What if Karma is a gift?

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We are all aware of the idea of karma, wether we choose to believe in it or not.  Every belief system has a version of it such as “What comes around goes around”, “What you put into the world is what you get back” or “do unto others as you would have done unto you”.  What changes the meaning of karma in all belief systems is our intent.

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There is a world of difference between thinking, “the more good we put into the world the more good that come back to us” and “karma’s a bitch and you’ll get yours”.  (That is often followed by “and I hope I’m there to see it!).  For karma to be a gift it all comes down to our focus.  One is about creating a better world for ourselves and others.  The other is desiring and waiting to see something bad happen to someone else. The first thought is from the soul, the second from the ego.

I am finding that, with some thought, I can be compassionate instead of disgruntled when viewing someone’s negative behavior, wether it impacts me or not.  I see, and sometimes feel, the negative and hurtful things that they are doing and I choose to feel concerned and sad for them.  This comes from knowing that what they are doing is going to come back on them.  You know, karma.  What comes back on them from these events will be the opposite of what they consciously want for themselves.  

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When I take the time to think, the idea of karma cautions me to not think negative thoughts about others’ behaviors.  Just the act of desiring something bad happening to someone else affects our karma as it creates negativity that plays out in our own lives.  So, instead, I choose to think thoughts such as hoping that person learns something from an event that allows them to make healthy changes which will serve them and others.  

Believe me, I did not start out being so positive.  It took time, attention and patience to change my behavior.  Like me, you may have to start out with small steps beginning with if:  you cannot think of something good for that person, it is better to think nothing at all.  That will at least leave your karma unaffected if not moving it in the positive direction.

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The gift of Karma is found when we learn to take a moment before acting.  Taking that beat or breath to wonder how our behaviors or thoughts will work out in the long run may change what we are going to do or say. When we stop to think about those things it can temper our reactions into heartfelt and compassionate responses.  Those changes affect our stress levels as our anger and hurt dissipate allowing us to return to a calm place.  Living in a more calm state allows us to think clearly and act with intention rather than emotionally reacting in the moment.

Though we are unable to time travel back to change things that are affecting our karmic payday in the here and now, the beauty of karma is that we can rather quickly change our future instead.  The process requires a little bit of patience up front as it takes some time for us to see the payoff.  However, the sooner we begin, the sooner we feel the effects of creating “good” karma in our lives.  

There is no time like the present to get started.  What you do, say and think right now immediately start turning the tide of your life.  It begins as just a little ripple on the water, barely discernible unless you are looking for it.  As it goes along though, it picks up speed and volume as each karmic redirection builds on all the ones before it.  Soon you will have a tidal wave of good karma washing over everything in your life.  What a gift that will be!

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We all deserve good in our lives.  It is up to us to create a life into which those good things can, not only come, but be noticed and appreciated.  Use the gift of karma to measure your words and actions so that your world quickly fills with all the good things that you are looking for.

I would love to hear about your good karmic events.  Share a good karma story in the comments and lets get the ball, or karma, rolling in the right direction!

Just do it!

It is time to tell the voices of your history to shut it! Yes, I said shut it. Somewhere in our lifetime, there was some thing we wanted to do. Some thing maybe we wanted to be. Then we started letting everyone else tell us who, what, how, why and when to be anything, everything. Tell me who made them the boss?

I know some things we were told were truly for our own good. You know the ones, look both ways before you cross the street, save some money for a rainy day. They are good things as they have continued to keep us alive and well.

That’s not the things I’m talking about. I am talking about the things that set our souls on fire. The ones that made our hearts come alive. The ones that got our whole being to perk up.

Those things will be different for everybody. Could be singing, dancing, acting, painting, gardening, writing. You get the picture, creative things. Some time in your life you may have enjoyed those things. Unfortunately, somewhere in your life, someone put it in your head that you couldn’t do those things. Maybe it wasn’t a “safe bet” for a future career. Maybe they were in a bad mood and told you to stop what you were doing because it was annoying them. Maybe someone else stepped all over their thing and they believed no one should get to do some thing like that if they couldn’t. Who knows what their motivation might have been.

So you stopped. Maybe you never even started. Growing up we overhear all kinds of conversations. As kids we tend to internalize those conversations because it came from someone important to us, important to our welfare even. We did not want to disappoint that person so we never did anything with that thing we wanted to try. I’ll give you an example. When I was a kid, I wanted to try learning to play the violin. I loved the sound of violin music. I loved watching someone play because their whole being became involved with the music. I was told that I would not be allowed to learn because the sound of someone learning the violin is like listening to cats being tortured. (not making that up). That was it. No violin. Perhaps I might have proved to be a virtuoso. The world will never know. Or will they?

You see, we’re grown-ups now. I’m not saying that thing of ours is going to turn our worlds around. I’m not saying that thing is going to make us a millionaire and loved by the world over. I’m not saying any of that. What I’m saying is, that those things made our hearts come alive. It made us dream. It made us imagine all possibilities. That is all that those things needs to do now.

I don’t know if any of us will be any good at what we try. It may take a little time to show any promise of being good at whatever it is. There is only one way to find out if we are going to be good at something. We just have to do it. Do it as a hobby. Do it as a toe-hold on our sanity. Do it because it brings our souls back to life and our souls deserves to live, really live. The people around us deserve to see us with our inner lights turned on and turned up bright.

Just one more thing. Remember how soul crushing it was to not be able to at least try that thing out? Let’s do someone else the favor of not doing that to them. Let’s support someone else trying out theirs. Maybe it’s your kid, your friend, a parent. It doesn’t matter who it is. It is time to lift each other up and give ourselves the chance to see where that little dream we have, that little light, takes us. What a beautiful world we are going to create.

Share your some thing and how you’re doing with it in the comments. Chat with each other. Chat with me. Let’s be each others cheering section?

P.S. If that thing you try out doesn’t quite pan out, it’s okay. You can tweak it or change it all together. There are so many facets to our own art and how it gets expressed. I have a great friend that knits hats that he donates to Veterans’ Organizations. Who knew he’d be so good at it and get such joy out of it. There are no limits on the things we get to try, how old we are or how long it takes. Just do it.

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