The Power of leaving your house.

Go outside, you'll feel better

I commend anyone who has spent a significant amount of time in the cryptocurrency world and hasn't lost their sanity. I can personally attest to the fact that being deeply involved in this decentralized world has taken a toll on my mental health. Spending most of my waking hours on Discord, Twitter, or analysing charts has had an impact.

This is not a unique problem to only cryptocurrency communities, but rather a larger issue with social media and the internet. People of all ages are spending increasing amounts of time on their devices, with a significant portion of that time being spent on social media.

Social media algorithms thrive on fear, anger, and outrage. They know that these emotions are the key to keeping people addicted to their platform, so they feed us the most extreme, frightening, or horrible content to keep us scrolling. This problem is not limited to just social media but also traditional media. If you visit any news website, nine out of ten headlines will often be negative, using words like "dangerous," "vulnerable," "pressure mounts," or "death."

As a result, it's easy to believe that the world is a bleak place filled with misery, murderers, and racists, and that everyone you meet is out to harm you, or dig up a politically incorrect post you made when you were 12 and use it to have you fired from your job.

When you combine this with the volatile and negative atmosphere of the cryptocurrency world, it only exacerbates the problem.

The negativity of social media, combined with the intense volatility of crypto prices, can be a dangerous combination, especially for those who are already anxious. Even the smartest individuals are susceptible to rage trading, panic selling, going against their plans, or succumbing to gambling addictions.

One solution that has worked for me is literally as simple as going outside.

When you reduce the number of sensory inputs from thousands a day, down to just a handful, it does wonders for your mind.

This can be as simple as going camping, your attention is on putting up the tent, enjoying the wilderness and not getting eaten by a bear.

Or go for a hike, and your mind can’t wander to the billion miserable things, as its preoccupied with stopping you falling off a cliff.

Maybe go and volunteer at a foodbank, or for a charity where you meet and talk to people. You’ll quickly realise that not everyone in the world is evil, or out to hurt you. Most people are nice and friendly and want to help random strangers, not kidnap them.

You’ll discover that the 1-minute candle going down 1.5% doesn’t mean Crypto is over forever and it’s all going to zero.

You’ll learn that missing that latest NFT mint that doubled isn’t the end of the world.

You might have something else to talk about to normal people, other than the fact a Ponzi dog coin went up 330% in a week.

You’ll get a dopamine hit from moving your body and working out, not just from looking at charts.

You might realise that actually your original investment thesis may have been correct, and the fifteenth time you changed it because a Twitter influencer said America was banning crypto wasn’t actually a productive use of your time.

You’ll come back refreshed and the time you do spend at your computer, when it really matters (like in a full bull market) will be far easier.

So if you, like me last year have spent the last six months staring at your computer screen without a break. Do yourself a favour and go outside. Ideally for at least a few days. You’ll feel better and you’ll trade better too.