Divination or Delusional? The Truth About Lucky Girl Syndrome
Don’t like your current reality? Be delusional. At least according to TikTok where the viral manifestation hack has taken over our For You Pages. From content creators adding their sprinkle of manifestation hacks, to not so impressed anti new age sprituality creators calling ableism - and even racism.
Catapulted to the top of trends by creator Laura Galebe, the practice of Lucky Girl Syndrome is summed up as a combination of psychology's laws of attraction and assumption rebranded for the TikTok audience. In essence - The Secret, rebranded.
The Law of Attraction + Law of Assumption
Per the law of attraction, positive thinking energetically attracts positive outcomes by aligning yourself with the energy of what it is you’re calling in. And the law of assumption goes a step further, positing that what you assume to be true will become reality. It is not enough to believe that your hopes and dreams are possible. To become a lucky girl, you need to believe that good things are inevitable, abundant, and already coming to fruition for you—you are the creator of your own reality.
The bright side of Lucky Girl Syndrome is it’s a Daily Affirmations 101 with an instant shift by repeating affirmations such as “I am so lucky, everything is always working out for me” to “I am always in the right place at the right time, everything is working in my favor.”
Depending on where you stand in the arc of manifestation, Lucky Girl Syndrome can be a wondrous tool to keep our subconsicous mind in check and aligned. Giving full trust into the universe, source, creator - or God, to deliver what is in your best and highest good while simultaneously overriding the negative thoughts creeping into your subconscious mind.
The Science
Now let’s dive into the neuro science behind this viral trend and why this actually works. Three words - Reticular Activating System (RAS) and it’s job is to sort all of the information that comes into your brain. How much information to be exact? Based on recent studies, the average brain receives 11 million pieces of information every moment. How much of that information can we actually process? 26.
The reticular activating system works as that much needed filter for our minds and jumps into action the moment we wake up each morning. Because we know our minds work for us as a mental immune system, consciously or subconsciously, it starts the filtering process by asking you what is it you would like to look for in that day. The Reticular Activating System is responsible for our wakefulness, our ability to focus, our fight-flight response, and how we ultimately perceive the world. It can control what we perceive in our consciousness, essentially a gatekeeper of information.
RAS will look for the information that you’re seeking. Think about it as the Google Ads we see that pop up on our devices by simply talking about it or interacting with relative content. If we tell ourselves “It’s Monday, and I have no energy”, your brain will automatically look for supporting evidence throughout your day. Now if you tell yourself “I am so lucky, everything is always working out for me”, your mind will also look for supporting evidence. From green lights during your commute, the free pastry at your local coffee shop, or even a subtle but positive interaction with someone new. In summary? You do create your own reality. Your current reality is only as good or bad as you perceive it.
Positive Affirmation or Toxic Positivity?
The viral trend of Lucky Girl Syndrome isn’t without criticism and nay sayers. For every post we see for how this trend worked for one creator, is another post calling out it’s toxicity.
Toxic Positivity - seems to have gained traction as a buzz word for negating daily affirmations, call outs for being delusional, out of touch, and an act of avoidance. And it can be. Toxic positivity is a heavy hitter if you are negating your emotions that you need to feel and heal throughout your mind, body, and spirit. Lucky Girl Syndrome and positive affirmations are not going to get you through grief, loss, pain, or trauma until the inner work is done.
Emotional awareness is going to be the gatekeeper on whether this trend is pulling you closer to subtle reminders of gratitude - or hurdling you into gaslighting yourself.
If you are not in a place emotionally or mentally for Lucky Girl Syndrome to be nothing more than an on-demand shift of positivity, it’s ok. Feel the emotions, unpack them, and work towards healing - at your own pace. Allow yourself the grace to work through the dark moments and trust that you’ll pull yourself into a space of gratitude and light - when it’s time.
