Im wondering about that too man.

here is some unconventional approach:
At the end of the day, what I can measure is that having a positive mindset absolutely ends up having a positive effect on your work. Whether there is a mystical element to it or not, I do not know. And since I do not know and since results are more important than knowledge here, I actually use both, the rational and the mystic mindset, whenever I feel like the best mindset fits. So for example: When I feel like my positive mindset actually makes me luckier in game, I go with that, simply because this thought amplifies my confidence in game.
On the other hand, when things have been going badly and you are struggling, sometimes this very mindset can lead to negative superstition and overthinking. Now you could start thinking "damn Im so negative, thats why this keeps happening" and you being mad at this could be leading to a vicious cycle. To break out of that, its good to switch to the rational thinking. Just realizing the nature of probabilties, understanding variance etc. This can balance you out very quickly again and get you back on track.

So with this approach, you do not claim to act according to knowledge or find the absolute truth, you simply use different possible realities and within yourself create a mindset that at that point in time can serve you the best.

To be perfectly honest. I do think there is so much more out there in terms of reality than we know or can logically grasp. So yes Im very fascinated by mysticism and consciousness in general. But Im also interested in the other viewpoint of science so....

And I mean, an electron can also be both, a partical and a wave. So why could other realities not change either for us :)

Man, this first paragraph perfectly fits on me!
And I opened this mystical subject just for my curiosity.
If we believe or not, being positive is good at the end of the day (it could be selective memory, as well hahaha, idk).

And as you said, most of the time I can only break down this negative cycle with rational thinking and acceptance.

Have you ever had meditations experiences? I'm such a newbie but it's very refreshing to my mind. It helps a lot to understand that sometimes we just have to accept somethings, if we try to chase all of our problems at once, most of the time we make a huge mess.

For sure meditation is beneficial. There are many forms and I’m no expert either. You can do breathing mediation which I’ve done, focusing on that purely. Or mediation of compassion, meditating on the body etc...or as you say meditating on surrendering and acceptance. I think that’s esp powerful meditation for poker.
The last two years I’ve gotten to meditate more seldomly and it’s been harder for me as it used to be, because so much was going on in my life. I used to wonder how some ppl find it hard to meditate now I know :) It just started working out better again. Overall I do think it’s another powerful tool and here too there are many possibilities. You can practice making your mind quiet. But you can also meditate on any other subject say on your goals etc

I wish you all the best playing professionally. And that book does sound like something i might like indeed :)

Hi David

I just wrote a response and realized I wrote almost the same things above already so nevermind :)

The only thing id have to add to what you wrote is I think its still not good to get into this mindset of thinking "the session is going to go badly" when things start of bad. But I know what you mean its tough to then be positive obviously, I would say impossible for me as well. But I would then try to switch into rational thinking like "variance evens out in the end, its all random outcomes" etc, playing chess on the side helps me sometimes then too basically doing sometihng rational to level out the negative emotion again

I appreciate that man