A Challenge To Our Egos
For this challenge you’ll need a journal, notebook, or planner, and a writing tool. (Or simply your phone notes app!)
Write out some things that you are grateful for each day. I prefer doing this while I’m drinking my morning coffee.
There is no time limit to this challenge, but I encourage you to try this every day for a few months at a time. If you’re struggling – try 2 weeks to start!
It’s simple and enlightening.
For example, an entry could look like this:
DATE:
Today I’m grateful for:
-my dog who keeps me company
-my good health
Even if only one thing or person comes to mind, write it down. Even if it’s the same thing every day for a week, write it down. Don’t pre-plan your entries. Do this each day as the day comes. If you miss a day, it’s all right.
The trick is to feel it within your heart. Feel the emotion gratitude brings. True gratitude. Treat each thing you write like a gift from God.
How does having this thing or person make you feel? What opportunities has it brought you? What lesson did these things teach you?
Instead of focusing your energy on what you lack, focus on what you have. This will help bring in more abundance, positivity, and overall satisfaction to your life.
Gratitude is the right attitude after all.
It can be the worst day you’ve had in months. Write out a gratitude list anyway. It’ll help! It is like a form of quick meditation in my opinion.
My Experience
I started a gratitude journal on January 3, 2017.
I’ll be truthful. I’ve forgotten to write in it some days and some months, maybe a year. I simply didn’t want to.
However, each time I picked up the journal and re-read my previous entries, tears began to form in my eyes. My heart began to overfill with joy for my life. And thus, I’d begin writing in it once more.
This practice also triggers my ego to face what is causing any stress or any fear at the current time. It gives me time to reflect on questions like:
“What is causing me to feel ungrateful for this one life?”
“Why do I feel like I need more to be happy?”
“Where can I give more gratitude?”
I refuse to run from my Shadow. I recently learned from Phil Good that our Shadow carries our “un-actualized potential” and by running from it, you are running from your greatest Self! Technically, I see ungratefulness as a part of the ego and therefore part of our Shadow Self. Sometimes our ungratefulness is a slap in the face to God.
Sometimes we’re blessed beyond what our ego, our two eyes see. What is blocking our spiritual vision?
Sometimes we’re so close to receiving our blessings, but we are out of touch with our “vibrational reality” and have too much focus on our “physical reality”. How can we move beyond that limited state?
Since starting this practice I have grown spiritually, in the sense I can be more present in my day to day life. It has become easier to snap back into the “now moment” and out of worry or discontentment.
I have more to be grateful for today than I had thought possible in 2017. I believe this was a huge part of my faith process and why I can be at peace even when the world is buzzing away.
I challenge our egos to continue to draw inspiration from gratitude, to continue to see through the lens of positivity, and to continue to focus on what we do have, rather than what we feel we’re missing.
May this challenge show us that there is no time like the present moment to soak in the goodness of life, to cherish the small joys, and there is no time like the now to bury the anxieties of being human.
There is much work to be done. And so much more to be grateful for.
Peace, Love, and Light. <3
Angie Vargas. 2022. All Rights Reserved.
Angie is a poet, Christian life coach & wife on a mission to share the transformative power & love of God.