Lesson 5: Superstition & Curses

The right shoe must go on first. Never wash your lucky jersey. Wear your socks inside out. Players, coaches, and fans alike have many different ways of avoiding bad luck. In most cultures, it's very hard to separate sports, and superstition. The two seem to naturally go together, and we often factor superstitions into our pre-game routines without even realizing that we are engaging in a form of Energy Management.  

Let’s break it down. 

What is Superstition?

Superstition is where energy meets belief. A superstition is the belief that an act, like putting the wrong shoe on first, will lead to a negative outcome. Superstition is all about creating, and maintaining high energy patterns, while avoiding low energy patterns.

What is Belief?

A belief is a subjective attitude that something is true. A belief is a mental state of having some stance, take, or opinion about something. Philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to an individual's attitudes about the world, which can in reality be either true, or false. 

As we know, energy follows thought.  So, if you believe putting your left shoe on first will jinx you on game day, it will. What you think you are, you will be. If you believe you are jinxed, you will be.

It's easy to argue both for, and against holding superstitions. On one hand you are recognizing, and actively managing the quality of energy you are interacting with, and that is a good thing. –but on the other hand, you are also allowing a fearful belief to have control over your energetic reality, which creates instances of self-hexing.

Self- hexing is when our own thoughts, speech, actions, and beliefs create, or reinforce a low energy pattern into our Energetic Body. Low energy weakens, and constricts our Energy Body, resulting in overall drained vitality. As we attract what we already are, if our Energetic Body is charged with low energy, we will attract low energy circumstances, and outcomes, such as losses, injury, errors, and slumps. Fear creates self-hexing. Self-hexing is the same as cursing yourself.  Whether it's fear of failure, embarrassment, or the like, if we can overcome fear, we can free ourselves from being ruled by superstitious beliefs, and curses. 

Think on it. Big, or small, what superstitions, beliefs, or fears may be controlling you? Write them down, and observe them without judgement, or shame. Get comfortable identifying fears.

Curses

We’ve heard numerous stories of curses throughout the history of sports, like the Curse of the Great Bambino, or the Madden Curse. These curses get a lot of media attention because they affect high profile celebrities, and organizations, as well as large groups, and fan bases all at once. While we have grown accustomed to hearing these kinds of stories in the media, athletes often overlook the fact that they may be dealing with the ill effects of curses in their own lives, and gameplay, too.

Think about it, if professional athletes, and whole franchises find themselves succumbing to bizarre failures, flubs, and injuries due to curses, it would only be natural for athletes at all levels of play to be susceptible to them. No matter the sport, it's very common for athletes who find themselves in slumps, or plagued by injury to have the nagging feeling of “am I cursed?” This is a natural, intuitive response because it very often can be true. 

Control the energy. Control the game. 

-Mallory

NEXT: Lesson 6: Performing a Health Check