Vitamins for Your Soul, Part II

Giving vitamins to your soul might not have a direct, noticeable effect on your bottom line. However, these vitamins could prevent a disaster and they certainly will make you a lighter and happier person. Lighter and happier people usually make better traders and investors.

Last week I talked about the first vitamin, focusing on the moment. This week I want to cover a fun vitamin, laughing.

Spend Some Time Laughing

Norman Cousin's believed that he cured himself of cancer using laughter therapy. He found lots and lots of funny things and just spent the day laughing and enjoying himself. The effect of changing his outlook to one of humor seemed to have immense healing effects on his body. However, there is no need to wait until you have some serious disease to practice taking vitamins for the soul. You might even want to look at his book, Anatomy of an Illness.

I enjoy jokes and will laugh when something is funny, but I have not made a conscious effort to bring more laughter into my life. So that's something I want to practice more of for the next month. Here are some suggestions for how to do that.

Find some movies that are really funny and watch them. Better yet, invite some friends over and watch them. There's only one rule for how to watch them, laugh as much as you can. If something is a little bit funny, force yourself to laugh out loud. It's actually not that hard. And it's contagious.

Here are some interesting examples depending upon your sense of humor: Porkys and American Pie usually crack me up and my wife thinks I'm sick to laugh at that sort of humor. However, there are many classics; old Abbott and Costello movies, old Marx Brothers movies, some of the Charlie Chaplin silent movies, or how about modern comedians such as John Candy movies (i.e., Uncle Buck); Bill Murray (Ghostbusters, Caddyshack); Eddie Murphy (The Nutty Professor, Dr. Doolittle); or some of the National Lampoon movies (i.e., Christmas Vacation, Animal House).

Try looking at movies like Porky's and Porky's II, or American Pie and American Pie II. The humor is a bit raunchy, but sometimes that can be the funniest.

Also save your Internet jokes. You probably have friends who get lots of Internet jokes and would be happy to send them to you. I personally have at least four people who send me jokes all the time. And I actually save them. But that means that I can read through my old files any time I like. And some of the stuff is really funny. So get your friends to start sending you jokes (and you send them jokes as well) and save your collection. Memorize them and tell them often. You'll find that when other people laugh at your joke collection, you'll laugh with them. Even though you know the joke and the punch line isn't a surprise, you'll get immense joy and fun out of telling the jokes to others.

Let me give you an example that I still remember. About ten years ago, one of my friends told a joke at dinner, having to do with the three biggest lies that a cowboy tells.

Those lies were.

1. My truck is paid for.
2. I won this belt buckle at the rodeo. And
3. I was just helping the sheep over the fence.

When my wife, who had just arrived from overseas and wasn't used to American humor, heard the joke, she didn't get the last one at all. And the process of explaining it to her put everyone at the table in stitches. I don't even think the joke is that funny, but it's one I'll always remember because of my wife's reaction when it was being explained. So telling jokes to others can really brighten up your soul. Practice it.

A healthy soul is a happy soul and it experiences qualities of joy, laughter, and lightness. This doesn't mean that you must avoid looking at the suffering that occurs all around us, but it does mean that you avoid letting that suffering steal your joy over the many blessings that God presents to us all around. The opposite of joy is not necessarily sorrow - it's unbelief in the true nature of your soul or in the essence of God.

Many of us as adults have to relearn how to laugh, and that starts with a slight desire to do so. One of the amazing things about my wife is her amazing laughter. She can laugh at almost everything. And I almost never hear her talking on the phone without hearing many bursts of laughter. It's one of the many reasons I'm so attracted to her. But the real secret of laughter is to just do it. If something is the least bit funny, try laughing at it - even if it seems like you are forcing it at first. It becomes catching once you start.

Read something funny before you go to sleep each night. Get a collection of cartoon books or joke books and have them by your bedside. When something strikes you as the least bit funny, laugh out loud. You'll find it is contagious and the material becomes funnier and funnier.

Lastly, you'll find that young children are much less inhibited about laughing than most adults are. Thus, spend time with some kids and see what they think is funny. Go watch that movie or cartoon with them. And laugh when they laugh.

So here's your assignment with laughter this month: Find something to laugh about each night before you go to sleep. In addition, watch a funny movie at least once each week this month. Enjoy it and have fun.

Vitamins for Your Soul, Part I

Giving vitamins to your soul might not have a direct, noticeable effect on your bottom line. However, these vitamins could prevent a disaster and they certainly will make you a lighter and happier person. Lighter and happier people usually make better traders and investors.

Several years ago, I began the year with a resolution to do a lot of spiritual work. I was planning on doing a lot of meditation during January and February. I had a one-week spiritual retreat planned. In essence, this was the year to nurture my soul. Instead, what happened was that I spent December through February taking antibiotics for a bug that was resistant to antibiotics, yet seemed to turn into chronic bronchitis or pneumonia if you didn't do something about it. It was awful. It took all the energy out of me and the last thing I wanted to do was a set of spiritual exercises or meditations.

I believe in taking full responsibility for what happens to me. In most situations, I can explain exactly how I managed to create what happens, but not for the first few months of that year. I honestly had no idea how I went from wanting to do spiritual work to going through physical exhaustion, but I did.

Anyway, during that time I still had a strong urge to do things that might give my soul a charge - to feed it and nurture it. At the same time, I've really had no idea how to do that - until this weekend when I found a book called "Vitamins for the Soul."1 The book was just what I needed, but more importantly, it has helped me classify soul enrichment activities. As a result, I plan to focus the next tips on soul enrichment. Some of these activities I'm very strong in, but many of them are areas I've totally neglected. And over the next set of articles, I'm going to cover a new "vitamin" each time. They'll help your soul and anything that helps you lighten up will help your trading. This week's topic is to focus on the moment.

Focus on the Moment

Mark Twain used to say, "I've had many fears in my life, most of which never happened." Lately I've noticed that I've had many worries, most of which never happen. Nevertheless, I can spend a lot of time being concerned about them. Yet, the simplest solution is to concentrate on the opposite: what are your blessings, right now?

Here are some interesting exercises you could do, just to concentrate on the wonders of this moment. It's summer now. Spend some time outside and really stretch your senses. For example, smell the flowers. Take in the smells and just enjoy them. Close your eyes and listen to the sounds of nature. Hear the birds. Listen for the wind. What other animals do you hear? Take in the wonder of it all. Or go to some magnificent place and just take in the scenery. What do you see? Look everywhere and take it all into your soul. Notice the magnificence of the moment.

I can remember a six-month period when I used to meditate outside. I went for a 20-minute walk into the woods where there was a park bench. I sat on the park bench and practiced various meditation techniques. I played with my energy. I went inside and noticed the silence. I watched my breath and used various mantras. However, during that phase of my life, I spent very little time noticing the magnificence of everything around me. And this is what we are talking about here. Notice the magnificence of the moment. Take it all in and give thanks to God for all of these wonders you can experience. Just enjoy them.

Everything you think about is in the past. Even if you are feeling excruciating pain, what you are actually experiencing happened milliseconds ago. It's not what happens now. Everything you think about everything you worry about is all in the past. When you release that and concentrate on the now, you'll find that everything is beautiful and peaceful. It's only our thoughts, based upon our interpretations of what happened in the past that cause upset and struggle. When you realize this for yourself I believe that you'll have an enormous breakthrough in understanding who you really are.

This month take 15 minutes each day to enjoy the magnificence of the moment. Find something beautiful and just take in the sights, sounds, smells, etc. Notice how wonderful it all is and spend the full 15 minutes taking it in. And when you are finished, give thanks. Notice what this does for your soul, how you feel and ultimately your trading. You'll be surprised! So just try it.

Breathing Exercises

If you think about the essentials of life, the body can live without food for at least a month. You can do without water for several days, but you can only do without air for a few minutes. Air is absolutely essential for life, so why not promote it.

Many of the ancient meditation techniques involve the breath and it is not without good reason. Dr. Harry Goldbatt found that rat cells deprived of oxygen easily developed malignancies while normal cells did not. Athletes, who get much more oxygen, only have a cancer rate that is 1/7th the rate of the average American.

Furthermore, lymphologist, Jack Shields, has shown that deep diaphragmatic breath is the most effective way to stimulate and clean the lymphatic system and actually stimulates the immune system. Deep breathing actually multiples the rate at which the body eliminates toxins.

I'd like to extend this information one more step and suggest that healthy breathing, enough to stimulate the immune system, not only prevents disease, but it actually improves performance. As a result, I'd like to suggest you do the following exercise.

At least once each day, take ten deep breaths. Breathe in the following manner: Inhale for five seconds, starting the breath deep in your abdomen with your diaphragm. Now hold that breath for the count of twenty seconds to help it fully oxygenate your blood and activate your lymphatic system. Lastly, breathe out for a count of ten seconds.

If this exercise is too strenuous, then use a smaller number in the ratio 1:4:2. In other words, you hold for four times as long as you inhale. Try this exercise twice a day for the next month and make a note of how you feel.

Chances are that, if you commit to it, that you'll find yourself becoming a littler clearer, a little more open, and a little more receptive to what is really happening. And if that happens, even if you are only slightly aware of it, then you should notice a difference in your trading. However, all of this does assume that you are following my other tips in this series.