If you’re superstitious, or you just feel like you’ve been dealt a bad hand lately, you may be wondering how to get good luck back on your side. Fortunately, there are many things you can do to get rid of your bad luck. This article covers how you can get rid of bad luck, recognize your good luck, and avoid bringing bad luck into your life in the future. Plus, we spoke with spiritual experts to learn more about using spiritual methods to change your luck!
The Best Ways to Get Rid of Bad Luck
Toss salt over your left shoulder.
Keep pieces of broken mirrors.
Burn odd numbers of incense sticks.
Keep protective charms on you.
Use smoke cleansing to clear your space.
Use crystals and stones with protective energy.
Do a good deed for another person.
Use salt to help you get rid of bad luck in your life.
Many cultures around the world consider salt to be good luck. Take a pinch of salt and throw it over your LEFT shoulder (throwing salt over your right shoulder is believed to bring you more bad luck).
Alternatively, cleanse your body of bad luck by bathing in salt water. Simply add two tablespoons (40 g) of Epsom salt to a bath of hot water. Then, soak in the water until it cools.
Or, cleanse and protect your home by sprinkling sea salt in the corner of each room and underneath each windowsill. Some people believe that doing so may help to remove bad luck and welcome good fortune
Hold onto the pieces of a broken mirror.
If you break a mirror, don’t just throw the pieces away. Take all the pieces of the mirror and grind them down to dust, then scatter the powder in the wind. Alternatively, wrap a single piece of the mirror (big enough to reflect but not big or sharp enough to be dangerous to yourself or anything else) in a black cloth. Wait until the next full moon to bury it and release the negative energy.
Many believe that, by throwing away the broken shards of mirror, you’re effectively sealing your fate and giving yourself seven long years of bad luck.
Remember to wear gloves, a mask, and safety goggles when grinding glass to avoid cuts and getting glass dust in your eyes and lungs
Burn incense to get rid of bad luck and negative energy.
When you burn incense, choose pungent scents like sandalwood or jasmine. If you’re burning more than one incense stick, make sure to use an odd number rather than an even number.
If you are experiencing bad luck in your personal life, burn the incense at home. Carry the incense from one room to the next, letting the scented smoke fill all four corners of your home.
If you are experiencing bad luck at work, burn the incense in your office. However, be aware that some employers forbid burning incense on their premises.
Licensed Acupuncturist & Diplomate of Oriental Medicine Karina Menali recommends “having your windows open and maybe running an air purifier. The smoke from incense is an irritant to the lungs!” Menali also recommends “using incense that is pure and scented naturally.”
Carry protective charms to draw good luck.
Small, good-luck charms with protective symbols are a great way to ward off bad luck as you go about your daily life.
Spiritual Director Jennifer McVey says that good luck charms—such as the four-leaf clover, the horseshoe, rabbit’s feet, the color green, the number 7, and pennies—are recognized as symbols of fortune across many cultures. Wear these symbols on a chain or bracelet, or carry one around in your pocket.
Some of the most common protective charms include:
Keys: Key charms have been used to bring good luck since ancient times. Wearing three keys together is said to unlock the three doors of wealth, health, and love.
Shamrock and clover: Wearing a fresh shamrock or 4-leafed clover (or a charm in the shape of a clover) is a popular way to draw good luck. Each of the four leaves represents a
lucky characteristic: wealth, fame, love, and health.
Horseshoe: Horseshoes are said to be lucky, as they ward off the “evil eye.” Hang one in your home for protection, or wear a Horseshoe symbol on a chain—just make sure the ends are pointed upwards. Otherwise, the good luck can “escape.”
Rabbit foot: A rabbit’s foot is believed to bring good luck and protection in many cultures. However, not any rabbit foot will do. It must be the left hind foot.
In addition, the foot must be stroked or rubbed in order to activate the good luck.
Cleanse your space with a smoke-cleansing ritual.
People of various cultures have used smoke cleansing as a way of clearing out negative energy. Plants like palo santo, copal, or bay leaves are commonly used in smoke-cleansing rituals.
Some people burn sage or “smudge” their space to remove negative energy. Many Indigenous people feel that using white sage is an offensive type of cultural appropriation. They burn sage to pray, not to cleanse space, so it’s best to choose another type of plant for smoke cleansing.
Buy a stick of palo santo. Carefully light the plant and let it smolder rather than burn. Carry it around your home, waving the smoke away from you into every corner of the house.
Open the doors and windows to clear out the negative energy. If you like, burn some sweetgrass afterwards to invite positive energy into your home.
Use good luck crystals and stones to ward off negative energy.
Various crystals and stones are believed to have mythical properties, including protective qualities and the bringing of good luck. Keep these crystals or stones in your home or place of work, or carry them on your person.
Black tourmaline helps protect you from negative energies, such as the ill wishes of others. Rose quartz helps encourage positive energy to replace the negative.
Labradorite helps protect you from psychic vampires or leeches, who may attempt to steal your energy and positive emotions.
Genuine amethysts help to protect you from harm while traveling. They also help protect soldiers from harm.
Other stones used for protection from negative energies or evil spirits include ruby, quartz, peridot, obsidian, jasper, moonstone, black onyx, emerald, turquoise, blue topaz, sugilite, citrine, carnelian, and bloodstone.
Do a good deed to welcome good fortune into your life.
One of the best ways to change your luck is to earn yourself some positive karma by doing good deeds. Helping others is also good for your mental health, which can help make you feel better about your luck.
This is a way of paying for any bad things you’ve done in this life or a previous one.
Improve your karma by making a donation to charity or by helping people in need, such as the homeless, older adults, or orphaned children.
It’s important to do good deeds out of a sincere desire to help others. If you’re only performing good deeds to win good karma and make your own life easier, it’s not as effective for drawing good luck.
Engaging in charity work also helps to put your own situation in perspective.
Cleanse your chakras with fresh flowers.
Use fresh flowers to cleanse your seven chakras, get rid of negative energy, and invite good fortune into your life. Choose different flowers to match the energy of each chakra. For example, use hibiscus for your root chakra, tiger lily for your sacral chakra, dandelions for your solar plexus chakra, roses for your heart chakra, morning glories for your throat chakra, lavender for your third eye chakra, and jasmine for your crown chakra.
You will need at least seven different types of flowers in as many colors as possible (any color but white). Remove stems and leaves, leaving just the blooms.
Place the flowers in a basin of water and put them outside to soak in the sun for an hour. This allows the water to soak up the positive energy of the flowers.
Bring the basin to the bathroom and use a washcloth to bathe in the flower-energized water. As you bathe, concentrate on a patch of light emanating from the center of your forehead. Allow this light to spread all over your body.
McVey instructs to “bring that light down through the crown and through your entire body. Then, let it beam outward from whichever chakra or energy center you’re comfortable with. Push out everything negative. You just kind of push it out of your body and out of your energy field.”
When you’ve finished bathing, carefully collect the flowers, place them in a paper bag, and dispose of them. Imagine your bad luck being thrown away with the flowers.
Pray regularly to bring more blessings into your life.
Praying to God, or whatever spiritual being you believe in, helps you to regain good luck because you focus on the positive aspects of your life. Remember to pray regularly and ask for forgiveness for past wrongdoings and negative thoughts. Holy Bible Expert Olivia Woodford says that “the first thing to do is to express gratitude. There’s so much that we take for granted: the air that we breathe, the beauty of the flowers, and the foods that we eat. All the nature around us that supports us…is just given to us without us having to do anything.”
Take some time during your prayer sessions to reflect on who you are as a person and whether you could take any steps to better yourself.
Thank God for all of the good things in your life – this simple action could change your perspective on your perceived “bad luck” and make you realize that you are, in fact, blessed.
Declutter your home to invite more positive energy.
Living in an untidy home can block positive energies from flowing through the house and create negative feelings and bad luck. Decluttering helps give you renewed energy and empowers you to change your luck from bad to good.
Start by decluttering your home – remove any unwanted or disused items and throw them away. Then, thoroughly clean your house – clearing cobwebs and removing dust.
Try rearranging your furniture to improve the flow of energy and repaint your walls to bring new life to your living space.
Try listening to music and burning incense while you work, and leave all of the doors and windows open to let the sunshine in – this will encourage positive energy to flow into your renewed living space.
Use the power of light to diffuse negative energies.
Introducing bright light into your home is an effective way to eliminate bad luck. Try turning on all the lights in your house and lighting candles, so there are no dark spots for bad energies to hide in. Or hand white string lights in your entryway or on your porch to attract new opportunities and positive energy to your home.
One practice that uses the power of light to protect you from bad luck and attract good luck in its place is to light three candles – two of them must be white, one for protection and one for cleansing, and the other one must be orange, to bring about a change in luck.