"I'm stuck," is a phrase I hear each day. As a psychologist, I experience the issues of others first-hand -- I sympathize with my clients' challenges and relate to their sufferings. And their most frequent struggle, they confess, is becoming stuck in unwanted life cycles.
Time is a fluid element. And although it can never stand still, we can, and sometimes do, enter periods of stagnancy. Often we become trapped in cycles of recurring behavior, especially in terms of attracting the same type of people into our lives. It may be one demanding boss after another, a series of abusive partners, or a slew of unfaithful friends, but we all have one type of person who, unfortunately, keeps popping up. After a partner betrays us we swear never to date a cheater again. Yet our next love interest ironically displays the exact tendencies as the former. Or, we may feel surrounded by emotionally exhausting people and just don't know how to escape their energetic trap. We wonder, Why am I a magnet for these same types of situations? Indeed, it can be challenging to discern a person's true nature before we allow them into our world. But there is a reason we attract what we attract. The question then becomes why do we keep bringing in similar circumstances and how do we regain control of who does and does not enter our lives?
The answer lies within your karma, a universal law that governs our world. Powerful well beyond the law of attraction, the law of karma encompasses your every deed. Karma is the accumulation of your thoughts, intentions, and actions, both good and bad. What's more, we carry karma with us from life to life like baggage on a trip, so your experiences in this lifetime may actually draw their origins from past lives. More of our experiences are karmic in nature than we can imagine.
Despite its recent media popularity, karma remains a highly misconstrued concept. The entertainment world has portrayed this ancient teaching as the boomerang to bad deeds. We've been inundated with the phrase "what goes around comes around," which has caused us to misperceive karma as the invisible force that rebounds our wrongdoings upon us. But karma is so much more than that; karma may account for your missing father figure, your fear of commitment, your inability to surmount a certain obstacle, or even a physical illness you're temporarily meant to endure. The doors of infinite possibilities open when you acknowledge and clear your predestined path of karmic blockages.
Karma will grow like weeds, however, if left unattended. This is why you must always meet your karmic challenges head on and resolve them in order to progress. Consider these three ways to clean your karma today:
Identify your karma: Identifying your karma involves scanning your life for repetitive patterns. Make a mental list of things you've noticed inexplicably occurring over and over again: Do you jump from one unsatisfying relationship into another, end up in only unrewarding jobs, or notice that people keep treating you in the same unsatisfying manner? If an unpleasant pattern has developed, consider it your karmic duty to cease and reverse the cycle by evaluating when, where, and how the problem first began. The event that established the pattern is your karmic source. You may struggle with partners who abandon you due to a parent having abandoned you as a child. Or, perhaps you have lingering insecurities which hold you back from a better job because you were bullied in school. Acknowledging your karmic source is the first step towards breaking free of unwanted life patterns.
Resolve your karma: We tend to push stubbornly for the things we want and become frustrated when they don't manifest. Instead, we should first clarify overdue debts from our past. The single greatest way to resolve past karma is to forgive those who have hurt you and seek a final note of closure. To forgive is to detach, but you must remember to forgive yourself as well. Settle outstanding karma by closing the doors to your past once and for all. If you ended a former relationship on a bad note, send your ex a quick message stating simply that you release any negative energy shared between you and that you hold no hard feelings towards them. If you've had conflict with a family member, consider letting go of your ego and apologizing. Mean your words to put an end to lingering karma.
Create positive karma: Creating positive karma is a daily choice. But you don't need to go out of your way or make painstaking efforts. All you need to do is act towards others as you would have them act towards you. Rely on old world principles to guide you through life, such as honesty, integrity, fairness, compassion, and patience. Remember never to interfere in the karma of others, such as coming between people or causing conflict. You may share karma with others, but your own actions determine your karmic record.
The people who come into our lives always serve a greater purpose. They may help us learn a lesson about growth, force us out of our comfort zone, or make us aware of our outstanding karma. It becomes up to us to discover the bigger meaning behind those who impact us and ensure that we don't become trapped in cycles of negative relationships, whether they be of the romantic, family, friends, or work kind. By understanding our karma and working to resolve it, we can finally break free of negative cycles and usher in positive, enriching life experiences.
To good karma,
Dr. Carmen Harra
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