Karma.

It’s a word that strikes fear into the hearts of many spiritual seekers, and a word that – on the surface – seems to simultaneously blame you for everything, and absolve you from blame.

But, Karma is also one of the most misunderstood aspects of spirituality and the journey to enlightenment.

Whether you feel trapped by your karma, or are just trying to live a life of happiness and spiritual growth, this post will help you understand what the karmic cycle is, and how you can break karmic patterns to end unnecessary cycles of negativity in your life.

What is a Karmic Cycle?

First, we need to take a look at what a karmic cycle actually is. To understand this, we need to understand a bit more about how karma works.

Basically, karma is a law of reciprocal energy. You might think of it as Newton’s law for spirituality: every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

This is true in the physical world (thanks Newton), as well as in the energetic world.

Whatever energy you put out, through your everyday intentions and actions you get back to you in some form.

The “Karmic Cycle,” then, refers to the patterns that your individual energy creates for you. When you create karmic energy (which you do all day, every day – more on that in a minute…), the energy must return to you, in the same way that when you toss a ball up in the air, it must come back down.

Understanding this is important, because the cycle represents how the universe balances itself, through secondary laws like The Law of Attraction. When you think about it in this way, The Law of Attraction is a way of describing karmic cycles, since it says that you will receive what you focus on.

You receive your intention, is another way of saying you create karma, and that karmic energy must later be expressed.

Understanding How We Create Karma

If you want to break your karmic patterns and start living a more positive life, it helps to become more aware of how you create your karma, every single day.

Personally, I love the explanations by Gary Zukav and Deepak Chopra, so check those out if you want to learn more.

Every moment of every day, you emit energy. Through your thoughts, intentions, actions, and interpretations, you create your own experience of the world. As you do, you create karma.

You do this all day, every day, regardless of whether or not you are aware of it.

It’s actually very simple: positive energy creates positive karma. Negative energy creates negative karma.

When you are in a good mood, feeling like you’re in love with life, treating others with respect and love, and feeling in tune with your Inner Being, you create positive karma.

When you’re stuck in a funk, get angry, or respond negatively to whatever life throws at you, you create negative karma.

While the law is simple, the challenge for most people has to do with their level of awareness. Chances are, you aren’t really very aware of how you feel as you move throughout your day. You are aware of the ‘big events’ of the day, but what is your default state of mind? Are you consistently feeling at peace? Or do you constantly feel a little bit down, frustrated, or upset?

When you aren’t aware of the energy you emit, you aren’t in control of your karma, for better or worse.

This brings us to how we can end negative karmic cycles…

The End of Karma (or not!)

One of the common misconceptions about Karma is the idea that, through positive action, you can end or escape the influence it has on your life.

Really, when we talk about ‘ending’ karma, what we’re really talking about is releasing negativity, and getting out of old patterns of energy.

This doesn’t mean that karma ends, or that you will stop experiencing cycles of energy. Instead, it means that negative energy will no longer have the same hold over your it has had in the past.

Instead, you will be able to walk a path of self-liberation, one in which you consciously choose your state of energy, every moment of the day. Ultimately, this leads to a state of total, enlightened awareness, known as moksha.

But, practically speaking, it’s also what spiritual teachers mean when they talk about stepping back and living with awareness.

Breaking Old Patterns and Releasing Negativity

You can learn more about how to do this in these posts:

• How To Let Go of Everything in a Single Breath.
• How To Live a Spiritual Life: 10 Practices for Daily Growth
• Guided Meditation to Let Go of the Past Release Negative Energy