Metaphysical Poker and Life
Charlie Shoten
Playing poker all my life as a marginally successful player, I awoke to the fact that all the poker knowledge and experience in the world would not help enough to play my best game. My skill level and knowledge of the game had reached a ceiling and to become a better player I needed to raise the whole ceiling. This was a life issue as well because it seemed obvious that to become a better player I needed to become a better and happier person.
I needed the ability to maintain my play at my top level, or close to it, every minute of every hour that I played. I needed the presence of mind to choose the type of game that I excelled at, and the particular game to play, (players and stakes levels), so that I could earn the greatest return for my money and time. I needed to move up a level in money and time management, so that I would stop playing at the right time, self-mastery, self-discipline and the ability to maintain my focus throughout any long or short session. Most of all I needed to recognize my deficiencies and their root cause to turn a weakness into strengths.
My lack of the proper positive and disciplined mind-set, which all of the truly great players possess, held me back. A mind-set that:
And a Mind-Set that is NOT: distracted
These feelings didn’t seem to affect the better players ability to make their best decisions and limit or hurt their game, top players have control of their mental outlook.
This is where I got a clue to identify the real culprits. I call them Thought Terrorists (TT). These are the poisonous memories, ideas, thoughts and beliefs that I had been harboring all of my life. Like their flesh and blood counterparts the feelings that the (TT’s) cause kill us. The stress we feel will eventually show itself in every mental and physical illness we ever have. It also limits and imprisons us so that we are unable to be who we really are.
Thought Terrorists, (TT), are thoughts that cause hurtful feelings that torment us. In our culture, some (TT) - such as beliefs and ideas - are implanted in our minds by mass media, education, upbringing and peer pressure. Other (TT) can occur as a response to our own harmful experiences, such as neglect, abuse or crime.
When, (TT) caused feelings of anger, hate, shame, excreta, manifest themselves we tried to heal ourselves from the pain with thoughts of vengeance, malice, retribution, excreta. This also empowered us to strike back at the person who hurt us and was our attempt to support and relieve ourselves of painful feelings. If the source of our TT were relatives or close friends, the hurt was magnified. When we felt helpless and unable to strike back, our feelings put us under tremendous stress, and like a cancer, grew in strength each day. This has a negative effect on every new experience, limits our creativity and blocks the achievement of the hopes, dreams and passionate desires deep within us.
Much of this neglect or abuse we never remember. It can be as subtle as a child’s disappointment if a parent ignored a straight-A report card. We will never free ourselves from these feelings created by our TT until we let go of the thoughts we hold onto that cause and sustain them - feelings that are literally killing us emotionally and, in the longer term, physically. We must let go of the Thought Terrorists that cause them.
We are usually unaware that we hold onto these TT, or that we sustain, nurture and feed them, hosting them as valued guests. We don’t see their devastating damage. We never realize that we can let go of them, and have a truly free and happy life.
These thoughts TT cause feelings that can impair, even destroy, our focus on our poker game and every other endeavor we undertake. Impaired focus prevents us from reaching our goals, and being defeated, causes anguish and disappointment that keeps us from being who we really are - living with a joyous mindset and a radiant contagious smile.
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