugar trigger the same pleasure centers in the brain. In the same manner, too much of alcohol consumption is detrimental to mental health. Alcohol, undigested by liver reaches the portion of brain that controls speech, judgment, movement, and memory. So, it is quite clear that a Forex trader should have control over his food and drinking habits in order to profit consistently from the currency or any financial market as such.
6. Have adequate sleep
Adequate sleep is necessary for every human being. Lack of sleep would create erratic mood swings in a person and make him easily irritable. This would lead to judgment errors in every phase of life. In the case of a Forex trader, clarity of thought and emotional control is a must-have virtue. Lack of sleep would certainly affect those sublime qualities. Thus, it is necessary for a Forex trader to have adequate sleep to maintain emotional health. In general, a human being should have quality (undisturbed) sleep for at least 7.5 hours per day. Losing even one hour of sleep would affect the energy balance and ability to fight infections. The chart below illustrates the effect of the sleep deprivation on basic brain performance (simple arithmetic operations) during 72 hours:
7. Time management is essential
A person who manages the time properly would be able to accomplish multiple tasks without a great deal of difficulty. This is particularly applicable to a Forex trader as well. A trader should plan his daily schedule so that he can concentrate on the market without any disturbance. Even professionally, a trader should allocate time at the end of the day to analyze the market, study the executed trades, and plan for the next day’s entry and exit. Only then, a trader will earn money consistently from the market. A trader who is well prepared to face the market will be able to trade devoid of stress.
8. Learn to say ‘no’
Quite often we can see people getting into unnecessary trouble by saying ‘yes’ to unimportant and even unrelated requests. A person who is unable to prioritize his commitments gets into such a problem. It is quite hard for so many people to say ‘no’. However, saying that single word would allow a person to avoid wastage of time and emotional energy. When emotional energy is preserved, the mental health would improve and enable a person to focus on the task in hand. This means that a Forex trader who accepts only truly important assignments and says ‘no’ to others will be able to avoid distraction and perform better in trading.As we said in the beginning of this article, both physical and emotional health are linked to each other. However, there is very little physical activity involved in Forex trading. The performance of a Forex trader is largely dependent on the emotional health. Thus, a trader who wishes to succeed in trading should take care of emotional health as well.
