How to Handle Emotional Intelligence
in Online Gambling
Emotional Intelligence or Emotional Quotient can be used in all areas of a person’s life, no matter how spiritual or how material. Essentially, EQ is about how much are you in tune with yourself. If you’re out of tune — for any reason — it can cause all sorts of problems in your life.
Gambling, and online gambling, in particular, is a prime example of how increasing your EQ can serve to better your life. Many gamblers do not fully understand themselves and their urges, resulting in problems from stress to financial ruin. In Australia, for instance, gamblers lose upwards of $1,200 per year on pokies. Most of it is to blame on lack of emotional intelligence.
Here are four crucial steps that will help you understand yourself better when gambling online and make the right kinds of decisions.
Develop an appropriate mindset
In and of itself, gambling is not a bad pastime. The bad outcomes are the result of a wrong mindset, for the most part.
Here’s how a typical gambler approaches their hobby. They feel bored, read a Pokie Spins review, deposit $20, lose the money, and keep depositing and losing, overwhelmed with frustration, anger, and other negative feelings.
They don’t register those feelings and follow their emotions instead of understanding and redirecting them. They refuse to take a break, thinking only losers do so, not winners. In doing this, they follow, for the lack of a better word, the loser psychology.
That’s no attitude to bring to a gambling table. To make sure you can enjoy your hobby without regrets, the first thing you should do is develop the appropriate mind frame.
Don’t come to a gambling website thinking you’re going to win it all today. Instead, come to have a good time and leave a bit richer than you came in.
But if you want to do this effectively, you should do this crucial thing.
Observe your reactions
If you’re not fond of language like “listen to your feelings,” it’s okay. Let’s take a more analytical approach and say “observe your reactions.” This step is the key to improving your emotional quotient and making sure your new mindset stays with you.
When you make bets on your game of choice, observe your emotional reactions to what happens. Here are a couple of questions you can ask yourself:
- Do I feel sad when I lose a bet? Angry, frustrated?
- Do I feel happy when I win? Powerful, ecstatic?
- What do I feel when I want to make another deposit right away?
- Will I be happier if I continue this session?
- Do I just want to keep the frustration away?
It’s up to you how do you note these things. You can say them out loud, think about the answers, or make notes on a piece of paper or in your notebook.
When you’re just starting to observe your emotional reactions, it’s better to keep a log of your emotional states. Keep it for a week, and then take a look at it to find some insights.
Avoid triggers
Once you’ve kept that log for a couple of weeks, you’re going to have a pretty good picture of how do you react to different gambling situations. The most important insights are going to be from the times you weren’t able to keep your emotions in check. Don’t be ashamed of those situations, nobody’s perfect. Most importantly, though, they’re going to be crucial for your emotional intelligence journey.
Dissect those fails to find what triggers you to catch a bad mood or get overly excited and start doing things compulsively. Is it losing a couple of times in a row? Not getting a win you thought was a sure thing? Seeing an ad after leaving the casino website?
Whatever it is, make note of it, and start avoiding it. Triggers like these are sure to bring you down, not lift you up. When you get one, take a break. Stretch, do a couple of push-ups, pet your dog — whatever keeps your mind off it.
Feeling better? You can resume having fun. If you’re still in a bad mood, it’s best to end this session and come try your luck another day.
Take responsibility
One of the most important lessons you can learn on your emotional intelligence journey is to take responsibility. Whenever you lose more than you could spare for the day to or end the gaming session feeling sad instead of happy, don’t blame it on others.
It’s not bad luck, noisy neighbors, or the pokie you played being unfair. It’s the result of your own decisions. Once you understand that you are in charge of your emotions, and it’s you who can make the outcome of your day happier, you’re going to feel more confident in all areas of your life, gambling included.
