"Cheering on your favorite team can cause severe mood swings, violent outbursts, and even, at times, tightness in your chest. It's why I'm a fair-weather fan. There's a backstory: I used to have a team. As a Baltimore native, when the Ravens came to our city in 1996, I was all in. After buying tons of black and purple, winning two Super Bowls, and then white knuckling through the lackluster seasons that followed, I decided to set a boundary for my own sanity."
"For me, and the bold, ambiguous fans like me, being a fair-weather fan isn't about disloyalty; it's a form of self-care. It's choosing which stressors I'm letting get to me - and football was no longer one of them. Gloria Chan Packer, who helps ambitious professionals manage stress and burnout in the workplace, writes in an essay for BI that "we can't eradicate stress entirely," but advises that we should aim "to establish a healthier and more sustainable relationship with your stress.""
Cheering on a favorite team can cause severe mood swings, violent outbursts, and even chest tightness. A long-time Baltimore fan describes commitment to the Ravens, through championship highs and later disappointing seasons, culminating in a conscious decision to set boundaries for personal sanity. Choosing fair-weather fandom is framed as deliberate self-care rather than disloyalty. The approach prioritizes selecting which stressors to accept and relinquishing football as one of them. A stress-management expert advises that stress cannot be eradicated but relationships with stress can become healthier and more sustainable. The decision preserves peace while still allowing attendance at meaningful games.
Read at Business Insider
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