No-Complaints-Challenge
7 Day Soul Bath
Hey friends, I’m inviting you to join me in a 7-day challenge, I’m calling a Soul Bath. It’s a fast, but not from food, but from complaints, critiques, and habitual dissatisfaction.
The Challenge:
For 7 days straight,
we try not to:
Complain (out loud or internally, especially internally.)
Criticize (others, the world, or ourselves)
Judge (or mentally edit) every little thing.
we try to:
observe instead of react.
witness instead of correct.
We notice our reflexes, our shadows, our triggers.
It’s not about spiritual bypassing or ignoring real issues. It’s about retraining our attention to appreciation, and detaching our energy from a negative vortex, or a type of situational fernwah.1 Its a recalibration—a kind of soul bath.
What to expect:
I’ll be sharing a short daily check-ins here. You can follow along, journal privately, or reply with your own reflections/nuggets in the comments. This isn’t performance-based, (i.e., not expecting to "win"—but instead, expecting to learn.)
We are doing a community week 7/10—7/17, But you can join anytime. Just pick a Day 1, and try to go 7 days with a clear awareness of your thought habits. If you catch yourself complaining, start over with kindness.
Optional 7-day Awareness Seeds (Prompts)
Day 1: The Editor Within
Notice how often your internal monologue edits or critiques the world.
Observe when you mentally revise someone’s sentence, outfit, idea, or your own behavior. How reflexive is it? Is it a form of protective guardianship, a repulsive force to protect us from things we feel are “dangerous.”
Day 2: Whispers of Discontent
When something annoys you—pause before naming it. Can you sit with the discomfort instead of voicing it? Is there a sensation or story underneath? Does it really matter? What is annoyance anyway?
Day 3: Judgment Reflex
Pay attention to how quickly you label things good/bad, right/wrong.
Is it habit or necessity? Could you name what is rather than what should be? Can you reclaim any energy here?
Day 4: Echoes of Complaints
Listen for repetition—do you rehash old annoyances or rehearse future ones?
Where in your body do these stories live? Try softening there. How can this energy be used more productively?
Day 5: Gratitude as Reversal
Each time you catch yourself starting to complain, name something you’re grateful for.
Not to erase the feeling—but to see if your perspective can widen.
Day 6: The Complaint Behind the Complaint
What are your complaints really asking for? Is it comfort, control, acknowledgement, space? Translate the protest into a need.
Day 7: Watch the World Without Interference
Just observe. Let everything be. Let yourself be. This is presence. What remains when judgment quiets? What appreciations surface.
JOURNAL SEGMENT
JULY 9TH - PREP
My Why: as a writer and thinker, my mind is wired to observe, dissect, and revise. But that sensitivity can turn sour—especially when it becomes constant critique. I realized I was polluting my own system with micro-moments of judgment, often without realizing it. I want to see what it feels like to give that part of myself a break.
I Immediately realized that this was going to be harder than I originally thought, as I started to bring my awareness to this topic and begin a trial run of sorts. I realized I had already “failed” several times, and that made me want to take it more seriously, so I made this post.
JULY 10TH - DAY 1: Day 1: The Editor Within
Notice how often your internal monologue edits or critiques the world.
This was an interesting first day. I woke up and everything started off—Lamborghini smooth. I actually felt like the universe was rewarding me for trying to better myself, or perhaps just a consequence of intent to see the best in everything. There were several times I corrected my inner monologue to not critique—just observe. However, in the evening, I went to make popcorn and our microwave started sparking, then putted out; so then I went to our in-law suite’s kitchenette and that microwave was way too small for the popper-jar, so I came back and tried stove top…unsuccessfully. I groaned, “ahhhhh I just want popcorn!” In that moment, I realized I was feeling sorry for myself—all I wanted was a little popcorn, poor me. And the challenge started working it’s magic, I was no longer a victim, but lost in gratitude, WOW, all I want is just a little popcorn…how wonderful it is, to only need popcorn right now; and not shelter, water, release of pain, etc. Furthermore, I released my expectation of getting popcorn at all, and when it came out burned to hell, and barely edible, I didn’t get flustered I just laughed. It may seem small but these are the moments that up.
JULY 11TH - DAY 2:
(Meditation: When something annoys you—pause before naming it.)
Today was fairly easy because I worked from sun up to sun down. However, I did realized that the release from venting what is currently “annoying” me isn’t greater than the dread I feel about being a drag. I definitely stifled alot of “vocalizations” of slight annoyances and I think it makes me a more pleasant person to be around. I would love to one day, be able to laugh at anything that tries to upset me like a teeny-tiny-tyrant stabbing at my ankle with grain of rice.
JULY 12TH - DAY 3:
Pay attention to how quickly you label things good/bad, right/wrong.
I do this ALOT. I am constantly guarding myself by spray painting things I see as unhealthy a blaring neon orange spray paint…but the kicker is, the paint is also toxic. This type of habitual morality-guarding is a well hidden act of scarcity. It’s saying I’m afraid of something affecting my peace (as if it is limited), so I will avoid any and all things I deem to be less than ideal. A perhaps less energetically expensive way is to be able to walk past something without it activating my emotional centers, just a non-engaged thats not aligned with my goals, vs. some moral-emo-internal reaction.
I have noticed that I make a lot of these critiques while the t.v. is on and I wonder if this is even more of a reason to fast from screens weekly.
JULY 13TH - DAY 4:
Listen for repetition.
Today has been the hardest day. So bad that I don’t even think I can post what I stumbled over without a repeat offense. Lets just say that between the breakfast cafe, publix, and tractor supply I ran into so many characters that I felt like I was being tempted by NPC’s. The good thing is, that I had conviction over it, where normally I would have made my judgements, critiques, shared them with my partner and reveled in the notion of me being so much different than that of what I was critiquing. But I couldn’t do that bc of the challenge, so what to do? Well, I found some space for empathy, and instead of protecting my ego by shunning something I found undesirable (fear-based), I felt compassion (love-based).
As far as repetition goes, my critic is usually activated by cleanliness, health/appearance, and tv/movie/book writing. It’s not a surprise that those are the same areas that I am the hardest on MYSELF.
JULY 14TH - DAY 5:
Each time you catch yourself starting to complain, name something you’re grateful for.
Yesterday was the worst I’ve done during this challenge, but I was also in a lot of pain and bed-ridden. I did manage to look at my partner just (for the sake of the challenge) and tell him several things I am grateful for that he embodies. And maybe that’s enough.
JULY 15TH - DAY 6:
What are your complaints really asking for?
This was a great exercise for me. I was able to reduce the majority of my complaints are usually asking for comfort. My natural state is one at unease, I realize how awful this sounds but I spend a lot of time trying to sooth/calm my mind from anxiety or pulling it out of depression. I am a lot better today than I was say three years ago and I owe that largely to what I consume—physically yes, but also emotionally and mentally.
I think a great remedy or balancing measure for these types of complaints is to allow myself not to panic when I am uncomfortable and the best phrase I have for that is this too shall pass; nothing is forever.
JULY 16TH - DAY 7:
Just observe. Let everything be. Let yourself be. This is presence.
The USPS lost a very important package, I was so busy that I didn’t get to make a meal until 3pm, AT WHICH, the FEDEX guy pounded on my front door asking for an ID and seemingly annoyed, I apologized bc I wasn’t expecting a package, and he handed over a GIANT box of wine (I’m not drinking) I asked if he had the right address and he said yes without looking—he didn’t. I ran and got my ID, and he was pulling out the driveway with not only the box of wine, but also a delivery I was waiting on (and set aside time) to construct. Well the front door locks me in the summer when the wood swells and I was standing barefoot outside, home alone, lunch still sitting in kitchen, in 100 degrees. I found my way in and I promptly got a notice that FEDEX was not able to deliver my package, and my dogs had got my lunch. . . agghghggh.
It was about this time I got suspicious over my circumstances. I also noticed as people made contact with me throughout the day, there was an impulse of “I’ve had a bad day, leave me alone, don’t you know I’ve had a bad day!” The human body is mysterious and amusing at times. But, I remembered the challenge, and I began to pray. I asked God to settle my spirit. I prayed for peace, not for anything to change, but just to not feel this way.
As I close this week of no-complaints, I am thankful that I have inched closer to the observer in me and not the default reactor. The spirit of noticing and staying curious, without being critical.
Ps. I received an email this morning that they found my package.
Fernweh is a German word that I learned from
, beautifully captures a deep emotional longing—one that English doesn’t quite encapsulate in a single term.Fernweh (noun, German)
Literally: “far sickness”
Figuratively: a deep, aching longing for far-off places—often ones you’ve never been.
It’s existential—like a spiritual homesickness for a place your soul remembers but your body hasn’t yet touched. Often used in poetic or metaphysical writing to describe yearning not just for travel, but for meaning, expansion, or renewal. Here we use it as a situational Fernwah, as in, dissatisfied with where we are, the condition of things, or whats around us; and the longing for a better place.
Alright, we're doing this! I love your additional daily prompts and focus areas. I am so going to fail, but I am also going to learn.
Fernweh is such an apt word, isn't it?
Late to the party, but I love this!