6. Your Past is Not Someone Else's Problem

You can't expect your friends to carry your emotional baggage. You also can't let others be the outlet for your angst. Such is the case with Nathan Shelley (Nick Mohammed), the well-meaning kit man turned coach. Bernard Golden, Ph.D. writes in his article Displaced Anger: One Destructive Way We Disavow Anger, "Displacement may seem the best alternative when, even as an adult, acknowledging such anger may be experienced as a betrayal of the idealized parent." Nathan is a quiet and intelligent force until he is dismissed by his distant father. Then Jeckyll turns into Hyde and he attacks the nearest, weakest person with unrestrained venom. When Natan reads a tweet calling him a "loser", he immediately storms into the locker room, screaming at the new kit man "If you ever do anything to humiliate me again, I'll make your life a f***ing misery" (again, with the language!) It's unfair to misdirect anger we feel towards the people around us, but it's easier than facing the reality of the situation. Jamie's anger towards his abusive father is constantly misdirected at the team. It isn't until he acknowledges that this is exactly what he's doing that he's able to come back and mend his relationships with the people he hurt along the way.

7. Admit When You're Wrong

We live in a time when it feels almost impossible to admit that you are wrong. The idea in theory, seems like it should be easy. "Yet," states Mike Brooks, Ph.D. in his article Why is it so Hard to Admit When We Are Wrong?, "the struggle over right/wrong can almost feel like life or death. Our evolutionarily based fight/flight/freeze instinct becomes activated. We argue, deny, and distort reality to protect our status and sense of self." Everyone, however, makes mistakes. A lot of mistakes. Proceeding forward, trying to convince yourself that you are right even when you know you are wrong, takes a toll on your emotional health. Rebecca continues to try using Ted to ruin the Football club and is agonized with guilt as she realizes how cruel she is being. With some strong armed encouragement, however, Rebecca takes the high road and admits every terrible thing she's done or attempted to do to Ted, and apologizes. Her consciousness is cleaned and her emotional state is lifted. It takes great strength to admit when you are wrong, but there is a pressure and anxiety that grows larger and larger as people hold on to these things. It is important to let them go.

8. Try to Forgive People When They Do

It is hard to admit when you are wrong. It is often harder to forgive someone once they do. Forgiveness, however, is a major key to happiness. (A goldfish would forgive.) When Rebecca apologizes to Ted he acknowledges how difficult he knows divorce to be and how it makes people do "crazy things". He finds it in himself to forgive her. He doesn't guilt her about it. He doesn't push her on it. He recognizes how hard it is to admit when you've done something wrong, and he forgives. (Name another show that's been on in the last ten years that shows an apology where the person just accepts it without dramatically staring out of a window saying things like "I don't know if I can ever forgive you." I'll wait...) That's not to say that every apology needs to be taken at face value, but there is a lightness that comes to the soul in forgiveness. According to Kirsten Weir's article Forgiveness Can Improve Mental and Physical Health, "Research has shown that forgiveness is linked to mental health outcomes such as reduced anxiety, depression and major psychiatric disorders, as well as with fewer physical health symptoms and lower mortality rates." Why fight to hold on to something that will harm you emotionally and physically therein making you worse at soccer?...I mean football.

9. Strive to See the Good in Others

Ted Lasso sees the best in everybody. He sees it in the players that initially reject him. He sees it in the fans that chant expletives at him. He even sees it in the wife who left him. There is a joy that comes from striving to see the good in people. When debating whether or not to let Jamie back onto the team, Ted states, "Isn't never give up one of them things we always talk about in sports and shouldn't that apply to people to" If a person is mean, like Jamie Tartt when he was originally on the team, it does not imply that Jamie himself is a bad person (Sorry Hobbes. Going to let my man Rousseau carry us home on this one.) Rousseau once stated,"There is no evildoer who could not be made good for something." Even when Jamie does return to the team and is striving to be his best self he discovers, with the help of Coach Roy Kent that his old self, in part, was what made him an excellent player. When you believe people are good and everyone has value, the world and your mind seem lighter.