[sweetjazz]

I think this is a good question, and it something I have struggled with, especially during bad downswings, which it sounds like you are experiencing.

I can tell you how I have best handled it so far. And that is when I focus during an entire session on playing my best every hand. After each hand, I review it in my head to figure out if I played it well or whether I missed a clue in the betting patterns or the board texture that would have led me to play the hand differently. I distinguish between those big pots I lose where there was nothing I could and those where I made a mistake which compounded my bad luck.

If I realize I made a mistake, I do not beat myself up over it. I make a mental note of it and if I am unsure exactly what I should have done it, I will post it on 2+2 after my session. But I don't harp on the mistake, and instead focus on trying to play the next hand correct.

When I am focused like this, I often play my best. I concentrate on getting good reads and so I have more information to make good decisions. Often this reinforces itself.

I can lose many BBs and still be perfectly happy knowing I am playing as well as I can. My main struggle now is that I often want to finish the session up if at all possible (if I run really horrible there is a point where I just give up and book the loss) and extend my session to do this, despite its artificiality. Often this is harmless and leads to me logging more hands when I am playing well. Unfortunately, the combination of running bad and playing for a long period of time tends to slowly drain my focus and I can easily see my play deteriorate.

I think our brains are not wired to handle losing well. It can take a lot of work and discipline to stop our emotions from dictating our actions. But it is necessary to be able to consistently make rational decisions at the table. It's not enough to know that the streaks of bad luck in poker exist in an abstract sense. We must internalize this to the point of not letting the bad streaks affect our judgment, which is our natural emotional reaction.

I think our ability is to some extent predetermined by genetic factors. However, the best method available for improvement in this area is to try to make yourself conscious of it as frequently as possible. The more you think about how disasterous the consequences are of tilting when you are losing, the more likely your brain will be able to resist the urge.

Everybody has their breaking point. The goal is to keep pushing that breaking point to a further and further extreme, so that we are less and less likely to encounter it.