We live in a ‘social media first’ world today, and everything we do, every new task we take up, is in some way or the other influenced by what we see on social media. Be it a new recipe to make for office lunches or a new air conditioner for the summer heat, social media affects a lot of aspects of our lives.
And in the social space, a new trend has come up, one that asks people to ‘feel’ lucky. It is the ‘Lucky Girl/Person Syndrome’, and people are hailing it as a powerful belief system with which you can attract good things just by thinking and saying you’re lucky.
The ‘Lucky Girl Syndrome’ is a form of positive affirmation-based manifestation. The simple belief is that by repeatedly affirming that you’re lucky, and everything is going your way, and good things are happening for you, people will actually begin to attract those things and result in life.
And today, young women all over the world are affirming their Lucky Girl words, and are seeing unexpected job offers, gifts, relationship improvements, and just so many fortunate events that they actually feel lucky about.
The Lucky Girl Syndrome does not make you do any extra efforts, spend any money, or even learn something. It just asks you to say good things about yourself, your life, the opportunities you want, and simply rewire your brain into thinking that everything is going exceptionally well for you. No expensive journals, no gurus, no 10-minute meditation, nothing of the sort. Just a few sentences, spoken in a state of complete happiness, and believing in it.
While the Lucky Girl Syndrome might sound like a bunch of erratic sentences, there is a logical explanation behind it that very few people are interested in knowing.
It is said that our brain is wired to look for patterns and make meaning out of information, and it is dominantly wired to think the worst of a situation. The page won’t grow, the reach will tank, the new employee won’t join, and so on.
But the patterns our brain detects are driven by a network of neurons called the Reticular Activating System (RAS). The RAS is like a filter that helps us focus on what we believe is important and ignore what isn’t. And so if you tell your brain that you’re lucky, it begins to look for evidence that supports that belief.
Our subconscious mind is powerful and drives our behaviour, decisions, and emotional reactions. Many of our deep-rooted beliefs are formed in childhood or are shaped by experiences, and most of this happens without our conscious awareness. Be it thoughts like ‘I’m not good enough’, ‘Nothing good happens for me’, ‘I am very unlucky’, or literally anything negative.
But another pattern you will see here is that the mind also tells you ‘If I say this, it will happen’, ‘If I go to XYZ place, I will have a fun time’, and more.
So the affirmations you say in your Lucky Girl Syndrome help you overwrite the negative subconscious scripts and replace them with something positive and welcoming.
In between the women who have been sharing their positive experiences, there are some who call it nothing more than toxic positivity. Why? The argument is that you are trying to force positive thinking in a way that invalidates real emotions. The Lucky Girl Syndrome is putting pressure on people to just be happy, no matter what, and then good things will come your way. People say that not everyone has the same resources and opportunities, and not everyone can just ‘get lucky’.
But supporters say that the trend does not tell you to deny your problems, just asks you to shift your focus to solving the problems in a healthier way.