It was the worst kind of hit I got a few days ago as I engaged in my routine cleaning exercise. As usual I let my mind wander to several things including any travails I would’ve gone through during the week, currently in, or an upcoming event to look forward to. In between this space of time, my mind touched lightly on karma.
What if majority of what I’m currently passing through has anything to do with karma? I asked.
I haven’t lived the best of lives, I’m not perfect. I’ve been a lot of things and I’m sure in one way or the other I hurt people unintentionally in the past. These people have turned around to become great in areas I mostly criticized or looked down on them for and it made me grit my teeth, pondering; is this my karma though — as happy as I am for them?.
Just the mere thought of still feeling stuck and displaced as opposed to how I imagined my life would be, unfortunately, in comparison to them.
The thoughts lingered..
Get me right. This isn’t about not being happy with who I am as a result of comparing myself to others, it’s about having unfairly condescended the very ones that I now admire and feeling something that looks like guilt, but rather is karma.
When undergoing personal growth and development, there’re many reasons why we embark on those journeys. We hope to identify who we are, become more self-aware and emanate the characteristics involved, to others around us. This helps us in our total well-being, relationships with others and life in general — but karma is hardly ever mentioned as one of those reasons.
And karma just like anguish or pain is one of the inducers that drive you to change for the better, that is, if you want to eliminate its reoccurrence.
It is an atonement for sin.
Karma isn’t always bad if you allow it to teach you the lessons it came for. It doesn’t consume unless you let it. Karma doesn’t ask for permission before it hits. It’s mostly instinctual, that only when you pay closer attention you’d detect it. Most people write it off as superstitious yet, they seem to experience similar or worse repercussions to their past bad deeds or wrongdoings. What else could it be?
When you suspect it’s karma, it’s mostly karma, nothing else.
And I thought to address the misconceptions about karma, based on my personal life journey thus far and what I’ve seen happen to others as well.
What is Karma?
A common word for it is a bitch.
It bites hard in the ass.
For me, It is neither a friend nor a foe. It could be a feeling, instinctual, or a force — it doesn’t come as a consequence of your intentions but rather your actions.
Karma is an inevitable happening that occurs in a person’s life mostly as a result of their past indulgences. This past could either be good or bad; like omens, but I’m more perturbed about the bad aspect. It can also be simply referred to as a reaction, often nasty, to previous action.
Another quote commonly used to qualify karma is what goes around comes around. And hearing such always begets a painful, stomach-churning feeling in your body that before you know it, you end up adversely smitten, apologetic and most times like me, erratic.
I’m here to explain certain mysterious findings about karma and what you can do when it comes lurking.
Karma is inevitable and happens to everyone
There’s no one without sin; whether big sin or small sin. We all have someone we’ve hurt, looked down on or completely marred and more; intentionally and not. Likewise, we’ve had people whom we loved and accepted, were kind to, cared for and helped to climb the ladder of success — that was reciprocated in kindness or evil.
Karma can happen to the rich, poor, young, sick, old and dying. It has no preference. When it’s time for reckoning, it hits.
Karma comes in various ways. Sometimes it’s glaring and most times, it creeps up on you, like a gut feeling. If you’re highly conscious of your being, if you’re truly honest with yourself, you’d notice why the majority of the things that happen or happened to you did — and that it’s karma. In other words, self-awareness and discernment are key skills that’d help you identify when karma comes lurking. And when it does, the first way to feel relief is to identify it’s karma. This keeps you on your toes for what’s next.
Which is first,
Accept it
Ever heard about the power of acceptance? Jeez, it’s the best thing that can happen to anyone. People always say ‘accept what you can’t change, accept a person in totality for peace to rain in your relationships’ and other common mantras like that. The same applies to karma. Please accept it. It relieves that soul-wrenching pain as opposed to not accepting it. When you accept it, you’re prepared to
Deal with it
“Every action has a reaction”. You can’t expect to have lived your life without “repercussions”. If your actions never get bemoaned, you’d never actually learn and if you don’t learn, that means you won’t grow and if you don’t grow, I mean, are you even living? Karma comes as a means, force, whatever you may like to call it at this point, to put your existence in check. It’s supposed to serve as that painful brake that you must apply — to get the break you need to ponder over your past life happenings.
Questions like; what did I do so wrong? Why am I in this predicament? How bad did I hurt that friend? How much of a bully was I to those that relied on me?.
Reflection encapsulates a lot of unrehearsed emotions and blind spots that may have been ruining, rather than nourishing you all the while and karma helped you. Thank it.
Karma can be confusing, but helps your future when distinguished
When you’ve never been berated for your actions, often times you’d waive off karma as a temporary setback. Karma is confusing. It would come and make you believe you’re where you’re supposed to be whereas if you critique it well, you’d find out that if you hadn’t lived the way you lived before, you’d be at a much better pace and place.
This is not to say you have to dwell on your past and try to correct it as that is impossible and unreasonable. This is a matter of stating that karma helps you correct your path for a better tomorrow, only if you absorb the pain that it brings now.
Karma lets you remember what you thought had been long gone and buried and helps you implore better ways to live. So when karma comes lurking as a temporary setback or some ‘I wasn’t meant to marry that dude because he was such a bully’, remember that maybe a part of it could be as a result of how much of a bully you used to be in the past and amend your ways.
I’m absorbing my karma as it takes its toll, understanding why and how it all boiled down to this and taking it with a pinch of salt — aiming to live and treat the people around me better with the quote in mind that says “no one knows tomorrow” and also to prevent such recurrence.
Karma isn’t always a result of a bad past. It can be a good repayment for a (past) good deed (that is, good karma). It’s mostly a bitch but it has a good purpose that it serves. It’s painful to admit but it’s usually the only way to deal with it and self-awareness, spending some alone time, as well as learning from others’ experiences prove the best ways to detect karma when it comes lurking.
And when it’s ascertained, fortunately, life breeds many chances for corrections as long as you’re alive, so you can always amend your actions — this includes your intentions/thoughts towards others and instead learn to be truly intentional, conscious in what you do so that you minimize the ugly ones that will most definitely, result to another karma.
The world keeps rolling, I don’t know what direction precisely; up or down or in a circle, whatever it is, please be kind and live well.
Do good, get good, do bad, get bad.
What’s it going to be?
