“Karma: from the root kri, “to do”, is the means by which you become the architect of your own destiny.”
— Definition

At this very moment we are creating — we are creating our Karma whether it is good or bad, by habit or by purpose. It is not something that lives in our pasts waiting to reward or punish us, but is something that we are dealing with daily, in every moment.

So take a good look at your design, your layout, your building that you are creating each moment. Are you building a castle or a dungeon? Our thoughts actually create our destiny by building with the bricks of our mind.

If you don’t really like what you have built so far, there is always time to remodel, renovate, and redesign. Take away the walls of fear and doubt and put in some big picture windows to see the beautiful view before you. Become the best architect you could ever hope for your home, your life.

“The divine flow is like the flow of a river, however many rivers nowadays are polluted, full of junk or simply stagnating. It is time to take care of them - meaning it is time to take care of our emotional bodies and to look at them as rivers, where stuff got thrown in over the years. For some, there is so much built up, that it works like a big dam which does not allow any flow of energy. You can easily recognize the flow of energy, by looking at how much love is flowing in your life, how much happiness, how much time do you have available, how much money is flowing etc.”
— Quantum Angel

It may be time to ask yourself how polluted is your river of emotions? Has there been some junk and pollution thrown in there when you weren’t paying attention? Are my emotions contaminated and perhaps poisoning others that come in contact with them?

One quick way to figure out the answers is to look at how much discomfort or pain you have in your life. Is it all the time, only in certain situations, only dealing with certain people? We are like our planet, and over the years of use and misuse the environment now needs our protection.

Science shows us that we do release chemicals in response to our emotions. Over time, if these chemicals are not cleared out, they build up and can become toxic to us. So take action and break down the dams that are restricting the flow of energy in your emotional river and get the vitality of living back on track.

“Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.”
—John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), speech at The American University, Washington, D.C., June 10, 1963

I recently heard an “internet-marketing guru” give some advice on the best way to create a successful business. The first step is identifying what an existing problem is and then figuring out how to solve that problem. Once you find the solution, you sell it and help others who have the same problem.

This made me think how this could apply to our lives as well. When we are trying to change our lives for the better, the first step would also be identifying what the problem areas are in our life.

This awareness of the problem is the beginning of finding the solution. To truly change you need to learn from the problem. Learning, in turn, involves doing something new with your life. And success is selling yourself on the answer.

“You lose your balance when you say, ‘I will not accept what is happening to me.’”
— Marilyn Eileen Charlton, Life on the Causal Plain, A Glimpse of Heaven

You lose your own intuitive guidance when you don’t accept what is happening to you in your life. The main goal for change is to become balanced again. In the simplest terms we are all striving for balance in our lives. However, because in real life we are always in a state of change, balance doesn’t mean motionless or perfection. This real life balance comes by going with the flow of life and accepting even the times that are not as easy to understand or to accept.

Life is not simply a predetermined destination. It is the journey that we are on every day. There may be unexpected curves and turns in the road we are on. We may encounter low valleys and high mountains. However, with each step we take on this journey, we are shaping who we are and who we will become. And with this adventurous path, every day, we will discover the best in ourselves — if we accept what happens to us along the way.

“It’s the squeaky wheel that gets the grease” — Proverb

There are a lot of people who do not like complainers. And really, I can understand that. I am not a fan of people who like to talk on and on about things that are going wrong in their lives, or the traffic jams on the way to work, or their nasty in-laws, etc. You know what I’m talking about. You see them coming and you hide because you know it is just going to be the same old, same old complaints.

But then there is the other side — not complaining and not standing up for what you deserve. I also see many people “take” whatever is dished their way with no complaints. Many have been brought up to believe that it is impolite or improper to stand up for yourself. So they lay low and don’t complain.

But as with many things, there are times when it is good to be the squeaky wheel. When you see injustices going on around you or you yourself are living through one. Stand up and let people know that you know it isn’t right. And more than just saying it isn’t right, find some sort of action to take to change the situation. If you are whining about your situation and do nothing about it you are a victim. If you complain about your situation and take action to change it you are a champion.

“You’re alive. Do something. The directive in life, the moral imperative was so uncomplicated. It could be expressed in single words, not complete sentences. It sounded like this: Look. Listen. Choose. Act.”
—Barbara Hall ,A Summons to New Orleans, 2000

Imagine you enter a movie theatre and the main feature presentation is called “Your Life So Far”. Now hopefully it’s not the type of movie that you are tempted to walk out of before it’s done, because the great thing about this movie is that the ending has not been written yet. Think of it more as a sneak preview. A teaser. You get front row seats to probably the most thematically changing storyline ever written. Is it a comedy? Sometimes. Is it a tragedy? Unfortunately there are parts that fit the title. Is it a love story? Most definitely. But what is the big picture?

It’s time to develop your life theme. Your life theme will be your overriding intention or “big picture” focus for the rest of your movie. It has no official deadline or final draft. You can re-evaluate the storyline direction whenever needed. However, this life theme is like having a personal mission statement for your whole life. You are the writer, the director, the star actor. Make it a blockbuster hit by living up to your ultimate potential. The first part was just setting the stage. Go for it now because now is the time.

“I would love to be an optimist, but I don’t think it’s going to work out.” — Anonymous

As Sarah Ban Breathnach reminds us in Simple Abundance, “Optimism, like the happiness habit, can be learned.” Well, that is good news for everyone. All we have to do is to let go of our thoughts of lack, our thoughts of suffering, our thoughts of failure. We must also realize that it may not all happen over night.

We must allow ourselves the grace to make these Real Life Changes day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute. They may seem like baby steps at first, but even a baby learns how to run if you give it the freedom try and to make mistakes along the way and learn from those very mistakes.

Begin the change to optimism today by smiling at those that cross your path. Believe in yourself no matter what task you plan to accomplish. If there are clouds in the sky, realize that they too will pass and the sun will shine again. It always does. And love will shine in your soul if you give yourself a friendly nudge in the right direction.

“Love fulfilled sees where we could have gone the way of love before, if we’d known how, and how insecurities limited many of our choices. Love fulfilled perceives new meaning and higher reasons behind many of the mysteries of why things happened as they did.”
— Doc Childre

Have you ever questioned why you have chosen to have certain people in your life — and more specifically in your romantic life? We all have very good reasons for making our love choices, even if we are not consciously aware of them. We may choose a relationship that will improve our life in some way, teach us something important that couldn’t be learned in any other way, or challenge us to become better people.

Today, take a closer look at the relationships you have chosen for yourself. What is the mirror in front of you trying to tell you, trying to teach you? Our relationships can be more than just a source of happiness (or pain) if we look at them from a different point of view. Why did you choose to be with this person? What are you getting out of this relationship that makes it so valuable to your life path?

Taking this moment to look deeper into the meaning of your partnering choices, you may be surprised at the deeper hidden messages that you have been sending to yourself over the years through your significant other. Give yourself the gift of self-awareness and accelerate your learning by opening up your mind to the possibilities of growth that your relationships give to you.

“My mind is a garden. My thoughts are the seeds. My harvest will be either flowers or weeds.”
— Mel Weldon

What are the seeds you are planting in your garden every day? Are they thoughts based on fear, lack, or anger? These types of thoughts planted on a daily basis will most likely result in a garden of weeds. Thoughts based on acceptance, abundance, and love tend to grow a beautiful garden of flowers. More likely, we get a mixture of the two.

I am an avid gardener and when I look out on my garden, I can usually spot at least a weed or two doing its best to sneak in between a bunch of flowers. If I want to maintain my garden with all its blooms, I have to remove the weed quickly, while it is still small, and before it has a chance to spread throughout. Weeds are a tougher species, too. They don’t require you to water and care for them and yet they will still grow and spread. In fact, during the droughts they tend to be the only things to remain in your garden.

Our thoughts are the same. It is normal to have a negative thought now and then attempt to plant itself in our brain. If we are not careful and diligent to remove the negative thought, it will grow bigger and stronger and even start to spread to the rest of our thoughts.

Be the expert gardener of your thoughts and you can ensure a beautiful garden full of flowers and free of weeds. It’s your choice.

“The chief lesson I have learned in a long life is that the only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust him; and the surest way to make him untrustworthy is to distrust him and show your distrust.”
—Henry L. Stimson (1867 - 1950)

The power of your thoughts can influence trusting another person. As Henry Stimson points out, the more you believe and treat someone as trustworthy, the more trustworthy they become to you. Conversely, if you put all your energy into not trusting someone, they will turn out to be untrustworthy. You create your own reality with your thoughts and beliefs.

But I would also encourage you to discover what is the true nature of your distrust. Is it based on present facts or future fears or past traumas? From personal experience, I have found that trusting someone has more to do with allowing yourself to open up to possible vulnerabilities. And therefore it has not so much to do with the other’s actions or behavior, but more to do with your own fear of being hurt.

In order to trust someone else, it is vital that you begin to trust yourself. You must trust that you are a strong enough person to handle whatever comes your way. You must trust that you are able to open your heart up and allow others in. In doing so you face your fear of getting hurt. And as Shakti Gawain reminds us, “When I’m trusting and being myself… everything in my life reflects this by falling into place easily, often miraculously.”