Karma

In this episode of Just Call Jenna, host Jenna Williams reframes the concept of karma, shifting it away from mysticism and into something far more grounded and practical. She explains that karma isn’t about cosmic reward or punishment, but simply about action and consequence—rooted in the original Sanskrit meaning of the word. Rather than being something that “happens to you,” karma is something you actively create through your thoughts, behaviors, and patterns.

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Jenna connects this idea to science, particularly neuroscience and psychology, showing how repeated thoughts and actions literally rewire the brain through neuroplasticity. Whether it’s kindness, negativity, gratitude, or anger, the brain strengthens whatever is practiced most, eventually turning it into automatic behavior. She also explains how systems like the brain’s filtering mechanism (RAS) and mirror neurons shape how we perceive the world and how others respond to us—essentially reinforcing the reality we expect to see.

The episode expands into how our beliefs influence outcomes through concepts like the Pygmalion Effect and self-fulfilling prophecies. Jenna emphasizes that expectations—both of ourselves and others—play a powerful role in shaping relationships, opportunities, and personal growth. Even small actions, like a moment of patience or a kind comment, can create ripple effects that impact long-term outcomes.

Ultimately, she presents karma as a continuous feedback loop: thoughts influence actions, actions shape emotions, emotions build identity, and identity drives decisions that determine outcomes. Her core message is clear—karma is not about what you deserve, but about who you are becoming. By consciously choosing your thoughts and behaviors, you can actively shape the life you experience.

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Welcome back.

Today I'm going to talk about karma. I say every time, karma is real. For some people, they see karma as like a cosmic justice. To others, it might be a spiritual law. Really, it's not punishment and reward. It's not some cosmic scoreboard. It's literally cause and effect. But what if I told you that karma had scientific roots? That your actions don't just come back to you in a mystical way. They actually come back to you through predictable chains of neuroscience. The habit loops we talk about, social dynamics, behaviors, what you repeat is actually part of karma. So that is the scientific roots.

The original Sanskrit word of karma, it literally means action. Think about that. It's not a reward and punishment, just action. Not destiny, not fate, not punishment, just action. If I do something, something will happen. Cause and effect. Again, the definitions we place tell us good or bad. But it's not a cosmic scoreboard. It's not reward and punishment. It's not some biblical chain. It's got the neuroscience roots again, the feedback loops, predictable patterns and behaviors.

We talk a lot about the brain, right? So I always think of it like let's try this. When you think something or say something or do something, you're sending out some signals into the universe. Those signals don't disappear. They interact with the universe like ripples in a pond, and eventually they return something, whether it be a cause and effect of that action or more of something. Karma really isn't the world reacting to you. It's you reacting to your thoughts, your actions. The frequency you create, these are your karmic invoices.

Okay, let's try to simplify that a little bit. If I do something, something will happen. If I think something, I'm going to do something based upon my thoughts. Based upon my action, something happens. That's how the ripple works, or those compounding effects that we've talked about before. So try to think of it like your thoughts shape your actions and your actions create karma because karma is action. So your actions shape your identity. Your identity shapes your expectations and your expectations shape your perceptions. And your perception shapes your reality.

So I like to think of karma more like a wheel, right? It's it's a wheel of cause and effect. Something happens like a ripple in a pond. It makes bigger circles. I think of it like I'm not punished for my actions. I'm shaped by them. So if I go out and I'm revealing kindness, I'm gonna get more kindness back from people. If I go out and I act rude to people and I'm mean, people are probably gonna be rude and mean back, right? And again, that definition can be good or bad based on what you see. And so you can get on or off the wheel. You don't have to go creating these karmic invoices.

But when I say karma is real, that's really what I mean is if you do something, then something will happen. It's cause and effect. These are just things in the world that exist, like laws of gravity or the sky being blue. There are just some things that are. Psychology consistently shows that humans return what they receive. Like when they say in spirituality, it's the law of reciprocity.

So if any of you have ever gotten one of those uh things in the mail where they ask you to donate to some charity, right? You name it. But they send you an envelope, they send you the little personalized notepad, and you get your mailing labels. I gotta admit I still keep those and put them on my return mail. Thank you, all you charities. Studies have shown that you give more when you get that because you feel that reciprocity. You feel that need to give back. So psychology shows that humans return what they receive, right? And karma's kind of like that. It's if I do something, something will happen. I'm going to get back what I put out in a way.

So every thought, every emotion, every spoken word, every choice is sort of like an action or karma. It's like throwing a stone. It's gonna cause ripples. You may not see them immediately. They could take years to realize. However long those ripples need to spread. But I think that if you think about that again, it's the observer effect. Is that action you're taking good, bad, small, big, those are your definitions. It's just an action. The universe doesn't judge it. Karma doesn't judge it. It's just if you do something, something will happen.

So, spirituality says that your inner world creates your outer world. And science says that your brain wires itself around experiences. It's really the same truth just a different language. It's all going back to karma. If I do something, something will happen. Now, again, hear that statement. It does not judge, it does not have a good or a bad. It's just if I do something, something will happen.

So go back to that. It's a predictable chain. There are some scientific roots to it. And there are some spirituality roots to it. You may have heard me say in a previous episode that you are where science and woo-woo intersect. So that is where you live and where you make definitions, but the observer effect of how you observe your life, you can put those definitions. There is not a negative or a positive karma. There is just karma. If I do something, something will happen.

Karma literally means action. The original roots of the word are action. If I walk into the wall, I'm going to bang my head on it. That is karma. As simple as that is, that's karma. I know that if I walk into that wall, I'm going to bang my forehead on it and it's going to hurt. If I hit it thought hard enough, I might even bang my nose. This is karma. It's neutral. The wall doesn't care. If I walk into it, that's my responsibility.

So thinking about that, that's kind of how karma works with again your thoughts, your actions, your everything. They're very big concepts, a lot for us to understand. But try to keep it simple for yourself. If I do something, something will happen. If I walk into the wall, I'm going to bang my head. Hence the reason I'm gonna go through the doorway because it has an opening.

So again, keeping it simple, I'm gonna try to discuss the science part of karma because it helps me to understand that. So you may have heard of something called past karma. It's like the emotional software you downloaded before you had a choice. What do I mean by that? It's not good or bad karma. It's sort of unhealed karma. The moment you become aware of this, you break the cycle. Uh, and that starts healing like your lineage, generational karmas you may have heard.

That's a big concept, but it's sort of like what you inherited and what you were raised with by your parents, your younger child experiences. All that stuff that sort of got put in you before you were aware and had any coping skills to deal with it. Those karmas or those invoices, if you will are karma. They're ripples that exist. And just by simply becoming aware of them, you can start healing.

Karma, it helps me to think of it like unhealed karma or unhole karma, like fractions that we have to solve the puzzle if you that's healing karma and becoming whole. So past karma are things that you really didn't get a say and they just sort of came with you. We all have that. We all have families, histories, things that came with us, where we came from before we had choices. That's sort of your past karma. It's not good or bad. It's just really unhealed or unawareness to it.

So that's kind of how that works is just being aware of it starts the healing process or becoming whole. Present karma is the part that you control. It's how you speak, how you react, how you treat yourself, because yes, how you treat yourself is a big part of your karma. Uh it's how you handle stress. Every moment you're wiring your future you. Small choices. Again, you've heard me say what you're not changing, you're choosing. Small choices repeated becomes your future self.

That is how your present karma is shaping your future karma. Again, actions. If I do something, something will happen. If I eat healthy today, I will become healthier. If I work out every week, I'm gonna get a body that I like. These are like karma. Actions equal things. Cause and effect. It's not always spiritual. There's a lot of science to it.

And then future karma, right? Like if I keep doing what I'm doing, I know exactly where the ending will come from. I'm gonna take that to the level of like my stroke, right? If I didn't change my lifestyle, become a more peaceful person, and start enjoying my life, my body was shutting down from the stress I was burying in it. So if I didn't change my lifestyle, if I didn't change my karma, I knew exactly where I was gonna go. Back to a hospital bed losing all my independence and maybe even death.

I had the choice to change that. That's kind of how the karma wheel works. I could stay on that same wheel, running that rat loop over and over again, going to the exact same things, or I could get off the wheel and just say, okay, yes this is gonna be hard because I don't know. Any experiences, I don't have any frame of reference, nervous system brain experiences of being this thing different, but I know I need to get off this wheel. It's literally life or death if I don't. I survived once, but I probably won't survive it again. So let's make a change and not go there.

But that's karma. It's it's not a life sentence. It's kind of like a curriculum. You are graduating every time you become aware. So let's think about that. Every time you become aware that you can be better, greater, expand, release things, let them go, become aware. Every time you do that you are healing. You are choosing aware over conditioning or experience. You're basically graduating a class and moving on to the next one.

Karma's kind of like a curriculum that way. Think back in the experiences that most of us have that we went to school. You can't ask a kindergartner to do twelfth grade homework, right? They have to go through the grades to get there. It's very similar. So when you see people at different levels or different grades, don't compare yourself to them. Don't worry about it. They've just gotten off of a different wheel of karma or graduated a different level of awareness. Again, it's not a life sentence, more like a curriculum.

But that's how the wheel of karma works. It's literally your thoughts and acts and you can move to different levels. So remember in other episodes I talk about the Raz. It filters billions of sensory inputs and only shows you what it believes is best or relevant. Uh your your internal patterns will become your external filters. So that awareness of those grades that RAS again is your friend. It will let in what you need to know, learn, and see so that you can make it to the next level.

If karma's the curriculum of actions, it's like a textbook or like the class you go to that gives you the learnings, right? That's what the filter is for. What you repeatedly do becomes what you unconsciously expect. We've learned about that in many things. So when your brain thinks you need a skill, it's gonna filter those in with the RAS and make it automatic. The brain is a prediction machine. It's going to predict. It predicts the future based on past experiences and the more you're aware the better you have control of filtering your brain.

But that is karma. That is how it works. It's it's a curriculum of learning. Being aware, knowing what you can filter in, if you constantly rehearse negativity, that RAS filter will ruminate in woe is me, woe is me. But if you rehearse possibility, opportunity, it's gonna highlight solutions for you. Which do you prefer? Do you want to be stuck or do you want to have choices? This is how you create your future karma. It is your thoughts in action.

And that filter is going to filter in what actions you take. because your brain is a prediction machine. So if I tell it what to filter, it will do so. Mirror neurons are there, right? We've talked about those before. If you show up grateful and kind, you are going to find grateful and kind people around you. If you show up like a jerk and bark orders at everybody, you're gonna find people that do that.

How many times do we laugh at the things when we see on the road? Some guy cuts you off acting like a big jerk and then gets pulled over a mile up the head and you pass them being pulled over by a police officer. Most of us are probably going, ha ha couldn't happen to a nicer guy. But that's what happens, right? That's a karma thing, and it's not good or bad.

Sure, you may have enjoyed the moment. I know I would. I I'm going to admit I would absolutely love to see that. Ha ha, serves you right. That's really not what karma is about. It's not a cosmic scoreboard, right? I'm human. I'm gonna laugh at somebody who got what he deserved. I can't help it, I that's who I am, sorry.

But I think that that's understanding that's the action. That person made the choice to speed drive crazy and unsafe, and an officer of the law pulled him over. It really wasn't because he cut me off. That's not the karma that he got. He got the karma because of his actions, the way he was behaving, its cause and effect. So it's really not a cosmic scoreboard. It does feel like that sometimes, but mirror neurons are like that.

If you go around being nice, you get nice. You're gonna find more of what you see, right? The same idea of like somebody yawns, yawning is contagious. Those are the mirror neurons. So again, back to the RAS filtering in certain things and then the mirror neurons finding more of that. This is your brain working like a prediction machine. This is karma in effect. This is present karma happening now.

Being aware, you're making the choices of what happened. Your brain is going to look for proof. If you think I'm not enough, I'm not worthy, bad things happen to me guess what? You're gonna find every reason for that to be true. If you look for proof of I'm lucky, I'm joyful, everything is always working out for me guess what? It will. And you will get better and better at doing that. And that is karma in action.

You don't attract what you want. You attract what you're wired for. That RAS filter in your brain is one of the most important things. Being aware is having control of that and choosing your karma and action.

So I get asked a lot if karma's real, why do good people suffer? This is a good question, because karma's not moral, it's mechanical.

So what do I mean by that? Well, fire burns everyone, whether you're good or bad. You touch fire, you're gonna get burned. What goes up must come down, like gravity. So it doesn't matter who you are, good or bad, if you jump off a building, you're hitting the ground hard. Karma affects everyone. It's not moral, it's mechanical.

You can be kind with unhealed wounds. You can be generous with self-worth issues, and you can be spiritual and still tolerate being mistreated. Every single one of us can probably think of one person we know. Why did they put up with that? Well, because they have unhealed karma. They have a wound somewhere that allows them to do that.

So you could be the most spiritual person in the world and still have someone mistreating you or people pleasing, right? It it takes time. Karma doesn't respond to your intentions. It doesn't respond to what you want. It responds to your patterns, your patterns of action. Patterns come from wounds, childhood wounds. current adult wounds, whatever that is. Healing changes karma. It's not perfection. It's healing.

Healing wounds Healing things, there's a very popular phrase out there, hurt people, hurt people. That is true. Hurt people think that it's okay to act certain ways, and they do.

In Buddhism, karma is intention. Not just what you do, but why you do it. In Hindu philosophy, action without attachment liberates us from karmic bondage.

What does that mean? That means giving without expecting in return. Taking responsibility for your actions and healing your wounds. Go to a doctor, go to a therapist, go to a spiritual counselor. But if you are aware that you have a wound or unhealed karma, You need to go heal that. That is your responsibility.

In Buddhism, again, you're it's karma's not intention. It's not what you meant to do. It's why you did something. When you act from fear, you create chains. You create bonds. When you act from love, you create freedom. Karma is not about perfection. It's about consciousness. And awareness is your liberation.

So let's try that even more. If I do something mean to somebody, I'm creating something bad. I'm creating some kind of chain that bonds me to them, a karmic invoice. When I act from love, I'm creating freedom. That also might be a bond or a chain. Karma isn't about perfection. It's not about doing that. It's about acting without attachment and thus those chains are not created.

So in one the example of if I act mean I'm creating chains of bondage to receive that karmic debt, right? Just like if I act kindness, there's a karmic debt there, whether it's intentional or not, but to act from awareness and detachment, like I'm doing this without expecting something back that's liberation.

When I go and take responsibility of what a lot of people might say the shadow side or the dark side or those works, Okay, as I heal those wounds, I'm sealing up the karma. I'm letting things go out of my container. I'm reducing those karmic bonds to other people. Just like I said earlier, you can get off the wheel of karma. That's how you get off the wheel. you accept that you might have something you need to heal.

I'm going to take that a little bit to a science level. So if you practice kindness, the brain will strengthen your compassion surrogates. Meaning that your RAS will filter in kindness and compassion. If you practice negativity and complaining, your brain will strengthen those circuits. That is the pathway. It will predict as fast as it can. It will automate that negative thinking. If you practice gratitude, your brain tunes into opportunities for you to be grateful. So these are all ways to create and heal karma.

We often think of karma as if something happens now or I do something now, karma is gonna happen later, but karma is actually happening now. Right now, present karma that I already mentioned, it's your thoughts, it's your actions, it's your emotions, it's your choices. It is reshaping the science of your nervous system and that filter in your brain every minute. Karma is happening now.

You can't control how long those ripples take. Time is a very human thing. It's not a universal thing. It's a very societal culture thing. So if you try to put a time on karma, that may not work. But if you think about right now is what you control, your present karma, your thoughts, your actions, being aware. That's how you can get that wheel of karma turning in your favor or get completely off the wheel if that's your choice.

Remember, it's a curriculum. Some people drop out of school. Some people go all the way through to masters, right? That is your choice. How aware do you want to become? Because the universe doesn't care how long you take to repeat the grades. It does not care. It will constantly give you those lessons until you learn them and you move on to the next one. Karma is the awareness of that curriculum. to help you level up and expand.

So karma is real. So I like to talk a lot about neuroscience and in neuroscience they say that neurons that fire together wire together. In the law of attraction, they say like attracts like, right? That's a frequency thing. Karma isn't in real time is not punishment

You're not cursed or doomed. You're just patterned and your patterns can be changed.

That was one of the biggest things I learned in healing from the stroke is having to change my life meant changing my patterns. Healing physically, healing mentally, but also changing my patterns. This is cause and effect. If I do something, something will happen. So many of our bad patterns are actually unhealed emotions.

You're responsible to heal yourself. Healing is not avoiding karma or bypassing it. Healing is completing the wheel.

Okay, so let me take that one step further. If you know that you had a bad relationship and somebody broke your heart, said something mean to you. When you get into your next relationship, you're going to be conscious of that thing that they said about you. Is this true? Does everybody feel this way about me? Oh no, that is a pattern. That is a wheel of karma that has been created.

When you heal that wound and accept, okay, maybe I'm not perfect. Maybe I am this way. If I am this way, I have the power to change it. Or maybe that person's just outright crazy. But that is the wheel. That is the unhealed karma or wound. If I do something, something will happen. And a lot of times those things are things people do to us, but we are responsible for healing ourselves and our wounds and our things.

If you need a therapist, get a therapist. Highly recommend one. Still go every week, even though I've dealt with a lot of my own and I'm strong enough to come here and talk about these things. That doesn't mean I don't have a place where I need to sit and talk to someone about what I might be aware of or where my shadow work comes in. I still have to be aware of the karma wheel every day.

But these are the things I mean when I say karma is real. It's not your bad patterns, but it is your patterns. It is your unhealed karmas or wounds or curriculum or whatever level of grade you're on that you have to sort of become aware to start healing all that stuff and move to the next level.

It's the same thing of, you know, a kindergartner can't complete a senior's work. A sixth grader can't do twelfth grade calculus. It's the same idea. You have to sort of be primed a little bit and learn enough that you can start taking on and expanding into bigger concepts. This is what I mean by karma is real all the time. It's real. You're responsible for being aware, learning your lessons, and moving forward.

This is karma. This is completing the wheel. Healing is completing the wheel. When I say healing, I mean returning to wholeness. It's not about recovery. It's returning to wholeness, to the you that is your authentic self. That is where you will actually find when you get in touch with that person inside you, your authentic self. you will find that all these concepts become very, very easy because your authentic self already knows them.

The wheel of karma in you is actually complete and healed and knows what to do. But your job is to return to remembering who you are. That is a big portion of karma.

So again, I get asked a lot, if karma is real, why do good people suffer? Well, because it's not good or bad. It's just pattern behaviors. And awareness is the healing and returning to wholeness.

We all have people in our lives. We all have difficult people in our lives, families, relationships that we love. And you know who you have to walk on eggshells around because they're just gonna get all ruffled up and it's gonna be conflict. So you generally act certain ways to keep that relationship flowing. Some of that is karma.

But going back to that, kindness is what activates cooperation. It's amazing how if you're just kind and say thank you to people even the roughest people are generally softer because of it. Respecting somebody activates their trust. And when people trust you, the relationships go further, it sets the tone.

Kindness activates cooperation. If you want somebody to cooperate with you, activate that kindness.

Like I was saying, we all have difficult people in our lives that we love and we choose to have them there. I have some in mind. I know exactly how difficult they are. But there is a bond that we have and so I react in certain ways to keep the relationship flowing.

I have one person in my life that is going to be very critical and judgmental of everything I say and do. And I realize that. I just have to realize that part of that karma is understanding I want this person in my life. And therefore, I have to find a way to not take that stuff personally. I have to understand, oh, that hurts my feelings. That's not ideal. I don't like when they act this way. But I'm not going to carry that brick around with me and let it keep hurting me. That's not something I need to do.

There are two effects that they talk about a lot in relationships. A lot of leadership coaching may have these. It's referred to as the pygnalian effect. So your expectations of others influence how they behave. The side effect to that is the Gollum effect. Not my precious, but Gollum, right? It's called the Gollum effect.

So there's the Pygmalion effect and the Gollum effect. But essentially what they are is Pygmalion is if I tell you you're great and I give you a fine reputation to live up to, you're probably gonna do that. If I tell you you're bad, you're awful, and whatever, you're probably gonna do that.

Any parent who has raised a child knows. If you yell and scream and tell them they're not going to do something, guess what? They're not going to do it. Probably out of spite. But it's kind of like that reverse psychology. Oh honey, you always clean your room. I appreciate that about you. Guess what? Eventually they will start cleaning their room.

That's a very simplified effect, but there is the pygmalion effect and the golem effect. So why not go with the pygmalion effect, which is I expect you to behave good and kind and create that cooperation. I create the karma will between us to go that direction rather than giving you the golem effect because I don't want you to, if I tell you you always lie to me, guess what? You're gonna lie to me. If I tell you you always tell me the truth, you are more likely to tell me the truth.

It's as simple as that, and that there's a scientific way to make karma work. Now, is it going to be perfect? No. But more often than not as good.

So karma is your beliefs shaping others' behaviors by your actions and thoughts. So karma is internal narratives becoming your lived reality. If you're thinking about that, it's self-fulfilling prophecies.

If we believe good, we're probably gonna get good. If we believe bad, we're probably gonna get bad. In a previous episode, I talked about the Lucky Photo story. Again, it was people who saw themselves as lucky, noticed opportunities to be lucky. People who saw themselves as unlucky just glanced over it.

So I think, you know, that's kind of how the RAS works again in that science is it's internal narratives becoming a lived reality. It's self-fulfilling prophecies. I see myself as lucky, I'm gonna find other reasons to be lucky. I see myself as kind, I react kind, I'm gonna notice more kindness in the world.

Hence the pygmalian and the golem effect. If I go out complaining and acting like Eeyore, oh hum, everybody hates me. Guess what? I'm gonna find a lot of reasons that that happens. And the science of that is not a spirituality thing, but again, it's the RAS filter in the brain. That's literally the neuroscience of it.

So I'm gonna go back to kindness because I think that's so important. I really wanna be a kind person. I try to spread kindness. This is the karma I want after seeing what the other side looks like.

One kind comment might grow an entire network. One moment of patience could save an entire relationship. One small habit could lead to your career breakthrough. And this is the karma wheel, but it's really just a different way of saying the compound effect, right?

If I compound little actions in the direction I want to go, it could open up big doors. That's awareness and the observer effect. I observe, I'm the kind of person who.

So even to this day, like you heard me mention, I'm terri I got road rage when it comes to traffic. I don't like anyone in my way. But I tell myself I'm the kind of person who gets there safely, always gets a good parking spot, and doesn't get stressed out at driving.

Now, for those people who've known me for five years, you know five years ago that was absolutely not true. But I think I'm aware of that and I just observe. Yeah, I was driving uh on a vacation this last week and there was a big truck that was driving like a big jerk enough to make even the calmest driver yell at him. And I just went, okay, breathe.

I'm just gonna be aware that this guy is not ideal. And at the first chance I had to get around him, I did. But I wasn't stressed out about it. It didn't ruin my trip. It didn't make me angry. I was just observing. I am frustrated by this truck, and at the first chance to get around him, I will.

But that's awareness. That's me still healing my karma of all the road rage I have, which I'm generally a very aggressive driver. Not so much anymore, but I think about that with awareness and the observer effect.

How something going in those directions that came out of a stroke has started affecting an area of my life that I never thought it would. I'm just the kind of person who gets there safe and gets good parking. I just put it out there to the universe and guess what? The Ras in my brain filters me getting there safe and getting good parking.

When you think a thought, whether it's negative or positive your body responds immediately. Your brain sends cues to your body. Stressing, adrenaline, cortisol spikes. Or do you want to feel calm in the dopamine, oxytocin? So stress hormones actually impact your digestion, your immunity and ultimately your decision making. While gratitude releases dopamine, compassion boosts your oxytocin and your resilience.

Emotional patterns actually change your physical health. Here's another example of the Karma Wheel. If you're choosing that you want to feel a happy body, you want to be in connection with it, you want to live in peace, you start creating wheels of karma that direct to peace. You tell the filter in your brain, more of this. I want this. I want to be peaceful. I like the physical effects I feel from it.

Again, mine was I you know, I'm I'm a human. I'm gonna have days of stress, but I just can't live in stress. So a stressful day might happen, like the truck on my drive when I'm headed to vacation and trying to relax. And I had to be aware and take that observer effect.

Okay, I'm aware this isn't ideal. I'm aware this guy is bothering me. I'm aware I just want to go fast and get out of his way. But okay, the only part I can control is at the first opportunity I can create distance between us. And right now at this very second, I can control me. I do not wish to be stressed out and frustrated. I just wish to arrive there safely and get a good parking space.

This is how the karma loop works. It's your thoughts that influence your actions and your actions influence your emotions and your emotions influence your identity. Which is how your body is going to respond. It's not mystical, it's really just systematic. And that's kind of what I mean by karma is real. It's it's predictable patterns that you can see.

It's not about getting what you deserve. It's about becoming who you decide to be. Your life will become a mirror for your highest self. That's your karma. That's your future karma.

Like when I say your present karma is what you're doing now that creates your future karma. Just like my truck example, right? By my actions of saying, this is not ideal, I will wait and get away from this guy as soon as I can, and I will arrive safely and get a good parking space I created that predictable chain. Now, that parking space was always probably right there, but the Ras in my brain found it because I was looking for it.

I got there safely and everything about me responded to getting there safely because I said I always get there safe and I always get good parking. That's how karma works. It's predictable patterns. It's actually science. It's not just woo-woo. It's not a cosmic scoreboard. It's predictable patterns. It's actually science.

So again, if you do something, something will happen. Let your thoughts and actions be grateful, peaceful, and expect the best because that's what you want to get the vibes back of.

Don't be a brick and everywhere you go get something else to carry. That's not fun. What if I had a screamed and yelled at that truck? What if he was having the worst day of his life and me yelling at him was the most painful thing he had to go through that day. Again, we don't know what somebody else is going through.

I can control me though. I can say this is not ideal. I don't like this. We're not compatible. As soon as there's distance, I'm gonna put it between us. In the meantime, I'm the kind of person who arrives safe and gets a good parking space, and you know what? I did. Because I was able to create that for myself working with the science and the filters in my brain.

If I do something, something will happen. Why not let that something be peaceful and kind and exactly what I want to get back. That's kind of the karma wheel. Why would I create bad ripples that are gonna come back, right? If I do something, something will happen. Why not do those things that will get me the results I want, not the results I don't want?

Let's talk about actually clearing your karma. So here are five practices I actually use.

So one is again self-awareness, because awareness dissolves karma. Being aware is how you graduate to those next levels and expand, right? So I think that's a big one. A 15-minute practice of daily with observing.

So I've asked you many times to five minutes to 10 minutes, but get that appointment to yourself 15 minutes a day giving yourself that time. That's creating karma with yourself, your future karma. You're the kind of person who.

But I think in that 15-minute practice of your daily healing I always ask myself, how do I feel? And why do I feel that way? Or if I did something, why did I act that way? And just observe. Quite often I tell myself, my secret self tells me why I did things the way I did.

All of us have thought about an argument with somebody the next day. Oh, if only I had a said this. I wish I had a said this. But that's those times when you're supposed to observe and just ask yourself, why did I feel that way? Why did I act that way? And just observe your feelings. Those are really important.

One of the big ones I do, emotional processing. What does that mean? Emotional processing from a psychological effect is naming your emotions. So one saying, why did I feel that way? I felt sad, I felt embarrassed. Naming your emotions actually helps heal them. It's processing them. It's allowing yourself to feel that way.

I think of conscious speech things that I say. Words are alchemy. Many times you'll hear me say that. Take a breath before speaking. Because speech creates those energetic contracts. Is what I'm saying kind? Is it nonviolent? Is it not harmful? Am I harming nobody with what I'm saying? Am I being harmful in my speech? Those are big ones.

So I think, again, self-awareness, emotional processing, so naming your emotions. And conscious speech. Those are three of the big ones.

I think there's two others I use a lot. I think of integrity with myself. What do I mean by that? My subconscious trusts me or doesn't. Self-betrayal affects your self-worth so much. It creates a negative karma. It creates a contract, an invoice. And so self-honoring, it creates that positive karma. It creates healing.

So what do I mean with integrity with myself? I do what I tell myself I'm gonna do and I thank myself for it. Here's some simple ones. There is, I don't think many people out there that like to do the dishes or the laundry. They come up. They're annoying their parts of society.

I'm going to say, I'm going to fold this laundry right now. And when I fold it, I say, hey, good job, self. We're the kind of person who does the laundry immediately. We're not running the dryer cycle six times. Now, I'm not saying that's what you have to do, but those are ways that you create integrity with yourself.

So again, self-awareness. Awareness dissolves your karma. I'm aware that I feel this way. That daily practice of observing, and I'm going to name my emotions. And I'm gonna be careful what I say to myself, and I'm gonna keep the contracts I make with myself. I'm going to do what I say I'm gonna do.

If my boss told me to do something, I would go complete the task because I'd be afraid of losing my job if I didn't. Why don't I give myself more credit than that? Because that's part of keeping integrity with yourself. If your boss told you to do it and you would do it, then you should absolutely do it.

The fifth one that's really important is what I call service without sacrifice. Helping others without abandoning yourself. Healthy giving improves the world. It improves everything. That doesn't mean that you need to break your back and carry others' weight. Part of that integrity with yourself is not taking on more than you can handle.

Don't say yes to everything, but be willing to serve without sacrificing yourself.

Maybe that means that you have a free weekend coming up and you're going to go volunteer at the animal shelter. You're going to go volunteer at the soup kitchen. I recommend to all of you, go find a retirement home or an adult living place and ask if you can volunteer to just go in and play a game of checkers with somebody.

Go sit and do a puzzle with those folks. You would be shocked at the wisdom that these people have. I think we used to live in a world where our elders were respected and now I feel like we make fun of them for not understanding technology. but they have wisdom about life that they can share that will give you something back.

So service without sacrifice might be things like those. Me personally, I volunteer with a lot of rescue dogs because I like dogs. But I think you find your thing to complete service without sacrificing yourself.

These are great ways to deal with karma. So again, what are they? Awareness, naming your emotions during your observing. Careful how you talk to yourself, keep your contracts with yourself, and be willing to give back to the community without sacrificing yourself. Those are five really important things to creating the karmic wheels that you want.

I don't think you ever get out of creating karma, but. That's how karma is real. It is the brain, right? Those predictable patterns. So how do you clear them and heal them? Those are five practices I use, and they work.

So you are not a victim of karma. You're the creator of it. I need you to think about that with your thoughts, your habits, your boundaries, your responses. These are karmas. This is karma in action. This is your present karma. Karma is real. It is creating your brain. It is creating your patterns. It is creating the things that become predictable things for your brain. It is filtering in more.

Again, not a cosmic scoreboard. It's literally action. If I do something, something will happen. You don't have to be perfect. Don't put that much pressure on yourself. You only have to be aware, and it's okay to make a mistake. It's just not okay to make the same mistake ten times.

When you choose honesty over comfort, healing over avoidance, and growth over ego, your life will absolutely change. Karma will keep the receipts. But your past does not define you. Your awareness does. Your actions do.

The things that you do, and choosing not to heal yourself or expand however you want to call it, but choosing to stay where you're at and not grow, it's like that level of school in a curriculum. You can't be stuck at the sixth grade forever. I mean maybe if you've watched some Adam Sandler, you know that O'Doyle rules, but O'Doyle wasn't great.

So I think about that as karma, right? It always comes around. But remember, it does not define you. Your awareness does. What you want to be aware of.

So clear your karma. Be aware of it. Level up. Graduate to the next level. You hear me say it a lot, but this is what I mean.

Karma is real, your energy is contagious, and check your vibes.