Karmic tail 6-20-14: Sacrificed soul

In this life

What they undertake succeeds without difficulty, and things seem to happen on their own at the cost of minimal effort. Around them, many see them as someone born under a lucky star, with extraordinary luck. Some envy them, silently or openly; others move closer in the hope of uncovering their secret. Yet the person themselves does not know the formula: they welcome these gifts with joy, without looking further. Events and people work together for their success. Sometimes people begin to support them, open doors, or offer opportunities, without knowing themselves why or how. The trap is then the temptation to help in turn and to give without measure. Barring pressing need, the method advises against it, since it falls to each person to accomplish their own task here below. Someone who receives goods without experience or effort is very likely to lose them, and their life becomes even harder.

The lesson

The method asks the person to pause regularly to consider what life has offered and the support others have given without expecting anything. To set their own success next to the trouble others go to in order to reach the same happiness. To express gratitude to those around them as well as to life itself. To develop a sense of proportion and keep to a fair limit in every area. Never to credit a success to their own labor or intelligence alone, and to thank fate now and then, in thought, for its support.

Out of habit, the person seeks to pay back, to sacrifice themselves, to prove their worth, or else demands a great deal from those around them, their parents first of all, and collects resentments and disappointments toward their loved ones.

The signals

• Resentment toward the parents
• Refusal of the family inheritance and experience
• Distant parents, or an abandoned child
• Illnesses passed down in the family
• A victim posture
• Taking advantage of other people’s resources
• Those around you criticized
• Being cast as the black sheep
• An existence devoted to family interests
• A wish to win the parents’ love
• A life led out of duty
• Debts to repay
• Parents in very fragile health
• Helping parents and relatives at one’s own expense
• Fear of showing weakness
• Choices that work against one’s own interests
• A feeling that everyone owes you
• Dissatisfaction with one’s life
• Apathy, a depressed mood
• Guilt

You allow yourself pauses to take stock of what life and other people have brought you. You compare your happiness with the efforts others make to reach it, without taking pride from it. Thanks become a habit, toward those around you as well as toward fate. In each area, you look for the middle ground. And you tell of your successes while acknowledging the share of help received.

The steps

• Pause each month to list the gifts received from life and from others
• Thank in person someone who has helped you
• Compare your advantages with the efforts of someone aiming for the same goal
• Choose an area where you go beyond measure and set a limit there
• Mention the help you received whenever you talk about a success
• Thank fate in thought every evening