They say that if you break a mirror you’ll have 7 years of bad luck. Yet, the bad luck can be averted if you take all the shards and pieces and bury them in moonlight. Well, at least this is what they say.

Believe it or not but it’s been scientifically proved that there may be more to rituals than meets the eye.

Check out: Surprise Negativity Buster: Rituals

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Glossary

• secular – not pertaining to or connected with religion
• leave someone to stew – if you leave someone to stew, you leave them to worry about something bad that has happened or something stupid they have done
• score – to obtain something desired
• windfall – an unexpected gain, piece of good fortune, or the like
• duly – in a due manner; properly
• presumably – by assuming reasonably; probably
• seminarian – a student in a theological seminary
• agitated – excited; disturbed

Think about it

Based on the article answer the questions below. 

• Who is traditionally associated with rituals?
• Describe the experiment conducted and its findings.
• In what way is writing down thoughts on a slip of paper and throwing it away helpful?
• What is “examen” and how has it been nicknamed by the author.
• What are the benefits of having a break and analyzing your day?

Practice makes perfect

In the sentences below replace the phrases in bold with the expressions from the original text. Leave your answers in the comments below!

• Initially, you might associate rituals more with monks than with busy professionals. 
• The participants were left to ponder how nice it would be to score the cash for a short time and instructed to write down what they would do with the money from heaven.
• The Association for Psychological Science reports on research, which found “that when people jotted down their thoughts on a piece of paper and then threw the paper away, they mentally eliminated the thoughts as well.
• You’ll probably get some strange looks if you start sprinkling salt on scraps of paper at the office, so how can business owners actually employ this insight without being shocked?
• The English word examine more or less communicates the concept: to examine your day and verify it.

Fill in the blanks with appropriate words. You can only use ONE word in each blank space.

• ______ first glance, you might associate rituals more with monks ______ with busy professionals.
• “They drew their feelings ______ losing on a piece of paper, sprinkled salt on ______ drawing, tore it up, then counted ______ 10,”
• Before he went ______ business, Chris Lowney spent six years ______ a Jesuit seminarian [. . .]
• One discipline ______ particular proved far ______ valuable than anything I learned in JP Morgan’s superb training program.
• Call ______ mind some crucial personal objective, or your deepest sense of purpose, or ______ values you stand ______.

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