For years I was led to believe, either intentionally or unintentionally, through books, spiritual teachings and religious offerings that karma was delivered by the universe as a form of punishment or appreciation for whatever form of energy I sent out.

These beliefs send out the message that the universe revolves around a single individual and subjects them to the universal divine Law of Karma.  

While I am a great believer in energy and that all energy is interconnected, I do not believe for one second that the universe is judgmental and rewards or punishes me or anyone else for thoughts, intentions, feelings or our expressions of these things.

However, I am a great believer that we can judge ourselves very harshly. And I also believe that we relentlessly punish ourselves too.

I also believe in the Law of Attraction which holds the principle that like-attracts-like and that there will be consequences for actions.

Although, I’ve also discovered that these consequences are attuned to how I feel.

For example, if I feel terribly guilty or ashamed for saying something out of turn to someone, I will hold that low vibrational energy within my energy field and I will then attract something externally that returns the vibration by confronting me with something that confirms exactly how I feel.

If I am genuinely sorry for my actions and sincerely apologize to the person and do whatever I can to make amends for my behaviour, the vibration dissipates and is transmuted to a positive forgiving, compassionate vibration that goes on to attract similar loving, accepting high vibrations.

It got me thinking about those who don’t take responsibility for their actions and it made me question why many people don’t seem to learn from past experiences as they don’t seem to change their ways. Or, if they do, it is only when things become increasingly uncomfortable so they have no option but to face up to the circumstances they created.

I know myself that whenever I try to deny my role for something that has gone wrong or if I attempt to blame someone else for my situation, it lingers inside me and causes irritable, painful sensations. These sensations then play out in my daily life until I am forced to do something about them.

If we totally reject or avoid responsibility, as we have created layer upon layer of self-protection around ourselves so that nothing internal leaves and nothing external enters, it is almost impossible for the Law of Attraction to work and provide us with invaluable insight. How can we change if we are not willing to see any errors we have made and what we must do to fix them? 

It then becomes clear to see why some people seem to get away with causing devastation while others suffer relentlessly until they deal with any guilt, blame or shame by acknowledging, processing and repairing it.

In my understanding of karma, it is intrinsically linked to consciousness.

If I am absolutely aware of the energy I send out, I will be aware of the cause and effect of it too. I am then in a position to try to redeem myself by accepting my role and making alterations so that not only am I authentic when I rectify any difficulties I have caused, but I can also ensure that I have learned from it so that I don’t keep behaving in ways that create the same errors time and again.

If I try to deny the energy I have sent out, I will be repressing the associated sensations. The dense energy will remain clogged somewhere in my subconscious simmering away and sending out vibrations that are strong enough to magnetize other dense and heavy vibrations towards me to confirm how I feel. I will attract people or situations towards me that keep reminding me of my behaviour until I accept it. That is, until I decide to acknowledge its presence, consider it thoroughly and clear my conscience by appropriately rectifying the situation with a thought out heartfelt response.

If I have no awareness about the harmful energetic vibrations I am sending out, the majority of the vibrations will leave me as I will have associated them with other people and denied all responsibility. However, residue of the energy will sit somewhere in my unconscious mind as I am aware of my behaviour, I just am not willing to own it and be accountable for it. 

This theory may seem as though those who completely deny their behaviour also never have to own up to it.

That is not quite the case.

Our unconscious mind is not as unimportant as this explanation may have made it sound. The unconscious mind is full of irrational, unorganized, undisputed feelings, emotions and beliefs. It is the place that emotions and feelings erupt from uncontrollably whenever something triggers it in the external world.

When we are continuously adding to it, it becomes unbalanced and volatile. Whenever we hear or see something that we recognize, it reminds us of whatever is stored there and we will react from an unconscious level and our very low vibrational energy will explode and spill out. We will be recognizing and reacting constantly to anything that we have previously denied, although, we will refuse to accept that the reminders are due to how we would think, feel or behave. We will be permanently wired, judgemental, critical and full of accusations for how other people live and we will ultimately feel “better” than everyone around us. (Imagine a well-known political candidate right about now.)

We will not treat people appropriately or respectfully, we will unlikely hold down friendships or relationships for long and we will have a sense of superiority and entitlement as we believe that we can behave however we want without having to accept responsibility.

It doesn’t take long for people to see through this, as when we are operating with an unconscious mind that is brimming to the top, we will have very little control of whatever is stored there and our unpleasant emotions and feelings will be the ones with all the power and control.

On the surface, it may not seem as though we are attracting karma, as day to day we are functioning obliviously unaware to how we are perceived. Externally we appear to be attracting how we feel consciously, not unconsciously, so it might seem as though all is well to the naked eye. However, we cannot possibly have inner peace, harmony, fulfilment or be living a high vibrational, emotional and physically healthy or happy life when we are in denial of almost all of our true self.

It usually takes a huge shock to the system to shake this latter experience to the core.

While it isn’t always easy to own our sh*t, if we don’t we will either self-punish by attracting karma through being aware of our actions and refusing to rectify them, or we will eventually end up miserable, unhealthy and possibly even lonely not too far off in the future. Even if we have people around us, the relationships won’t be based on mutual love and respect as it is not possible to truly love when we are absolutely rejecting our true self.

We can try with all our might to go around refusing to face up to ourselves, or we can take a look in the mirror, own any mess we create and fix it in whatever ways we can. It isn’t always pretty at first but it is absolutely worth it.

Karma, in my belief, is self-punishment. We can own it or deny it. Instant inner peace or eternal emptiness and misery?

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Relephant Favorites:

Karma: It’s Not About what we Do.

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Author: Alex Myles

Editor: Travis May

Image: Flickr/Helga Weber