The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat: Zen & the Art of Being an Emotionally Regulated Football Fan

Shrinks Rap

Jim & Rafael Rap about Football & Mastering the Inner Game.
In this podcast, Rafael and Jim tackle football, male depression, fanaticism, fatherhood, and evolutionary consciousness. Rafael and Jim explore why football fans feel so downtrodden when their team loses. They ponder why we even watch football in the first place. After all, football is a violent game that can result in concussions, broken ribs, torn ACLs, or worse. Yet this game is incredibly fun to watch for many people, including Jim & Rafael. It is a guilty pleasure. It gives men a chance to bond and to be emotionally demonstrative around other men.
Jim has worked with professional athletes to help them improve performance and heal from head injuries. However, that work has not prepared him to handle his Lions losing all the time. In this podcast, both Rafael and Jim share their thoughts about managing disappointment and learning to take the wins and losses in stride. Rafael reveals how his value is no longer attached to the final score. He bounces back more quickly than he used to and explains how and why.
There is value in learning that our value is not tied to our team’s performance, or anyone else’s. We all must learn to be more zen when the people we really root for let us down, or we let them down.
If you are a Detroit Lions fan, there is little we can offer you in this podcast. We just want to say we are sorry you have suffered since 1958 - - and the curse of Bobby Lane will end some day. If you are a 49ers fan, you have mostly good karma coming your way (fun while it lasted) and you should absolutely listen to this entire podcast.

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