Reality Check Gratitude Challenge.

Have you ever felt like you were forcing yourself to be cheerful, positive and grateful and it just didn’t work? Something inside of you screamed, “This is fake! You are faking it!”

If you did, it may be that… well, hear me out… it may be that you are not a completely domesticated human.

What I mean is that you may still have retained enough of a real connection to your own body to feel how much your body despises being fake.

If you keep failing gratitude challenges and feel you cannot bear to hear about another one, there is a reason for this. Our animal body doesn’t like to be forced to do anything. If you have a dog, you know what I am talking about!

Faking until you make it is a terrible advice. It doesn’t feel good to be fake. And it doesn’t help to make it.

Our emotions are only part human. They are also raw energy in our animal body. They need to be expressed and they hate to be suppressed.

And above all, our body wants us to be awake and aware especially now. It is important to notice what is going on around you. There is such a thing as toxic positivity and it is just as detrimental to our soul as toxic negativity.

But what if you stopped trying to force yourself to be grateful? What if you simply allowed yourself to become aware of what is real?

I invite you to the Wild Woman Reality Check Gratitude Challenge.

Here is how it works.

Everything in this universe has a beginning, middle and end.

Every time, as we approach the end of the year, we are reminded that everything has to come to an end.

We review the year which is about to end and we make plans for the new year which is about to begin.

And yet, why we are only doing it once a year? There are 365 days in a year and every day has a beginning, middle and end. So, it makes sense to take some time each day to review it and to plan for the next day.

Every day, during these 365 days of the year you receive gifts from the three main sources:

1) The Universe (or God, Goddess, Great Spirit etc. – feel free to adjust it according to your personal spiritual beliefs),

2) Your own magical mind, which makes it possible for you to accomplish what you desire,

3) Other people.

Now, imagine that you give somebody a gift and they just toss it into a pile of other gifts without saying “Oh, thank you!”

How would you feel?

And how likely you would be to bother to give this person more gifts?

And if they say, “Oh, thank you! I truly appreciate it! I love it,” would you be inspired and moved to give them more gifts?

I invite you to a year of gratitude. Only, let’s do it differently. Let’s turn it into a daily reality check.

Starting on January 1st, every day, until the end of the year, write down up to 10 things you know in your heart are gifts. If you found only one thing, write one thing.

Here is what it means.

1) You know if you never receive these things again, you would feel something important is missing.

2) You would love to have more of such things.

3) You genuinely enjoy these things and you want them to be in your life. You would be sad to lose them.

You can take notice of your gifts as you go through the day and write them down.

Or you can sit quietly with yourself and walk yourself through the day, stopping and noticing what feels like a gift.

Imagine that every day is a lifetime.

It has a beginning, middle and end.

After you completed your list of 1-10 things you are genuinely grateful for as your gifts, you may want to also write down the lessons and highlights of this day.

A bonus challenge: Before you go into the darkness of the night, open your journal and spend a few minutes reflecting.

How did you spend gifts of the moments? What worked? What didn’t? Appreciate what worked.

Do it every day for the reminder of the year. Don’t think or analyze. Just challenge yourself to do it and be curious.

Remember, this practice is for you. It is not for anybody else. This is your spiritual journey and your quest for self-discovery. This is your inner wok and your sacred ritual.

Some of the suggestions for a better outcome:

1. Do this practice every day. However, if you skip a day, just simply resume the next day. Don’t beat yourself up. You are, after all, in training.

2. Don’t force it. If you can’t find even one thing to genuinely appreciate, simply imagine toss this day in the imaginary waste basket and move on.

(Some people chose to return to this waste basket later and salvage their gifts they couldn’t see at first.)

3. Commit to it. This is your chance to do something different. If this is difficult it is because you are not used to doing it. Once you committed, you can simply follow the steps.

If you need support, I invite you to my free private Facebook group for women only Wild Woman Spirituality and Healing.

In this group we learn how to reclaim the wilderness of our body and soul. Sometimes we howl to the moon like wolves.

If this is something you resonate with, click on this link to join the group.