“How beautiful it is to stay silent when someone expects you to be enraged.” ~ Arabic Proverb

I am a huge believer in Karma. I know people loosely throw the word around when they’re angry and sometimes think of it as only a negative thing (as in, “Karma will get you”), but my experience has been that it works both ways.

Karma is a Sanskrit word that denotes the cycle of cause and effect, meaning each action a person takes in life will affect him or her at some point in the future.

This rule also applies to a person’s thoughts and words. I like to think of it as perfect architecture. Once you throw a stone, it has to fall down some time, somewhere.

One thing about them tables: They always turn in the other direction.

I’m now in my forties, and I can tell you that every single thing I have done in my entire life, both positive and negative, has come back to me. The exact circumstances may have looked different, but the feelings around what I experienced were identical to the ones I myself created in someone else.

We have so much power in our lives to bring good and bad experiences to us based on our own words and actions. Of course, we all do the best we can in the moment with what we are given. And sometimes our best creates a lot of discord and heartache for another human being.

None of us is immune to having made a decision we regretted that hurt somebody else.

Sometimes, our own selfish needs—or just our needs in general (no judgment whether they are actually selfish)—get in the way of what we know in our hearts is the right thing to do.

We just need to be conscious that at a later date, whatever act we committed or feelings we manifested in another person, the Universe is going to bring back around to us so that we can develop a deeper understanding of how our actions impact others and learn to hold compassion when we find ourselves in those same, or similar, situations.

In the process of delving deeper into my own spirituality, I have explored the concept of karma on a much deeper level than ever before. I’m realizing that in instances where I want to wish something bad to happen to another because “they deserve the karma,” I need to shift my thoughts to what I would want someone to wish for me.

So I’ve learned to do the “Karmic Cleanse”:

1) Be grateful. For every experience, both the good and the bad.

2) Act with love. Towards everyone no matter what they’ve done.

3) Check your motives. Make sure they come from a place of love for self and others.

4) Watch your attitude. Negative thoughts create negative energy directed at you.

5) Forgive. Sometimes the hardest thing to do, but the most important in creating great karma.

Anytime I find myself thinking a negative thought when someone does something shitty or downright mean, I catch myself and repeat the mantra, “Send them love and light.”

Because people honestly don’t behave that way unless there is something going on with them.

Remember, it’s not you; it’s them.

It’s always about them when people are lashing out.

It works the same way when you’re the person throwing the negativity around. It’s about you—not them. You have to own that.

A wise friend recently told me, “Stay classy,” when I was considering sending a confrontational text to someone. Great advice since once I had cooled down from the turmoil of my hurt feelings, I was incredibly grateful he stopped me.

When I started to let go of wishing bad karma on the people that hurt me, some amazing things began happening in my life.

Some really special people started coming into my life and just “giving” to me—of themselves, of their time, of their services. Generosity and abundance started to pour in. Not in the monetary sense, but in the “good karma, good blessings” sense.

A good friend of mine who does so much good in the world and is constantly giving to others is having a really bad streak of luck lately. A failed relationship, money issues and challenging events keep coming at her. She said to me, “I’m not feeling the karma. I feel like I’m being punished.”

Remember that karma has no timeline. It ebbs and flows, and not on our schedule.

But it does come around.

Because one thing about them tables: They always turn in the other direction.

“Don’t get mad. Don’t get even. Do better. Much better. Rise above. Become so engulfed in your own success that you forget it ever happened.” ~ Donald Driver

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Relephant Read:

Karma: It’s Not About what we Do.

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Author: Dina Strada

Editor: Toby Israel

Photo: Abhi/Flickr

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