Bit of background on me

• Been in crypto since August 2017. FOMO’d into projects I shouldn’t have, got greedy and didn’t take any profit. HODL’d through crypto winter, learnt some hard lessons and have been continuing to accumulate ever since.
• Have a Masters in Neuroscience and Psychology of Mental Health, specialising mainly in attention and mindfulness.
• Have a Level 4 CPCAB diploma in Mindfulness based therapy.

Who’s it for?

• Everyone, but especially useful for newbies experiencing their first market cycle.
• ADHD tendencies and people who are sick of YOLOing into moonshots and getting rekt.
• People who want to have a psychological advantage during the next optimistic/euphoric market stage.

Why should you read this guide?

Effectively by practicing the techniques I outline below, we are meditating using our fear and greed as our object of attention. By practicing this regularly, our perception of fear and greed changes. It no longer has as much power over us. We feel more grounded and better able to make rational, logical and risk based decisions. It encourages calm space for thinking rather than emotional knee jerk reactions. This is an absolute necessity in the emotional rollercoaster that is cryptocurrency investing/trading.

What is the purpose of this guide?

To provide a practical mental exercise that can be used to calm the psychological effects of FOMO/FOLE so you can make more grounded decisions when buying/selling crypto.

The FOMO/FOLE scenario

Brian has $1000 on the sidelines and has had X token on his watchlist for some time now but has been fearful to jump in as it has only been going sideways. In the next week, X token pumps 104%. By the next month, it has pumped 308%.

The next day, Brian’s Reddit and Youtube is full to the brim of potential X token gains ranging from a 10-25x by the end of the year. FOMO kicks in hard when Brian imagines his $1k becoming $25k. Brian can’t wait any longer and is hovering over the buy button on binance. His brain’s reward pathways are firing in a similar way to taking cocaine. Brian dives in head first at an all time high with $1000.

In a week or so, BTC decides to misbehave and plunge to depths seen only several weeks ago. X token drops a modest 70% in two days. Now Brian’s Reddit and Youtube are filled with the opposite. Fear is rampant and every comment that states X token will never reach ATH again feels like a cold knife in Brian’s delicate heart. FOLE kicks in hard as panic grips him. He hovers over the sell button on binance. Brian is petrified of losing everything and sells at a 70% loss.

The takeaway

Brian is like many of us. Pushed around by his emotions, he makes decisions without being grounded first. This will cost us all a great deal of money in the long run unless we do something about it.

The technique

When to apply it

• Whenever you feel the sensations of FOMO / FOLE
• Pretty much anytime you’re about to BUY or SELL a token

What are the principles behind it

I could write for epochs about mindfulness and its benefits on mental health/performance but I will keep things simple.

Mindfulness is all about observing your inner/outer environment, without judgement or resistance. The concept alone isn’t enough to change your life, it needs to be practiced/trained just like you would learn any new skill/sport.

In our crypto specific case, we will be observing the physical sensations of FOMO/FOLE that arise in our bodies. These include but are not limited to excitement, tightness in stomach and chest, anxiety, clenched fists and shoulders, and racing thoughts. Choose the sensation that is the loudest – it will be the easiest to observe.

In essence, it’s trying to pay attention to something without our typical human spin on things clouding our actions – emotions, thoughts, fears etc. The Buddha described this as pure awareness, which of course takes years of practice. **Although unlikely to interest him, I have absolutely no doubt the Buddha would’ve been a beast of a trader.**

Lucky for us, we don’t need to achieve pure awareness and training our attention just a little bit can help wonders in the emotional rollercoaster that is Cryptocurrency.

Some key things to keep in mind. Automatic thoughts and feelings will inevitably pop up and yank our attention away from watching FOMO/FOLE in our bodies. It’s completely normal and part of the process. We notice what has distracted us and gently bring our attention back to the physical sensations of FOMO/FOLE. This may happen hundreds of times when you are practicing. That’s also completely normal and to be expected.

What to do when you feel FOMO/FOLE?

1. Everytime FOMO/FOLE rears its ugly head and you’re about to make a quick decision, STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING.
2. Find somewhere comfortable and quiet away from your digital devices for at least 10 minutes, ideally 20, or even more if you’re about to YOLO your life savings.
3. Close your eyes to minimise external distractions.
4. Hone in on the loudest physical sensation of FOMO/FOLE in your body.
5. Observe it non-judgmentally. Don’t try to change or get rid of FOMO/FOLE, just hold it in your awareness for the remaining amount of time.
6. Everytime your mind distracts you away from the physical sensation of FOMO/FOLE in your body, acknowledge where your mind went (eg. from daydreaming about lambos to what you’re having for dinner tonight) and gently bring it back to the physical sensation of FOMO/FOLE in your body.
7. Expect your mind to yank you away from the sensation you are trying to observe many, many, many times. This is completely normal.
   

What happens when we observe the physical sensations of FOMO/FOLE?

This is a bit of a paradox. We shouldn’t really be expecting anything. If we strive for results or certain states while we practice this, it goes against the core principles of mindfulness (non-judgement, non-striving, acceptance and so on).

However, after observing the physical sensations of FOMO/FOLE for a while and gently escorting our attention back to it everytime our mind wanders, we may notice something. Perhaps FOMO/FOLE softens, perhaps it’s still there but we have a new perception of it and perhaps we have more mental space and clarity. Ultimately, after observing it for some time, it doesn’t have as much control over our decisions as it did before.

After the technique

Now I am more grounded, what should I do?

This is a non-exhaustive checklist (feel free to add more into the comments) I would go through before diving into an BTC or an altcoin with your hard earned fiat:

1. Where are we in the grand scheme of the cycle?

Check:

• Bitcoin regression model https://www.blockchaincenter.net/bitcoin-rainbow-chart/
• BTC Relative Unrealized Profit/Loss https://www.lookintobitcoin.com/charts/relative-unrealized-profit--loss/
• Crypto fear and greed index https://alternative.me/crypto/fear-and-greed-index/
• Altcoin season index https://www.blockchaincenter.net/altcoin-season-index/
• Benjamin Cowen’s words of mathematical wisdom https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRvqjQPSeaWn-uEx-w0XOIg

1. Is my altcoin fundamentally solid?

• What class of cryptocurrency does it fall under?
• Does it have a use case?
• Does it have solid tokenomics?
• Does it have a transparent team?
• Guy from Coin Bureau does excellent project overviews https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqK\_GSMbpiV8spgD3ZGloSw

1. Is my altcoin technically solid?

• Check RSI and bollinger bands for signs of oversold or overbought
• How is it performing against BTC?
• If you are buying during a bull run? Has your token just pumped to ATH? Could you wait for a pullback between 30-50%?

1. General advice

• Rather than diving in, should I DCA and spread my risk while earning more interest on stablecoin (Binance earn) than I would in pretty much any bank?
• Am I diving in at ATH’s? There are plenty of opportunities in a bull run. Perhaps waiting for a 30%+ correction is a good idea.
• The further along the bull market we are, the more risk I am taking (in the short-mid term at least). Have I acknowledged this risk and am I ok with it?

Common problem with applying this technique

“OK. Great. When I feel FOMO/FOLE, I’ll use this technique before I make any decisions…”

Sadly, you may find yourself so caught up in your emotions when there’s a massive market swing and FOMO/FOLE strikes that you completely forget to ground yourself and make a terrible decision anyway.

A monk doesn’t wait for extreme emotional circumstances to train their mindfulness, so why should you wait for extreme market conditions to train yours...

Training your awareness of FOMO/FOLE

1. Find somewhere comfortable. Ideally away from distractions. Definitely put your phone/laptop in another room.
2. Set a scenario in your mind to help cultivate the sensations of FOMO/FOLE. Exaggerate it if you need to. Remember, your body can’t tell the difference between real and imaginary rewards/threats. If you don’t believe me, picture a time you were anxious or distressed over something you thought would happen but never did.

FOMO scenario example

Imagine green candles of joy for the token you’ve done loads of research on. It’s already gone up 3x since last month. Imagine with 100% percent certainty that this token will 22x in the next 4 months. Imagine you have $2000 ready in stablecoin and you’re about to press the button. Imagine you never bought it and in 4 months at the end of the cycle, you would have $44,000. You’ve already missed out on so many projects blasting off and your friends are making bank. You are absolutely desperate to buy as this could be the last chance before the end of the bull market.

FOLE scenario example

Imagine red candles of despair for your fave token of choice. You bought at near ATH’s. Your $10000 has tanked 50% in the last few hours. You have lost $5000 in portfolio value. Fear is rampant. Everyone is saying the bear market has begun. All your friends who have crypto are selling everything. There are some specific comments saying your token is a shitcoin and will never reach ATH again. You are absolutely desperate to cut your losses and avoid going to zero.

1. Now you’ve cultivated the sensations of either FOMO or FOLE in your body. Hold it in awareness and simply observe it.
2. Here comes the tricky part for our dopamine addicted brains. Distractions will come thick and fast.

Thoughts about crypto, thoughts about what we need from the supermarket, a memory of something painful someone said to you or a daydream about lying on a beach somewhere with 100 BTC at your disposal. You’ll be amazed at the things that yank your attention away from focusing on the FOMO/FOLE sensation in your body you have chosen. The key is not to fight it. It’s part of the process.

1. No matter how many times you are distracted, acknowledge what took your attention away and gently bring it back to sensations of FOMO/FOLE.

If I train regularly, what will happen?

Effectively by doing this, we are meditating using our fear and greed as our object of attention. By practicing this regularly, our perception of fear and greed changes. It no longer has as much power over us. We feel more grounded and better able to make rational, logical and risk based decisions. It encourages calm space for thinking rather than emotional knee jerk reactions. This may extend into scenarios beyond cryptocurrency and investing, giving you greater resilience in other aspects of your life.

End thoughts

I hope these techniques serve you all well. I’m happy to answer as many questions as I can as I’m aware this will be a new area of thought for many. The science of meditation is fascinating and it’s a shame how the culture that surrounds it (the egotistical “spirituality” complex) has made mindfulness inaccessible for many. I’m hoping this changes your mind.

Wishing peace, prosperity and sweet gainz to all!