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Happy Gratefulness Friday, everyone!!!
Today is my favorite day of the week. But in a lot of ways, it is also my most frightening. It is both exciting and frightening because it is through this post that I battle both my creative and personal demons, releasing them to the world in a way that is honest, authentic and hopefully, inspiring. I feel excitement knowing that I have this outlet to use my life lessons to inspire, but frightened that the influence is mis-directed or worse, misunderstood.
What gives me comfort is trusting my sincerity. Knowing that I can’t control the feelings of others, but I can control the feelings of myself. And through that mindfulness my words will ring true.
It’s an early Friday morning and I decided to write this post before my usual morning run, one that I have been ending lately with a few minutes of meditation. This is when for a simple 10 minutes, I just focus on … focusing.
Sounds silly, right? I know — I used to think so, too, at least until I began to notice a shift in how I feel throughout the day. How my mind has opened at the most unexpected moments, and how my awareness of me — and who I am, and most importantly who I want to be — has gained a clarity that yesterday, hit me like a rock.
It was a pretty painful rock, this bit of clarity. But it was only painful upon realization, because thanks to gratefulness lessons I’ve learned in week’s past on how not to reflect on the past, but to always make progress and move forward … well, I knew that this “rock” would bounce right off me as long as I kept walking.
Today I’m walking — and sometimes running! — into this gratefulness post today, writing solely on my gratefulness for recognizing my EGO. Keep reading after the jump to learn more about why I’m embracing my ego for short visits and then shuffling it out the door when it asks to spend the night.
Because we will always have our egos, and we will always have our “selves,” but we do not have to keep them for overnight stays in our souls. We can control how the ego lives within, so that it does control us and so, most importantly, it does not harm others in its stay.
Happy Gratefulness Friday, everyone! I hope you’re doing something great this 3-day weekend: Flex those “joy muscles” [a new favorite phrase, thanks to The Daily Love!] and have many, many moments of joyful gratefulness. Tweet or Facebook some joyful hellos — I’d love to hear from you, especially if you are new to the site ;-)
xx, SD
I am grateful for … Acknowledging My Ego
“Whatever you do, make it true and kind.”
The above is a quote that rings true in my heart: Whatever you do … think before you do it: deciding whether it is true, and whether it is kind.
There have been so many times in my life that I’ve agreed to help others, but have not thought. I have not thought whether it is true, or whether it is kind. I have only agreed or volunteered to “help” because in some sense, the action helps to fuel my ego — and not truly them.
Sounds complicated — and yes, it is. Today I am writing a gratefulness post solely on acknowledging my ego because in this acknowledgment, I’m beginning to realize that even in times of what I previously thought were “selfless help” to others … they were instead selfish fulfillment of my ego. Of me, of my thoughts, of my self’s desires.
Take our use of social media, for example. On Facebook, we often give one another “shout outs” by making a declaration and then tagging a friend or friends in that status update. It’s shot out to our hundreds of friends and if they like it, potentially exposed to hundreds more people, too. Social media has created a pool of communication that the ego feeds on like a shark would feed on a tank full of fish.
I thought to make one of these declarations of the ego yesterday by tagging a friend who had run with me earlier in the week, “updating him” on my successful run in Central Park that evening and “thanking him” for being a part of that success. But then I thought twice. Why did I really want to send him that note … via Facebook? Why wouldn’t I just text message him thanks? Well, it wouldn’t make as much sense in a text, would it? “Thanks for running with me 5 days ago, it helped me run faster today?” Nope. Doesn’t make sense.
So here comes in the ego: Why don’t you, Sammy, update your ENTIRE social network on the status of your success and make it seem like it was only directed to your friend, while still staying true to the whole “updating Facebook with what you’re doing/done” status quo? The ego wanted me to declare my running success to Facebook so it could fuel the fire of well … awesomeness.
I can even argue that writing this right here very post is fueling my ego: Because I am sharing a moment of success with you that is nothing more than idle chatter.
The ego loves idle chatter. To the ego, chatter is nothing but complimentary to him or her. The more of it, the better! It is when we can begin to pause and reflect before speaking, tweeting, Facebook updating, texting and the like with “idle chatter” that we ween the beast from his addiction to it. And in today’s post, I am acknowledging that my ego loves its idle chatter as much as my body loves its morning coffee.
We all have egos — and the ego can be a beautiful thing, pushing us to reach heights of success that may never have been achieved otherwise. But the question remains: Through the influence of our ego, did we reach that height of success in kindness and in truth?
Today I realize that no, not always have I lived in kindness and truth. I have not taken into account the real necessity of my words and actions as they relate to others. In other words, there have been many times that what I do has only been about me.
See what I mean about this realization being a hard rock to swallow? Even as I type these words, I wonder if I am fueling the ego by sharing these thoughts with you, characterizing myself as some “enlightened” being and “na na na na” you guys are all left in the dust to wallow in misery with your own egos.
Well, I don’t know, really, if that’s the case. But what I do know that this post is a form of release and if spoken in kindness and truth, it is authentic and it is not idle talk.
I truly wish for these posts to expose a part of me so that you can begin to examine a part of yourself. And today I “talk” so that you can talk too — less, but with more meaning, and with 100 percent kindness and truth. My goal is to pause, reflect, and then speak. In that pause and reflection, I can look my ego square in the eye and decide whether I want to fulfill his desires that moment.
The ego works as quickly as a factory assembly line. So when we begin to step away from mass production of our communication and instead handcraft what it is that we wish to express — the quality of the product will be far superior, because it will be woven with the thread of kindness and truth.
I hope that Sammy Davis Vintage continues to be a product of just that: handcrafted kindness and truth. I’d love to hear what you think of today’s post so I can continue to provide you with the best gratefulness content possible — and yes, selfishly, so I can feed my ego just a tiny bit ;-)
Because part of taming the ego is realizing that it will always be there — but that with guidance, we can reach those plateaus of success that help others, and in the process, provide exactly what we need for ourselves, too. Giving with kindness and truth paves the path for prosperity always.
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