Facing a personal Karmageddon? Turn bad karma into good karma.
Karma is your friend
You’ve heard it before, “Karma’s a bitch.” We love to say it when we hear of someone we know that appears to be getting obvious payback from some hurt/drama they have caused in the past. But when you think about it, if you believe that about them, could we be creating our own “bad” karma or karmageddon - the perennial black cloud hanging over your head? Surely we’re not perfect either.
But what really is karma anyway? The idea of karma is shared over many religious cultures. Karma is basically the law of cause and effect and most generally is associated with moral cause and effect. Ancient karmic law may have been the precursor for many common themes in other cultures and religious beliefs, like Confucius’s Golden Rule or the Christian version, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A person reaps what he sows.” (Gal. 6:7) A more recent idea that has a karmic theme attached to it is the Law of Attraction, which states that the energy, thoughts, vibrations (emotion) we send out are what we will attract into our life.
I find that when a concept is not always fully understood, it can seem like a really crappy idea. Like karma, for instance. We might not like to believe in karma because the thought of old “bad” deeds catching up to us someday is pretty scary to think about. I think this threat of dreadful things to come might also explain why a few of us have dropped off the “church” wagon too. The whole “judgment day” theme really is a de-motivator in general, don’t you think? Being judged by a big guy in flowing white robes with a gigantic record book with all our good and bad deeds sounds pretty hideous - unless we get graded on a curve, since we know tons of people that are worse than we are. Sometimes it seems safer for now to just not think about this stuff.
But karma is a much deeper concept than just a straight trade off, good deed/bad deed = good results/bad results and it can actually be quite a good thing, so it bears taking a look at. That traditional idea of karma would imply a predetermined fatalistic outcome for every bad choice we might make (again, maybe a good motivator if you have never screwed up, but for those of us that have – not good). But actually the idea behind karma is very similar to the Law of Attraction, because the word karma itself, means action. There are so many ways we can use and understand karmic action to benefit ourselves and others, but somewhere along the line the whole idea got reduced to this very simple fatalistic prediction of our bad actions.
Here’s a few thoughts about karma from the Dalai Lama's bookPath to Bliss:
"Some people misunderstand the concept of karma. They take the Buddha's doctrine of the law of causality to mean that all is predetermined, that there is nothing that the individual can do. This is a total misunderstanding. The very term karma or action is a term of active force, which indicates that future events are within your own hands.“
I like things to be in my own hands, which definitely appears to be a better choice than feeling like I am a small grain of sand on big beach on a windy day. The more we recognize that we have the power of karmic action, the more we can use it. The end results are; what works well for us, if done without the intention of hurting others, will always bounce out to others too.
As a metaphysical spiritualist, I closely relate to the Law of Attractions spin on karma because I have, and do, see it work all the time. The idea that by filling my mind and my soul with thoughts and feelings that are positive and uplifting will result in good for me and ultimately will leak onto others, really resonates with me. I have spent many years now living within this mindset and every day, this idea becomes more of a truth in my life.
Any belief, thought, ideology or theory that negates my power of “free will” is not something I will accept or give much more thought to. I am a powerful force of energy and I KNOW there is nothing “predetermined” in my future, unless I, myself, have predetermined it. But be careful, karmic action done with intent to hurt others, can only come back on you. See that’s the thing, karmic action is for you only, good or bad. It may touch others with how it affects you, but you cannot apply it towards others, like a spell or something. However you choose to apply it in your life is the result you will get from it. If you have bad karma towards yourself, like if you feel bad about how you look, you won’t turn into a frog or anything like that, but you may continue to find new and more painful ways to continue to feel bad about the way you look. You can also choose to do nothing karmic in your life at all, but that doesn’t stop the karmic law from working. Ignoring it just means that you chose not to use it to feel your power, and you unconsciously allow outside influences to determine your beliefs, feelings, actions and results.
To use another overused metaphor to help motivate us to use karma in the best possible way, think about the glass half full or half empty. If you consider the liquid as the karma and the emptiness as possibility, either good or bad - the more you fill your glass up with karmic energy that equates to thoughts and qualities such as love, success, passion, joy and so on, the more you will be a happy glass. And you don’t have to stop with just filling it up halfway either, just keep filling and when it finally starts to spill over, then you will begin to see your good karma effecting those around you as well! By just doing nothing, the liquid will begin to evaporate. A fully evaporated glass equals just a lot of empty space. That’s when you might feel life is just dull, boring, stalled out, or stuck. Yes, this empty space is all possibility, but you have to do something to turn the possibility into the karmic liquid (metaphorically speaking of course). Good or bad karmic results are what you will feel and experience as your glass is filled with the karmic energy you give to it.
The most awesome thing about karma is the possibility never goes away. You can change your half-full/half-empty approach any time you want to. Just start using the possibility to fill your mind, body and soul with amazing thoughts about love, peace, joy, abundance and all that good stuff and your glass will start filling up right away. Make a conscious decision to use your possibility with only good karmic thoughts. If you feel some bad karma, it’s just that you let the “possibility” of it into your being. Easy to fix with a couple of amazing karmic thoughts. Thoughts about being really grateful for things and showing appreciation are super-charged karmic thoughts.
So try it, for 3 days. It really works. I like to try things in smaller increments to get a good feel about it. Your results might be in smaller doses doing it this way, but once you latch on to seeing how this works and how it makes you feel, I think you will want to continue learning more about the power you have available to you all the time, so you can start using it! Once your 3 days are up, look for ways to incorporate a positive karmic energy flow into your life every day. This can be done in thousands of ways. (Music, art, quiet contemplation, prayer, meditation, nature, sports, and so many other ways.)
Fill your mind and your life with karmic energy, spend just 1-2 minutes (or more) in the morning to rev up the karmic juices and then take several karmic breaks throughout the day to check where you are with your energy flow. Fill up that karmic glass with great karma! Then after 3 days, instead of saying “Karma’s a bitch” you’ll be saying, “Karma’s a blessing.”
Blessings - Joleen
About Joleen
Joleen Halloran is the author of 
Beyond Joleen's professional life, she is an avid reader and researcher of books and other materials related to her profession, but also to her special passion, which is metaphysical and spirituality topics. You can find out more about Joleen's book at her books website, www.breakingfreefromlimits.com. Additional articles of a spiritual and inspirational nature can be found at the book's website as well. Joleen is available as an inspirational/motivational and spiritual speaker and for individual sessions on personal growth, spiritual counseling and life empowerment.
