By Shira Karney
If you’re on TikTok or Instagram you may have heard of the trend called Lucky Girl Syndrome. Lucky Girl Syndrome (LGS) is when someone develops thoughts and beliefs that they are fortunate, things are working out for them, and that everything they want already exists or is on its way. In other words, believe with a deep-rooted genuine feeling that you are lucky, and the world is working in your favour, and so it shall be.
The concept and rising popularity of LGS equally thrill and frustrate many people. There are splitting narrations between “Wow! It’s cool that something as simple as thought can turn my life around” V.S. “This is silly. You can’t just think good things into happening, especially as a blanket statement with no substance; it’s delusional”. Both are right and require more detail.
Bluntly, LGS can feed into a defeatist mentality, but that does not mean it can’t help someone get out of that mentality and better themselves. The success or failure of pursuing this practice lies within a person’s ability to willingly meet themselves honestly. If you use it as an escape, it will feed into that. If you use it as encouragement, it will feed into that.
‘It is looking at the thorn and seeing the rose’- Rumi
LGS is about building genuine and deep foundational understandings about what you want, how
to get it, and who the world wants to give it to.
All action is inspired by thought and belief, as well from a lack of it. Chinese philosopher Lao
Tzu has a famous quote about where a simple thought can lead to.
‘Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character.’
LGS is about awareness and mindfulness toward our thoughts and beliefs. These are rooted in many psychological, philosophical, and spiritual concepts. These include the Reticular Activating System, Synchronicity, and the Law of Attraction.
From a psychological standpoint, LGS is based on the Reticular Activating System (RAS), a network of neurons in the brain stem that filters information. It mediates behaviour to the brain’s control centre, the hypothalamus, as well as its information processor, the thalamus, and takes all of that information to our cortex wherein lies our thoughts, reasoning, learning, and consciousness. RAS creates a filter for what we focus on, aligning that with our beliefs. If we focus on the negative, we will often see the negative. If we believe there is beauty in the world around us, we see beauty in the world around us. For instance, if you are focusing on ways to make extra income, you may see opportunities that have always been there yet were overlooked. This difference now would be that your mind is primed to be sensitive and alert to work opportunities.
Simply put, what you believe, so you shall receive.
Do you believe in coincidence? A close relative to coincidence is synchronicity, where coincidences that have no cause or relation, stem from what you think and look for. Psychologist Carl Jung defines it as the outside world mirroring someone’s internal world such as their thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. Synchronicity has roots in psychology and philosophy with a grounding in RES.
The law of attraction is another way to find connections in the outside world that reflect our thoughts and beliefs. The law of attraction is as follows; like always attracts like. Positive attracts positive, and negative attracts negative. With the law of attraction, whether you believe it or not it always comes through. Whereas LGS, if you act on it yet don’t believe in it, the energy is unclear and blocks favourable results. That’s when the skeptical view of LGS lacking foundation comes true.
Lucky Girl Syndrome is and is not as simple as a strong mindset. The misunderstanding around it lies in a lack of familiarity about how powerful thoughts and beliefs work with and influence the world around us.
