Monday, May 18, 2020

Knock on Wood

“I hate to say it because I feel like it might be a jinx, but yes (knock on wood) I have never broken a bone.” (Jennifer Carpenter)

A jinx is something (or someone) thought to bring or attract bad luck (or misfortune) to the people around them. It has been observed in many cultures that people who want to harm an enemy or bend another person’s will to their own can use spells, curses, and jinxes to manipulate the spiritual world to do their bidding. God is against such things. That should be reason enough to stay away from them. Luck is about perspective.

It all depends on what you do, and how you perceive what happens to you. Since luck is a matter of having a good attitude, what are you willing to do to bring luck into your life today? The tendency to dwell on the negative in imagining the future or remembering the past is a trademark of unhappiness. While you’re in the middle of an enjoyable experience, if you have these negative thoughts, you’re bound to miss out on whatever good things are legitimately happening to you at that moment. (You might be jinxing yourself.) How much do you agree with the statements below in regards to the way you feel about a positive event in your life?

·        You remind yourself that these feelings won’t last.

·        You think about how hard it is to concentrate.

·        You think about the things that have not gone well for you.

·        You think about things that could go wrong

·        You think, “I don’t deserve this.”

·        You think, “My luck is going to end soon.”

·        You think, “People will think I am arrogant.”

If you’re agreeing more than you’re disagreeing with these statements, it means that you will have trouble finding joy in your experiences. When you dredge up these thoughts as you plan an event such as a vacation, party, or night on the town, you’re priming yourself to let your thoughts wander in a pessimistic direction. Lessen thoughts that would jinx happiness. We don’t know exactly why people who engage in negative prognostication or recall allow their dampening appraisals to take over.

Perhaps you’re planning a vacation for only some, but not all, of your family, or perhaps you’re a little worried that you can’t afford the expense. Guilt about enjoying yourself under these circumstances could lead you to twist positive into negative anticipation. Fulfillment in your day-to-day experiences involves getting the most out of them both before and after they occur. By learning to avoid the jinx trap, yours will be that much more enjoyable. Only 10% of our existence is random, the other 90% is defined by how we handle the things that happen in our lives. What are the keys to feeling luckier in life?

Be open to new experiences-If you are looking to have absolute control of everything in your life, you will miss things that you may not have been expecting, but that could add great positivity to your life. Living a more relaxed lifestyle is not only good for your health, but also for your luck.

Recognize your hunches, and pay more attention to them- In our digestive system alone there are more than 100 million neurons that give us hints about what we can’t physically see and the necessary information to make the right decision in any particular situation. In life, it’s better to have a more trusting attitude rather than a defensive one

Trust that positive things can happen to you-This is a helpful attitude you can take on. You know that in life it’s better to have a more hopeful attitude rather than a distrustful one. It appears that this provides assistance in training your luck, too.

Turn negative experiences into positive ones- Learning from your mistakes with optimism (or believing that something could have been a lot worse than it actually played out) will reduce stress and help you rationalize your failures.

 “I used to refer to myself as Typhoid Mary. It wasn't that I was jinxed, I just seemed to bring ill fortune to anybody I was close to.” (Nigella Lawson)[i]



[i] Sources used:
·        “7 Ways You're Jinxing Your Own Happiness” by Susan Krauss Whitbourne
·        “Feeling jinxed? Four keys to changing your luck (according to science) by Pilar Jericó

·        “What is a jinx?” by Got Questions

 

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