Create new karmaDo you ever feel you are on a treadmill living the same day over and over? Groundhog day! You may have gotten used to it or from time to time you may think “Something’s got to give! My life is boring! I need something new to happen!” Give me some adventure, right?! Give me some magic. I need more enchantment in my life. Yes. That’s what we are talking about. Today we are going to discuss how to break that mold that is confining your life.

Who wants to live the past over and over? None of us. That’s not what we came for. If you feel this way its important to examine your mind and how it works. What’s coming up? Did you know we think about 60,000 to 70,000 thoughts a day and the majority of them are the same as the day before? In the new course I’ve been writing on garnering more inner peace, I’ve been writing a lot about how to identify and let go of emotional blocks and triggers that accumulate over a lifetime. One key to untangling the programmed behaviors and beliefs that are weighing on us is in understanding karma and knowing how to break it.

I know what you’re thinking – karma! Really. Karma is a term that most of us westerners look at as kind of airy fairy, new age-y and not exactly real. But, really karma is a term to describe your actions based on memories. Every action creates a memory which influences your future actions. You move toward your desires based on memories of pleasure and you move away from pain based on memories of it. It is that simple.

Anything you do can cause karma. For instance, the first time you ate a piece of pizza, it caused karma in your life. The memory of it, if you enjoyed it, most likely made you move toward it in the future. Think back at all the times you’ve found yourself sitting in a pizza joint. That was due to karma. Your memories of pizza are fond and therefore it dictates a bit of your future. My husband and I laugh at ourselves all the time — at what creatures of habit we are. We go to our favorite restaurants and always order the same things because we are afraid to try anything else because we love our favorites so much.

But back to the pizza karma scenario, at some point you realized that the pizza you were eating was making you gain weight and your clothes weren’t fitting right. You realized you didn’t like this about pizza. The pain of seeing the extra pounds or how your clothes looked tight or felt uncomfortable or the extra time you had to spend on the treadmill may have caused you to move away from actions toward pizza. You know, the lifting it toward your mouth action. So, then these two conflicting memories add to your mind’s net of contradictions and you may have mixed feelings or frustration when people suggest going to the pizza house. In the same way, you have these mixed emotions about love because of the pain and pleasure love relationships have caused you. Your mind is a net of contradictions and undoing them can lead to much more peace.

So, anything and everything we do and think adds to our karma. And, karma –  how we constantly access our memories and trust it for an accurate reading on now –  very much shapes our future realities. This keeps us living the past over and over. In many ways it limits our possibilities. We compare and contrast everything against what we already know (memories), and quickly put labels and judgments on things, this is good and this is bad, rather than letting new realities unfold. The pains from past memories block us. They are like energetic blocks because we carry them around. They can even effect our health negatively. We let these hurts keep us from new and exciting adventures. They stop us from taking risks and chasing dreams. Memories keep us from going after the love, the career, the life we really want. We instead play it safe. We hold sadness and regret over these memories and the life opportunities lost. Part of our underlying anger or frustration is that we know it is what we are carrying around that is blocking us from what’s new and amazing.

Here are 5 Ways to Break Your Karma for New Life Experiences

  • Consciously break habits – Instead of driving the freeway to work, take an unknown neighborhood route. Choose a new restaurant instead of the old favorite standby. Go on the blind date your friend has been trying to make happen. Call that friend instead of texting them. Break your routine. Pick a different vacation spot. You get it. Make life different from the past.

 

  • Stop Labeling – The mind wants to label for easy filing. This is its nature. You have to catch it in the act and turn away from those thoughts that impose the past on the future. These are the ones like “Here we go into another meeting. It’s going to be long, boring and fruitless.” What does that thought do? Well, our minds look for evidence to make us right not wrong. So, with that mindset you’re not going to be looking for the new and fun aspects of the meeting or how you can build on the ideas thrown out to make something new and cool happen. The thought will influence your behavior and actions so you get exactly what you expected. Turn the mind away from labeling and judgement thoughts.

 

  • Walk in the space between thoughts – As you watch your mind, you’ll find that most thought is ruminating about the past or projecting the past into the future. Truly, there’s not a lot going on there that is new. Just turn away from the chatter as it comes up and mindfully choose the peaceful spaces between the thoughts. This will prune away the old worn out neural superhighways grooved into the old noodle.

 

  • Identify the block, learn the lesson, graduate – Early in my process of getting peaceful, I identified the things that were blocking me. It’s not good to spend a whole lot of time on your blocks, because dwelling on past hurts can foster a victim mentality. You don’t want to own those hurts. Your ego will want to take the injustices you’ve suffered, weave them into your fabric and wear them like a badge of honor.

But, there’s value in identifying your hurts, knowing them and working with them. Although it is good to sidestep a lot of the turbulence in the mind, when it comes to an emotion arising that hurts in the heart region, allow yourself to fully feel it.  What we resist persists. Don’t label the feeling as bad. It probably revolves around love – your perceptions of loss or lack of love.

First, notice the pain in the heart chakra when it comes up. Don’t ignore it. Become aware of the thoughts that triggered the feelings. Honor it and allow yourself to fully feel it. If it is due to someone’s hateful action (perception of lack of love), recognize that the mirror has been held up to show you what kinds of behaviors you don’t want in your life or to ever extend to others. Forgive it for your own peace and let it go. The same goes for regret thoughts. We feel these when we think we could have loved more, said more, done more for someone. Forgive yourself and let it go. Learn the lesson, incorporate it and start bypassing the thoughts about it that come up. Lesson learned. There comes a time when you can see a thought pattern arise and can say to yourself “I’ve graduated from this one. I’m not going to continue beating myself up over it.”

For as long as pains of love show up in your heart region, honor them and fully feel them. But start to say to yourself something like, “This I feel because I loved. I am love. I will always love. I loved you and I love myself enough to continue loving all things that arise in my world. All experience is for my enjoyment or evolution and I honor and accept both kinds of reality. I’ve learned the lessons I needed from this experience and I will be a better and more loving human because of them. This is part of my ever-changing landscape of consciousness. Where love was, it still is – and that is good. I have no regrets. I will continue to love always.”

Don’t let hardness build up around the heart. Notice, feel, forgive, let go. It’s all love.

  • And of course, meditate – It’s always helpful in creating a clear mind and pure heart.

I love your thoughts and comments. Please post them! Blessings!!

Sandra M Bell