Believe in karma

There are times when I seethe at the injustice in the world. When I’m not feeling mentally strong, all the hardships and cruelty in the world can overwhelm me. I never want to stop caring but I also know that if I care too much, I will end up exhausted and very likely, depressed.

Thoughts can get the better of us and that’s why it’s a good idea to practice managing your thoughts and getting them to work for you instead of them controlling you.

I have a few tips to help me cope with upsetting thoughts and distressing events that I have learned along the way and want to share them with you:

Believe in karma

Believe that there is a higher power at work that somehow keeps the world in balance. You may not see all that it does but it is there, silently working in the background to restore order. Whether this is true or not is irrelevant – the beauty of this is that if I believe it, it makes me feel a whole lot better. This is one story I tell myself. Don’t think for one minute though that telling myself this ‘story’ absolves me of any responsibility to do anything against cruelty and injustice. I regularly donate to charities and would always step in directly where I could. This story helps me stay sane. I attended a seminar a few years back and the speaker was advocating similar stuff. He said that sometimes you need to tweak reality a bit and if it works for you and improves your quality of life – go for it. Like believing you are beautiful/handsome even if you aren’t. Sometimes thinking leads to self fulfilling prophecies. If we believe we are attractive, we act differently and this changes the dynamic with others and they too, see you as more attractive. When we believe something, we automatically look for evidence to support the belief – this is how self fulfilling prophecies work. If I believe karma is at work, I pick up on stories in the media, magazine articles and so on showing me that restorative justice works. See – it’s all good!

Whichever way you choose to look at it, it’s not a bad thing tweaking reality and I am talking about tweaking reality, not massive editing or anything – like believing you can fly. Hopefully you get the picture. When there is no obvious evidence to the contrary, make up a story that works for you…it works for me!

Mandy X

Author: Mandy Kloppers

Mandy is a qualified therapist who treats depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, trauma, and many other types of mental health issues. She provides online therapy around the world for those needing support and also provides relationship counselling.