“If you can meet Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same” - from If, Rudyard Kipling

The Beautiful Game

Have you been watching the football? I’ve been keeping half an eye on it.

I remember clearly the night of the 2018 July World Cup Semi-Final, England versus Croatia. We’d just beaten Germany on penalties in the Quarters (to me, this was a bit like winning the whole damn thing, to be honest!)

So back to the Semi-Final - I was in Hyde Park. Beer flung all over me as we scored early, 1-0. The elation - we're winning already! Strangers were hugging and kissing. Then.. 1-1 (uh-oh, concern mounting), then the worst happened: 1-2 in extra time... The disbelief and disappointment of the fans around me cut through the silent air. The walk home was long and heavy-legged. Yes, it sure was sad, but I got over it, eventually.

I’ve always loved watching sports. I like so much about it: the showcase of human ability and skill, sacrifice and determination, and the beautiful tapestry of teamwork when it all comes together. Belonging to a tribe (a country, even) that cares about the same thing - the team representing that belonging. And actually, I’ll admit that I love the feeling of getting carried away - I kind of love the drama.

I was thinking about that familiar turn of phrase associated with football - the agony and ecstasy of the beautiful game which describes so well this rollercoaster of emotion: joy one moment and abject disappointment the next. So as I follow the tournament this year with a bit of unease, trying not to get too invested, I’ve been pondering - is it healthy to feel this way?

Hedonistic Adaptation

There is something described in the science of well-being called hedonistic adaptation. It explains how what we commonly think will make us happy doesn’t actually in the long term. These are things like having loads of money, a big house or a perfect body. Famously, lottery winners have been found to return to being just as happy (or miserable) as they were before winning the jackpot. Hedonistic gains give us a delightful high, but then we go back to our usual baseline level of happiness, whatever that was.

If we won the World Cup then (dare we dream it?), how long would we be happy for, exactly, I wonder. And might the real question be, how do we change our baseline state?

Win or Lose

In Yoga, the work of countering emotional rollercoasters is often encouraged. Building evenness of mind and non-attachment are key yogic concepts. And effective mental equipoise is expected to centre us despite life’s big gains and losses.

Can it be possible to feel absolute inner neutrality when you care so very much about an outcome? Or, to put it another way, is it possible to still care deeply, yet be deeply at peace with whatever happens?

The classical Yoga texts might say that to reach absolute equanimity, we must banish the frivolities of daily life and all earthly trappings. Instead, to seek that internal state (or true Self) that is unwavering, neither happy nor sad, nor attached to any part of the material world. To do this, it suggests we shun external temptations and stimuli and move towards deep meditative states.

Other, more modern schools like Tantra look at it differently and argue that all experiences - those creative of both agony and ecstasy - are part of the human condition and a manifestation of Universal Consciousness one and the same. They say we need not disregard any experience but rather lean into them as pathways to recognising who we are - spiritual and whole.

Come On, England.

While living this life, I find it easier to relate to the later, more modern yogic philosophies. I like the idea that we can still work on a decent level of inner peace, that baseline of centredness, without shutting out the world and all its excruciating joys, sorrows and frivolities.

So, I’ll continue to relish the football, shouting and screaming at the telly without apology. And enjoy myself in the process. In the meantime, I’ll try to hold it all lightly as I continue to work on my equanimous baseline.

Enjoy the match tomorrow if you’re watching! And let’s practise Yoga.

p.s. The footballers all do 😁