I agree with most of what you said. But recently I have found that when I change the word "challenges" to the word "opportunities" I find myself in a different space. It’s like saying that Edison did not have failure before he perfected the light bulb…he just had "delayed success". Notice the shift already? It’s like the cup being half-full and half empty. It’s all mental attachment to words that we use to coin situations. "bad Karma" might mean an opportunity to do over something and do it better the next time. One of my calendars in my living room has a sentence of inspiration for each day of the year and oddly enough, the one for my birthday this year said "You can have everything in the world that you want if you are only willing to give up the belief that you can’t." I took that to heart…after all…that was the statement for my BIRTHDAY…and I felt a bit reborn after reading that. So, now you see that I prefer to do away with the "Bad Karma" idea…things are only bad if I personally attach the term "Bad" to them. I am where I need to be in my life doing what I need to do with my life at this very moment. Gerard
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MN:
Words are indeed powerful things, Gerard, and I like your idea of using the word "opportunities" in place of "challenges" or "Bad Karma."
But, then again, I’ve always liked the word "challenges" more than the notion of "Bad Karma" or "problems." It at once doesn’t deny the very human feelings of sometimes being overwhelmed, yet the word shifts us into the space of doing what the saying says we’re supposed to do with challenges . . . mainly, "rise to them."
But, for the majority of times, when the "challenges" are coming at a nice easy one-at-a-time pace, indeed, I think I’ll try out switching to the word you suggest.
(Better try it on myself first, though. I may end up with a bloody lip otherwise. . .)