Karmic Cycles

What are karmic cycles & how to break the pattern

Apr 25, 2023

Dear Hermit,

Karma, a word that often strikes fear into the hearts of many spiritual seekers. The Sanskrit word karma has become a popular term in spiritual communities everywhere throughout the world. In Sanskrit, karma literally means “action.” Karma is regarded to be a spiritual law that teaches us that nothing in life is a coincidence or an accident. The effects of what we see in the world today were the causality of the actions in which we partake. In other words, karma is the law of cause and effect. Karma can also be neatly defined through Newton’s third law which states that:

"For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." - Isaac Newton

Every thought carries an energy that can influence the outcome of the reality that is reflected back at you. For every thought, action, and word said, the energy that we project out there would boomerang right back at us accordingly.

A common misconception is that karma works instantaneously which leads to a common belief that karma would swiftly bring the same energy back within days. It is not the case where how karma would work.

Sometimes, karma would make you wait, there is a gestation period for the duration of when the same energy that we had projected outwards to be boomeranged back at us later. Hence, it would take a minute to respond, other times it would perpetuate longer as it accumulates the good and evil deeds that we had done and would boomerang into our lives years later. More often than not, it is because of this that karma is frequently viewed and seen as cruel. It sneaks up on us as a surprise and is undoubtedly unexpected where we aren't able to pinpoint the causality of it. And we would not able to grasp the concept of it unless we completely accept it as a natural law. Similar to the great law of what you reap, you sow.

What is a Karmic Cycle?

When we understand karma, we also understand that every negative deed is a sin and every positive deed is goodness or merit. While we live, we create positive or negative energy with our deeds that come back to us in different forms. But always under the same energy.

That loop of karma is called the karmic cycle. This then would manifest as a repetitious pattern of events, emotions, or realizations that occur in our life. It appears in our life as an opportunity to break negative cycles and subsequently gain great wisdom.

Understanding the types of Karmic Cycles

It's believed that karma operates in cycles throughout our lives. It typically lasts for 12 years and can be separated based on our age.

Childhood Cycle: 0 - 12 yrs

The human form of the soul is completely unconscious of its past deeds at this point in its karmic life. Their character is formed by the experiences they have in this lifetime. Children are referred to as "wet clay" because they can be remolded into any shape or form depending on the situations and people they are exposed to.

In childhood karmic patterns, the individual will consciously create situations that will aid in their spiritual evolution. They can connect with their past lives at any stage of life, but childhood is the most vulnerable because the traces of past life issues are so strong at this stage.

Youth Cycle: 13 - 24 yrs

Youth is the most critical stage because the being is now fully immersed in 'life' or the human experience entirely. They are attempting to establish reasoning in this life while also learning higher life choices and concepts such as earning money, etc. Karmically, the age at which a person is considered an adult is 24. (regardless of its maturity or personality).

This is the time when most of the signs from our past life begin to manifest and we begin to significantly repay our debts. For example, if a person is emotionally strong, he or she will experience restlessness in their thoughts. An individual would continue from where they had left off from their previous lifetime.

Adult Creation Cycle: 25 - 36 yrs

When an individual enters the adult cycle, their karmic pattern is thought to be completed. Each individual's karma is now "set," and the life karmic matrix is ready. All of the individual's past-life mental, emotional, and physical health issues and challenges will begin to manifest.

A physical health problem that could be traced back to a previous life will be difficult to treat. Emotional distress, financial insecurity, and even difficult relationships are all resonances from previous lives that need to be healed.

Adult Expansion Cycle: 37 - 48 yrs

At this stage, the karmic pattern takes on full force. The karmic life tests are pushed onto us at their highest limits and complexity. This is primarily because the person is either resisting or has not fully absorbed the karmic lessons that these tests are intended to teach.

Thus, if we are successful in resolving past life issues before entering the adult expansion stage, deeper issues that have yet to be resolved will begin to surface. However, if we are unsuccessful, the current symptoms of the problems will worsen. Whether it's physical pain or emotional anguish, all evidence tends to deepen with repetition.

Old Age Cycle: 49 - 60 yrs

At this stage, the karmic cycle's strength starts to decline and wane off. Karmically, this phase is the weakest of all. Individuals have either resolved the issues or postponed them until the next lifetime. If not, now would be the best time to solve or settle all karmic scores because the force is at its weakest.

The symptoms may be mild but do not go away completely. This means that if the issues are not resolved, further progress is made with less force. Following this phase, the entire adult cycle (creation-expansion-contraction) resurfaces for the specified time (12 years) until the final call (death).

Karma's end

The sole purpose of Karma is to demonstrate to us that LOVE is the solution to every problem. Love in the language of karma means service. As a result, souls who are aware of their karmic cycles and take accountability for their actions could build a working relationship with God.

man standing in subway — Photo by Warren Wong on Unsplash

When is the end of the karmic cycle?

The end of a karmic cycle occurs when we had learned an important lesson or lessons which enabled us to balance our karma so that we don't keep repeating a negative cycle. We balanced our karma when we had already gone within ourselves, dealt with our feelings, healed the negative thought patterns, and changed our approach to life. Our lives would improve in most if not all areas when we no longer hold, create and repeat karmic patterns that would hinder our growth. This would mean completing a karmic cycle. As we continue to do the inner work to evolve to a higher level of awareness, our energy vibration, and frequency rise. We would attract people and situations on a much higher level which would bring us a greater sense of peace, wisdom, and happiness.

Although we may attract some very painful and tough lessons in life, we are forced to go within and do the inner work needed. However, if we fail to do the work needed, we will keep attracting the same lessons, which may worsen and keep us remained stuck in a perpetual karmic cycle. Do the inner work and set ourselves free.

How can we end the Karmic cycle?

There are many situations in life, particularly those involving relationships with others, in which there is a desire to end long-standing patterns of feeling and behavior that do not contribute to our well-being. The solution to these patterns is frequently elusive. Spiritually, emotionally, and physically, the situation can be challenging. Years of living with fear or other intense emotions, as well as the stress that it causes, can take their toll and create energetic circuits within the brain and body that serve as the foundation for post-traumatic stress disorder. This is a condition in which a person experiences the same physical and emotional responses even after the stressor has been removed.

brown wooden cross on green grass field under white clouds during daytime — Photo by Antonio Feregrino on Unsplash

1. Recognizing the patterns

Everyone has karma which we experienced throughout each day without our understanding of the patterns. To end a cycle, we must look into the roots of the problem and understand the subconscious patterns that run our lives. We can't heal the parts of which we don't have an awareness. We would need special attention to recognize a particular problem if an issue were to surface. Perhaps it may be the aspect where our life felt stagnant and uncontrolled, such as relationships, etc. What we could do is observe the patterns, and list the things that constantly repeat themselves so that we could better understand them and learn the lessons to better ourselves.

2. Addressing the roots of intense emotions

To free ourselves from long-standing karmic patterns, we need to recognize that our inner feelings and consciousness determine the outer reality that surrounds us. As we are constantly creating our reality, to change the outer conditions, we have to be able to change the inner conditions of emotion and the reactions that we have played themselves out for a very long time.

Intense emotions and recurrent behaviours we carry often have deep roots where specific traumatic circumstances that we recognize have occurred and left an indelible imprint on our hearts, but also when such emotions or behaviors have played a part in our soul's history in previous lifetimes which constitutes a major emotional thread that binds us together with others.

3. Accountibility for your actions

Blaming others and elsewhere for the circumstances and the things that happened to us will not put an end to the karmic cycle. To break the negative karmic cycle, we much accept responsibility for our life. We may have felt that the person we were from the past is responsible for it, but we are each the same soul that resides within each of our bodies.

Instead of blame-shifting, we have to take responsibility for our actions and feel the full impact of them. To also examine our own mistakes and reflect upon what we could do differently the next time. When a pattern repeats itself, it becomes an opportunity for us to do better and not repeat the same error.

4. Work on the shortcomings

We can think of what our strengths and weaknesses are in a variety of ways, often by which we define our strengths from the lessons and lessons we have accumulated, learned, and accomplished throughout our journey. While most people would reject and associate their flaws and shortcomings with negative characteristics which makes them feel vulnerable and unwelcomed, these people would have failed to see a perspective where these flaws are hidden opportunities for us to grow.

5. Letting go

Karma accumulates as we accumulate a large number of things that do not serve us. An example is when we are keeping them in our house despite someone else who might need them more than we do. This also applies to the people who don't add value to our lives like how we should leave a person who would bring bad intentions into our lives. Toxic people will force us to say and do things we don't mean which brings pain and misery into our lives and without us realizing it, we had accumulated a lot of negative energy within us. Keeping both things and people that don't serve us in our lives would only hinder and distract you from your true life purpose and mission.

6. Positive mindset & Gratitude

All the laws of the universe work together. According to the law of attraction, we attract what we focus on. As a result, if we constantly focus on the negative aspects of life, we'll only attract negative things. Similarly, we get trapped when we focus on the negative aspect of the karmic cycle. Instead of focusing on the negative and poisoning our minds with it, focus on the positive aspect instead. We can always find things and people to be grateful for.

7. Do things that bring you joy

To break the karmic cycle of negativity, we need to do the things that brought us joy. This means always considering the consequences of our actions. The choices we made today are crucial. Making decisions between doing the things that would bring us long-term happiness and having a fleeting happy feeling. When deciding to do something that would bring joy, do consider and ask ourselves about how it would benefit in the future. If the answer is that it would bring joy and inspire us to be better people, then do it!

To keep it simple: It is the one thing we each would do from within the depths of our hearts and soul that would reflect on us as an individual. Follow your heart.

8. Do good deeds

The law of compensation states that we must give to receive something in return. To break a negative pattern is to do something differently. When you do good for others, you automatically break a negative pattern. Helping others unconditionally without expectations for anything in return improves the karmic debt by creating something lovely to spread happiness to everyone. Doing good help build our character to be a better person while helping to make someone's day better for the good that we do to help others in need. Every good deed matters. Even the smallest acts of kindness, which you may believe have no impact, help to reduce your karmic debt. The little things do add up to great things.

Final thoughts

Karma can enslave us into a perpetual series of painful life experiences if we aren’t aware of it. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. For every cause, there is an effect; For every deed, there is a consequence. To end a cycle, we require an awareness to understand and recognize the gravity of the predicament we each may be in at the present moment. By being accountable for all the past deeds we had done to ourselves and others around us, we can take better control of our lives. By letting go of the things that don't serve us anymore and forgiving the people who had wronged us, we free ourselves from being a victim of circumstance. By having a positive mindset and an attitude of gratitude, we can view things from an elevated perspective and not be attached to things and people. To have self-love and compassion to do the things that bring us joy allows us to be authentic to the world. Lastly, always do good for others and yourself. Little things add up to great things and good begets good.

Do comment and share with us your karmic encounters and experiences below.

Love you all & Stay high vibe.

The Hermit Collective

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