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2 min read Free will

Superstitions

Want to feel bad? Get yourself some superstitions πŸ€

Superstitions
Photo by Matt Benson / Unsplash

This one cut deep, because, as I've explored before, superstitious thinking isn't just not walking under ladders and black cats crossing your path – it is much more prevalent than you'd imagine:

Link to original comic: https://xkcd.com/3191/
β€œA way to train yourself to feel like any bad thing that happens is your fault.”

😐 🫒 😧 😫

Like I said in the previous piece, the mind is such a great pattern-matcher and meaning-maker that it'll make a connection between pretty much anything that life delivers and its own misplaced sense of agency.

Whether it lands on the side of β€œI did that, yay!” for something β€˜good’ or β€œThat was my fault, boo!” for something β€˜bad’ is a bit of a lottery – probably baked into your conditioning by now (and certainly a function of your moment-to-moment state of mind) but seeing that it's all made up is the first step to being free of any concomitant suffering.

πŸ’Ÿ

Giles

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Superstitious thinking
The roots of what is keeping us stuck today lie in the innocence of yesterday β€οΈβ€πŸ©Ή

This goes into more detail about how those superstitious patterns get laid down… and how to get out from underneath them.