Lucky Girl Syndrome: The Wellness Trend Winning Over TikTok
Only one month into the new year and it’s already readily apparent that wellness TikTok trends aren’t being left in 2022. Between the resurgence of “12-3-30” gym routines and “pilates princess” regimens popping up on the for-you pages of Millennials and Gen-Z’s across the globe, another trend, this one centered around mindfulness, manifestation, and spirituality, is making its way onto center stage.
According to the wellness gurus of the internet, Lucky Girl Syndrome is the trick to making all your dreams come true. What is it exactly? Lucky Girl Syndrome is rooted in positive affirmations, mantras, and self-talk. “I’m so lucky, everything works out for me,” is the tone that most of these mantras emulate. According to The Washington Post, the trend can originally be traced back to creator Lauren Galebe. However, since Galebe’s video went viral in late December, the hashtag #luckygirlsyndrome has amassed over 200 million videos. People have flocked to social media to share the positive experiences that they have linked to their daily manifestations of their desired luck and success. Whether it be something as big as receiving a promotion at work or getting a great grade on an exam, many believe that these affirmations have had serious effects on their life.
In some ways, people have been using social media to visualize their hopes and dreams for a few years now through the use of vision boards and Pinterest boards. But Lucky Girl Syndrome is more focused on the way we talk to ourselves (and about ourselves).
However, the power of positive thinking and the Law of Attraction aren't new phenomenons.
As far as “The Law of Attraction” goes, the term was actually coined way back in the 1850’s when a spiritualist by the name of Andrew Jackson Davis published The Great Harmonia, in which he analyzes “mans relations to the spiritual universe.” Moving chronologically, this concept was adopted by the New Thought movement in the early 19th century, shortly after the publication of Davis’s book. Within this spiritual revolution, they declare that, “spiritual belief that positive or negative thoughts bring positive or negative experiences into a person's life.” Sound familiar? Probably because that’s exactly what Lucky Girl Syndrome is promoting.
By routinely practicing positive affirmations, visualizing one’s goals, and finding the time for self-reflection, you might notice changes in your life. There’s no denying that affirmations can be an effective tool; they’re commonly used in cognitive behavior therapy as a way to “rebuild confidence and reduce anxiety,” according to Forbes.
However, it’s important to note that these phenomena, including Lucky Girl Syndrome, are considered to be pseudoscience. You can’t put groups of people into a lab and quantify their “luck,” in accordance to how many nice things they say to themselves. And, like everything on the internet, there is opposition to the trend. While I don’t necessarily agree, it’s important to acknowledge some of the backlash this trend has endured. Skeptics and, for lack of a better term, haters, of this trend argue that it’s an unrealistic form of “toxic positivity.”
After the past few years we have faced as a society, I don’t see the harm in a little more positivity hitting the airwaves. Personally, I can’t identify any major downfalls in implementing positive self-talk and visualizing your goals, it won’t stop undesirable things from happening in your life, but it can reframe the way you handle those situations. The next time you go to say something negative about yourself, try and reframe your thinking -- remember, you're the luckiest girl [or guy] alive!