I was curious if someone is not coming from a tradition where the concept of karma is not a suspicious idea for eccentric people, but as accepted as the change of seasons, what information they would find and how it would translate to them.

I didn’t do an extensive study, just did what many people do if they are curious about a certain topic: I opened YouTube and typed in some keywords. I was looking for videos rather for the western mind with some basic explanation and examples, offering solutions as well.

The reason why I don’t want to discuss the eastern approach here is partly because there are many people who are experts on the field and I’m not one of them. And also because the first advice you’ll most likely get there is to close the source of karma, which you do by not having expectations for your actions. Which is perfectly logical, but for a starting point rather alien to the western mind.

I went to the comment sections, too, just to see the reception and hopefully dig some experiences. First of all, there were many thanksgivings of course. People helping others to clarify things or help them move on when they feel stuck doesn’t give much room for trolling, which is a good thing.

However, there were other types of comments, and those are the ones I’d like to address here. But first, let’s see what kind of advice you get if you’re looking for a more western approach to karma and how to eliminate it for good. Thereafter we’ll see how and why they may be hard to follow for some people.

Forget and forgive

Whatever happens to you is under the law of cause and effect. So if you find yourself in a difficult situation, it’s a consequence of something you’ve done before. Karma is there to help you, not to punish, you learn and by learning you grow. So you forget and you forgive those who hurt you and if you do, you ditch your karma.

You forgive yourself too: for example by saying ‘I forgive myself for the suffering I’ve caused myself’.

Let go and be positive

If you have painful feelings and beliefs, just let them go. Don’t think negative thoughts, be positive and therefore you won’t attract negativity in your life and be rid of bad karma.

Use positive affirmations for creating money or whatever you may lack.

Identify negative patterns and go against them

Whatever problems may keep recurring in your life, first determine them, as they say you can release only what you identify.

Once you got them, make conscious changes. For instance, if you have a tendency toward overgiving, learn how to put yourself first and nurture yourself, set boundaries and love yourself.

Let’s check the comment section now

Besides being thankful, some concerns also arose:

-I want to forgive [but…]

-I now suffer laying in bed most of my days from pain. It’s hard to forgive but I know I must let go

-Bad things always happen to me

-It is hard to forgive and every day a problem happens

-I cannot forget

-The biggest problem in me is I cannot forget or forgive sometimes. I have been hurt so badly in the past

-I continue to revisit the past for closure but I find none, only remorse and regret

-I have been steadily taking back my control of self at home, but it has transferred to me worrying about everything and everyone at work…

And some typical answers from other people who are most probably trying to help:

-If you believe that you’ll attract more [negativity, bad things]

-You must pay for your bad karma

I won’t tire you with more examples, I think you get the picture.

See what the problem is here?

Forgive, let go, don’t poison yourself with negative feelings, negative thoughts. Notice a negative pattern? Act different, change your habits, your mindset, break the cycle. Be aware.

Bad pieces of advice? Hell no: it does work for some. But this blog is not for them. It’s for those who try but just cannot figure out how. Who sometimes feel they have it but then something happens and they lose it. Or nothing particular happens and they lose it. Or don’t feel confident enough to even try.

And then come all the bad guys you can think of: guilt, self-doubt, self-judgement, the feeling that we’re not good enough, not persistent enough, simply not enough. That we lack willpower. And we presume that others can do it, only we can’t. 

There’s a lot of pressure coming through the above comments. One can almost feel the burden of each have to and must. That of I know I should but I can’t.

Why bother about these pitfalls and misconceptions of karma cleansing?

Because I hate to see people blame themselves. Because I’ve been working with karma cleansing long enough to know that it’s not a piece of cake. Because I’d like as many people as possible to know that it can be achieved without setting themselves nearly impossible tasks. 

Sure it requires time and energy. Sure it needs intention. But it’s possible. And your mind cannot fail you because that’s not what’s needed here. It’s put out of the way in order to work on a very deep level, with the help of breathing and simple exercises.

There is already a huge amount of suffering in our world, and I hate to see something that’s supposed to ease it actually adding up to it.

So here goes some basic things you should know about karma cleansing.

5 facts about karma cleansing

1. Karmic patterns are not stored in the mind and therefore are out of its reach except for an occasional recognition

Karmic patterns are stored in the chakras. It’s rare for someone to see the whole story, or in many cases the series of stories that’s behind such a pattern. Most of us simply act without realizing the real reason behind those actions: we get attracted to someone, fall in love, be happy for a while, then start to be annoyed, misunderstood, judged, unloved, angry, disappointed. We break up, mourn, get better. And do the whole thing again.

Ok, I realize it’s not always like that, but still, I think you get the point. Most of us are unaware of the underlying cause of such encounters, for example. That we continue a story which thread we’d dropped. To try and resolve it in a way that our soul will be satisfied. How? Love. In love. With love. That’s always the answer, and the final destination.

But these thread of stories and where we’d dropped them are very rarely conscious, and because of that we feel the urge to make up some causes and explanations to fill the gap.

2. Recognition doesn’t help much with clearing karmic blocks

There’s a common misconception I see many people have. That once we recognize a pattern or a problem, most of the work is done. Then you just have to make conscious choices and all is well. 

In many cases people want to know a karmic story and look for a method or a person that can help them discover it. What usually happens is the following. With high expectations for the given method or person you learn a story which you may or may not feel deeply connected to. It’s a new perspective, it’s exciting, giving the impression that something fundamental is happening, having a huge impact on your life. 

Then you go home and at first you make plans how you’ll act on what you learned, inducing change. But after a while slowly, gradually the power and excitement of the experience begins to fade. 

That’s why it’s not very common that such an experience or encounter would spark a change and bring a permanent resolution.

Because at the end of the day, it’s nothing more than information, and as such, it’s an empty shell, lacking the fuel, lacking the charge to induce that change.

3. There’s no need to identify a karmic block consciously in order to release it

Or, to be more exact, a karmic block, pattern, relationship can be dissolved or healed with or without it being available for the conscious mind.

Over the years I have seen many examples of people releasing old, heavy burdens, sometimes accompanied by cathartic crying or deep sobs. In some cases they have an AHA moment or have a memory of profound significance. But not necessarily, not all the time. But these experiences do have something in common: they certainly go deeper than the mind, that has a transformative effect on the level of the gut, as if the hardwiring was changed.

4. In most cases complete, total forgiveness is a result of karma cleansing and not vice versa

Once you really accept this one you can save yourself from a lot of pain. One way or another, many of us reach a conclusion that the only way to set ourselves free from a karmic relationship is through love and forgiveness. 

The failure of rejection, hatred, blame, resentment and anger becomes obvious for anyone who’s tried them enough times. So we try to love and to forgive. But how many times does it really happen?

For me, I used to keep noticing a small part in me that didn’t actually want to forgive. Or not really. Telling me that to forgive is really nice and cool but what happened to me WAS unjust, and I had the RIGHT to feel whatever I did. I suspect this phenomenon to be familiar to some of you. 

This is the trick of the ego. Our egos will NEVER want us to forgive completely. Why not? Because it wants us separated. And in separation someone has to be right and the other wrong. In separation there’ll always be good guys and bad guys. 

With the exercises of Karma Killer Yoga I was able to go round these tricks and get to a place where I didn’t want to hang on to the old hurts. They became irrelevant. I could feel the fears and sorrows of the other parties and see that the only way out of this vicious cycle is to clear them all out.

This is not just an idea. It is an incredibly liberating experience. Not in your head but your whole body. Wide, light, spacious and strong.

5. Karmic blocks have their own worldview, their own set of thoughts and emotions, interconnected. So trying to change our thoughts and emotions is like trying to fix the effect without addressing the cause

Let’s suppose you’ve often felt that you must please others to be accepted or loved. But you feel that always saying yes and many times performing while you overstretch your limits is not sustainable.

So you try to say no. You try to really set your limits. It’s definitely a hard work, and may leave you feeling guilty and anxious. As if none of the choices were completely alright.

What we’re dealing here are energy blocks. Not one of us’ true nature is to look for love and acceptance out of fear.

If you work with the blocks directly that make you feel and think out of this fear, the result will be deeper and more thorough, as you won’t have to deal with guilt and anxiety or convince yourself that you’re doing the right thing. And that way whenever that ‘no’ comes, it will come from a place of righteousness and confidence and love – toward yourself and others, too.

The conclusion

Considering the above, no wonder that quite some people feel they failed on this journey as they don’t experience rudimentary transformation. So they may feel disheartened and give up, drawing the consequence that it’s somehow their fault. While in reality all they’d need is turn things around and work on the cause instead of the effect. 

To give you an example: in a relationship a karmic block can stem from a dramatic separation, after which the parties missed their chance for union because of pride and fear. (This is in fact a true story, about which I may be talking in later posts, using it as a demo:)

So what happens at a later encounter? Those feelings and accompanying thoughts that are engraved deep in our system will start to take control over our actions, feelings and thoughts. In many cases without understanding the underlying cause, steering us like robots. Remaining in the dark about where jealousy, distrust or suspicion comes from. 

And we feel that something isn’t right and try to behave and feel and think differently, but something feels off. But, if we clear the karmic imprint first, there’ll be nothing in us to maintain those feelings and thoughts and finally we’re free to choose them. Free to finally choose love, not just in theory, but for real, with our whole being.

In the next post I’ll be coming back with an interview with Anamé, the founder of Karma Killer yoga with some really exciting topics. Hope to see you there, too!