If you’re wondering how to be a better gambler, you can find some of the best gambling tips by looking at what successful players do. For example, professional poker players have placed a lot of emphasis on the importance of their poker mindset. So, looking at your mindset is an excellent place to start if you want to become a better gambler. 

Professional gamblers understand the relationship between gambling and mental health — they see the potential mental health and cognitive benefits of playing games like poker. They also understand there’s a line between where gambling needs to stop and where real life needs to take center stage again. Finding this balance is crucial for an enjoyable, profitable, and healthy gambling experience.

Poker pros, in particular, have been talking for some time about meditation and how it has helped them improve their game. This blog looks closely at how practicing mindfulness can help you keep a level head and get maximum enjoyment from playing your favorite online casino games.

Here are some easy tips for mindfulness that you can benefit from and apply today.

What Is Mindfulness?

Simply put, mindfulness means being consciously aware of what’s happening at a particular time. The concept sounds simple, but putting mindfulness into practice may not be. The good news is that, like anything you do repeatedly in life, mindfulness gets easier with practice until it becomes a habit.

A few decades ago, mindfulness was a part of life, but being present in the moment is more difficult in a digital age when there are many distractions. People are used to their attention being captured by the following image or piece of information as their eyes move from one screen to the next — from smartphone to laptop to TV and, probably, back to smartphone.

Don’t worry; being mindful doesn’t mean you have to cut yourself off from your devices. It simply means being conscious of your setting, so you know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it — and you’re aware of how you feel. Find out some ways to practice mindfulness that you can use to your benefit when you play online casino games. 

Why Is Mindfulness Important for Gamblers?

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “If you want to be a winner, you’ve got to think like a winner.” Mindfulness is one of the most important aspects of adopting a winner’s mentality. Fundamentally, being conscious of your actions can help you with keeping your head in the game, avoiding emotional decisions, overspending when you gamble, and preventing your fun pastime from becoming an unhealthy habit.

There are many reasons why people head for brick-and-mortar casinos or go online to gamble. One of the most common reasons casino slot games are so popular, for example, is how they can pull you into another world, away from all the stresses and demands of everyday life. But getting lost in the action and being unaware of how long you’ve been playing, how much money you’ve spent, or even how you’re feeling at the time can be dangerous and is certainly not the best way to get the most from your online gambling experience. This is where practicing responsible gambling, particularly in terms of mindfulness, comes into play.

Learning more about mindfulness and how to apply it to your actions can also be highly beneficial for how you play different casino games. Think about it — If you’re sitting at the poker table, it can be a very high-stress situation. The stakes are high; you need to be able to think clearly about your strategy decisions and what your opponents are doing. You also need to make decisions based on several different situations that could occur in the game. Mindfulness can help you keep a clear head and steady your nerves so that you can make the best play at that moment and avoid tilting. 

How To Apply Mindfulness for Maximum Benefit

Now that you have an idea of what mindfulness means, it’s time to start practicing how to be mindful when you’re playing online casino games. Each time you play, answer these four questions and make sure you’re honest with yourself. If you find yourself, at any point, in an unfeeling daze, go back to these questions and answer them again. Many pro poker players will tell you that learning mindfulness or practicing meditation has positively impacted their professional and everyday lives.

What Am I Seeing in My Setting?

Here’s why this first question is so important. People who have been meditating for years will tell you it isn’t about clearing your mind of all thoughts and aiming for a blank slate. It’s about giving yourself one thing to focus on. This stops your mind from jumping all over the place, which can make you feel stressed and cause you to feel frazzled. No matter the situation, being at your best is easier when you’re focused and calm. 

You want to avoid thinking about the day’s irritations or going into an unthinking daze. This question brings you back to the here and now. Be present in the moment by taking in your surroundings, wherever you are — the sights, colors, and smells. Is the room hot, cold, or comfortable? When you focus on your surroundings, you get more enjoyment from the experience because you can take advantage of the social aspects of being at a land-based casino or connecting with others in online casino chat rooms. If you’re more than a recreational gambler, this first phase of mindfulness will help you get into a state of focused preparedness so you’re ready to apply everything you’ve learned to your betting game of choice.

What Am I Doing?

Any gambler will tell you that you make the best decisions when you base your actions on what you should do in the situation you’re in now. Making a solid decision means putting the previous hand, wager, or move out of your mind and being fully aware of what is happening in the moment. This requires mindfulness and applies not only to casino table games like blackjack and poker. You’ll also get maximum enjoyment from slots when you make the right decisions, like managing your bankroll well, stepping away when you’ve been at it for hours, or stopping by a chat room for some social interaction.

This leads to the next mindfulness tip: understanding why you’re doing what you’re doing.

Why Am I Doing This?

Recreational gambling is all about relaxation and enjoyment. Getting to grips with why you’re playing can significantly impact your continued enjoyment over many years. Casino and online slot players can easily get lost in mindless gambling, but this can be avoided by asking the third question: why am I doing this?

Casino slot games are what you call negative-impact games. This means you’ll hit the spin button many times with a chance of winning at some point, but remember that the odds are stacked against you — it’s crucial to stay focused on the gaming experience itself instead of the outcome. When you’re present in the moment and get every minute of enjoyment out of playing slots, you won’t feel that you got nothing out of it. It’s better to take this approach than play for hours in a numbed-out state and leave disappointed. So have fun while you’re playing, but then enjoy the downtime and the social interaction that comes with it, either in real life or in the chat room. 

How Does It Feel?

Being mindful of how you feel when playing your favorite casino games impacts your physical well-being and state of mind. If you’ve tried setting a play time limit, but it’s never worked before, then begin to take your cue from your body and mind. When your muscles start to feel cramped, or your eyes are taking strain, wrap up the game and get up, take a break, and move around. A healthy body is better for your game in the long run. When you start to feel angry or frustrated, do the same thing — take a break. You’re less likely to spend your bankroll in one go when you stay focused on where you are, what you’re doing, and why.

If at any point you find it hard to answer the “what” and the “why” questions, take a moment to figure out how you’re feeling, and this will help you answer these questions. If you’ve been less than honest about why you’re playing, feeling angry or negative is a good indication that you’re playing for the wrong reasons.

Use these mindfulness tips for gamblers to strengthen your strategy, improve your concentration and focus, avoid playing when you’re on tilt, and get the most enjoyment out of the game by being present in every moment. Practice will make you better and keep you fully in control.

Practice Mindfulness for Gamblers at Borgata Online

If you’re looking for an exciting range of all the latest games to enjoy now that you’ve checked in on yourself and got into the optimal headspace, you’ve come to the right place. Register at Borgata Online to play the best online casino games, including table and card, slots, and top-rated live dealer games. You can also download the casino games app to have all your favorites at your fingertips, wherever and whenever you want to play.