As a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, born and raised, I am so excited about this weeks match up! Yes, even I am pumped up about the game this Sunday. I often joke with a friend of mine Adrienne, who is an amazing yoga instructor, about how people don’t expect this from us for some reason. I guess trash talking football fan doesn’t quite fit the image of calm massage therapist, or a mindful yoga instructor. But in fact Adrienne even changed the time of this Sunday’s yoga class to make sure that everyone can get balanced & loosened up before the game.

Now, I will, of coarse be the first one at the football party to say, “Ok, visualize” or for my friends to say, “Ok, Nikki blow the kick away, so they don’t get the field goal.” However, in thinking about it today I realized that what I love about watching football doesn’t come from a deep desire to see if I can somehow use my manifesting skills to win football games, but from a love of connecting with other people and the emotional flow and excitement that comes along with being a Steelers fan. 

For example:

This Sunday, 6:30 the unstoppable Pittsburgh Steelers will take on the Jets, for what is sure to be a big win for our Pittsburgh Steelers!

Now, do I have any stats or details to back up my belief of this, No, but what I do know is that just reading that line gets something in all true Pittsburgh Steelers’ fan’s blood pumping with emotion. And, come Sunday in living rooms and bars around the country (That’s right, the country is rooting for the Steelers, don’t kid yourselves Jets fans ;-) people will be using the game as an outlet for pent up emotions that they don’t always allow to move. It will give them the chance to yell, scream, cheer, and celebrate with friends, family, and total strangers.

In thinking about this, I thought about one of my other friends, C.C. Now, typically I don’t think of C.C. as someone without emotional flow. C.C. comes from a strong Italian background, and she can yell about something with the best of them. However, C.C. gets very tense during Steelers games, and will often be seen leaving the room that has the game on with her hands in the air mumbling, “I can’t take this, I can’t take this! See this is why I don’t watch football, it makes me crazy!”   I normally think oh that’s just C.C., but in reflecting I realized that she doesn’t yell during games, she doesn’t jump at the TV, she holds her emotions in….Hmm, so I think I am on to something here. Maybe she would enjoy the games more if she let her emotions move.   Maybe this is really the deep desire that all of us have, football fans or not, to have emotional flow, and have it without judgment. 

Think about it, no one judges the person next to them watching the football game that yells, “BREAK HIS LEGS!”. No, they smile & laugh at the person who just vocalized their emotions without having a filter. Now, really I don’t think these people are wanting the player to break their legs, but what I’m saying is in the moment it doesn’t matter what emotion someone has, it’s ok, they are being real. And, maybe this is where the whole love of reality shows comes from. That place of seeing people really express themselves in ways that we all often times hold inside as a way to be nice, good girls and boys. Think about it, MTV’s the Real World was one of the first reality shows and what was the tag line? “…when people stop being nice and start getting real.”

So, when you watch the Steelers crush the Jets this Sunday, think about it, when you start to feel tense and anxious, what are you holding inside? What emotion are you not expressing? Emotional flow doesn’t have to be a hard thing, and it can actually feel great. Sometimes however emotional flow can take some practice, so use this Sunday’s Steelers game as a perfect chance to practice. While you are cheering on your black and gold vocalize all that pent up frustration you have been stuffing deep down inside, and see how good you will feel.