Podcast Episode 4 - 12 Laws of Karma

In this podcast episode, Jennifer Luciana discusses the 12 Laws of Karma and how they can be applied to daily life. She explains that karma is more than just cause and effect, it is about the energy behind our actions. Jennifer shares stories from her own experiences and those of her clients to provide relevant examples. The 12 laws include concepts such as taking responsibility for our actions, the importance of personal growth, and the interconnectedness of past, present, and future. Jennifer emphasizes that none of us are perfect and encourages listeners to use these laws as guidelines for self-reflection and personal growth. Hey there everyone, welcome back to the Little Light Gems podcast with Jennifer Luciana. Hey there everyone, welcome back to Little Light Gems. I'm Jennifer Luciana, your host. I'm so glad you're here today. We're going to be talking about something a little different, certainly relevant to the work that I do, but a little different format from what I usually do. We're going to talk today about the 12 Laws of Karma and how you can use them as guidelines throughout your daily life. Normally, I talk about crystals that can support whatever our topic of the day is or essential oils or spiritual baths. I'm not going to do that, but instead with the 12 Laws of Karma, I'm going to pepper in some stories about my life experiences or sessions that I've had with clients and their life experiences so that they're relevant and hopefully helpful to you. Before we start, let's talk first about what karma is. Most people think, oh yeah, you know, it's what you put out and that's what you get back. That's pretty much the general idea of karma, but as we get into these laws, you'll see that it's a lot deeper than that. It goes along many different spectrums within that, you'll see. Let's talk first about what the Hindu version of karma is, the definition. They believe that good thoughts, deeds, and words may lead to beneficial effects, while bad thoughts, deeds, and words may lead to harmful effects. Again, basically what you put out there kind of comes back, but really it's about the energy behind it and what you create with that energy within yourself. Something that I saw that, a quote that I read and I saw online that I actually really liked connected to this is by Dr. Jennifer Rhodes, and she's a psychologist. She says, you know, the journey is not about being perfect, it's about undoing what is not us and becoming who we really are. When we're talking about these 12 laws of karma, just keep in mind that none of us are perfect. Nobody lives their life perfectly and, you know, whoops, I got to do something for Tyler at the moment. Hang on one second, Joyce. Sorry, my son is asking me for money. Okay. Send money. Okay. Here we go. All right. Sorry, Joyce. There we go. Let me get this. Okay. All set. Keep moving. Okay. So, none of us live our lives perfectly. There's no right or wrong way to live your life. There's no road to success. So, none of us live our lives perfectly. There's no right or wrong way to live your life. There's no road map as to how to do this perfectly or perfectly for you. It's different for everyone. So, just keep that in mind, and as we go through these laws, just use them as guidelines. Maybe they'll be inspiring to you in some way, or maybe it'll help you to just stop and think about things maybe a little bit differently in your life. Okay? So, also keep in mind, thank you very much, that I have not written these laws. I didn't make them up. I'm just relaying them to you. So, if some of them don't resonate with you, don't come for me. Okay? I appreciate that. Okay. First law of karma is the law of cause and effect. It's also known as the great law. And what it says is that in order to get what you want, you have to embody and be worthy of those things. Right? So, you've heard it before. If you want to have wonderful, strong, trustworthy relationships with people, friendships with people, you have to be that type of friend. If you want to have somebody that you can really confide in, in a friendship, if you want to have a friend that you can really trust to be your confidant and to be nonjudgmental, you have to be that in order to receive that. Okay? You can't go around acting like a scumbag and expect somebody to be a really good friend to you. It's not going to work that way. So, the first law of cause and effect, or the great law, suggests that in order to get what you want, you have to embody and be worthy of those things. Okay. Law number two is the law of creation, which states life doesn't just happen to us. You need to take action. Okay? So, we talked about this on a different podcast, and you've heard me say this stuff before about energy. Okay? And manifesting, and the law of attraction, and visualizing, and be what you want now, even if it's not already here. You have to act as if. You've heard me say that before on different platforms. And the law of creation suggests that, listen, if you want to see yourself as a millionaire, then you have to take inspired action. And to be a millionaire, you have to think like a millionaire, and you have to act like a millionaire. If you're making lots of money, and you're going out and spending all of that money and not putting any of it away or investing, you're not going to create a platform or create a space for you to become that what you want. You have to act and be and pursue that which you want, but through inspired action. Okay? The third one, now I know this is going to ruffle some feathers. Oh, I can feel it happening already. Don't come for me. Stick with me, though, folks. This is the law of humility, and it states that you have to accept that your current situation is the result of your past actions. Think about it. Listen, I'm talking to myself when I'm reading through these laws, too, okay? It's not just I'm not sitting here preaching to you people. I am preaching to myself as well. So think about this. Let's just say you are out of shape. Maybe you're 20 pounds overweight, you know, over your high school weight or whatever it is. Maybe you've let yourself go in some way. Let's just stick to the idea of physicality on this one. How did you get that way? Is it the result of your past actions, you know? Now, listen, sometimes people get injured. Sometimes people have medical conditions that supersede what I'm talking about here, but I'm not talking about a medical tragedy or an accident or a disease. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about let's just say you've let yourself go. You have to accept the fact that you are 20 pounds overweight and out of shape and not able to run around with your children the way you want to or not able to, you know, run a 5K at the time that you want to because of your actions that led you there, you know? It's taking ownership of, okay, I got myself into this mess. You know, that's the law of humility. Everybody's had that moment. I certainly have. I'm like, oh, God. Well, I'm here because I made that decision. Whether it was, you know, two hours ago, two weeks ago, or two years ago, I'm here. I'm here now. Why? Because I made that choice, okay? So think about that one, too. You know, it's about owning and accepting that you are where you are because of your past decisions or actions or lack thereof. Okay, law number four is the law of growth, which states that growth starts within us and you can only control yourself, not others. You are in control of your own personal growth. You are in control of your own emotional, physical, spiritual growth. You are not in control of that of others. You're not. You can control your beliefs. You can control your own perspective. You can control your own actions and your words. You can try to help others or educate others or influence others or make suggestions to others or relate to them in a certain way that may or may not cause an action or a reaction from them. But ultimately, the decision about their lives and their beliefs and their actions, that's up to them. You don't have control over that. Believe it or not, you don't. You know, maybe you know how to trigger somebody, but ultimately, it's their choice to be triggered. You follow me? So just keep in mind that the law of growth, the karmic law number four, is growth starts within us and you really only have control over yourself ultimately. Okay? Moving on to the law of responsibility, which is karmic law number five, which says you need to own what happens to you in life. Again, don't come for me on this one, but what happens to you is because of you. That's what the fifth law of karma states, the law of responsibility. Your choices, your energy, your frequency, your decisions, your actions, it all, everything in your life is because of you. I'm not saying that bad things don't happen to good people and I'm also not suggesting in any way, shape, or form that when something external comes to you and it's really bad, let's say, God forbid, you get into a car accident and it's not your fault, I'm not saying that you deserve that. I'm not saying that. But I am saying that you chose that particular road to be on at that time. Okay? That's what the fifth law of karma suggests. Okay? I know there's argument there. I know that there are different sides of that, but that's what this is saying. What happens to you is because of you. You chose to be in the car that day. You chose to take that route. Okay? That's all it's saying. I'm not saying that you deserve somebody to crash into you, not even a little bit. Okay? Moving on to law number six. This has a lot to do with energy. And you know I love to talk about energy. But the law of connection is a fixed karmic law and it states that everything in your life, including your past, your present, and your future, is connected. And we all know that, you know, logically speaking, yeah, it is. It certainly is. We have a saying in yoga, what you're doing right now is a decision that your 80-year-old self is going to judge you on. So we used to talk about if you guys know those Kegel exercises, you know, when they're pelvic floor strengthening exercises. I mean, they're most commonly associated with women, but men can do Kegels too. And they're exercises that you do to help strengthen the muscles of your pelvic floor. And women often do it after pregnancy or after birth. And we used to say in yoga, you want your 80-year-old self to look back and thank you for what you're doing now, for the choices that you're making now. So we're talking about not only just your physical health but your spiritual health as well and your financial health. You know, the choices and the decisions that you're making now are based upon your past. Right? Maybe you are spending like crazy in your life now because your parents raised you to always save every single dime you had. It's all connected. And then that will therefore affect your future self. You see what I'm talking about? So it could be the opposite as well. Maybe, you know, you were never taught how to save money or anything like that. And now you're present. You're like, I'm 40 years old and I don't have a nickel to my name. And see how that affects then your future self. Like it's all connected. So just keep in mind the sixth law of connection. The sixth law of karma is the law of connection. Everything in your life, including your past, present, and future is connected. You can get into that in a lot of different ways. I like the yoga, you know, example. Because as somebody who spent her life as an orthopedic physical therapist, I've been an orthopedic physical therapist for 33 years. It's a very small part of the work that I do now. But I do have people that won't let me quit. And I love them dearly and they're wonderful. So why would I stop? But as somebody who has made health and fitness a priority her entire life, I mean I grew up running around outside and it's always been a very, very big part of my life. I see through some of my clients those who have taken care of themselves for their lives, throughout their lives. You know, I take care of some people that are in their 80s. And I can see how the choices that they made in the past are affecting them now physically. And that's both positive and negative. I've seen this for years and years and years of people whose physical health has suffered in their later life because they didn't take care of themselves earlier on or in their middle adult life. They're smoking. They're drinking like fish. They're not exercising. They don't stretch. Maybe their stress levels are way too high. Their diet stinks. Or maybe it's a combination of all of the above. I promise you it's not pretty when you're 80 years old and you can't get out of a chair. Or, you know, I'll say it once and I'll say it a million times. I'm getting a little preachy. I'm sorry about the health. But I feel very passionate about this. Your physical body is a vessel that you travel in this lifetime with. You get one. Think of it as a car. You have one car driving through this life. You don't get to trade it in. You don't get to sell it and buy another one. You have one. And it has to last you through your entire lifetime. Take care of it. Maintain it. Treat it properly. You can have all the money you want in the bank. You can have $10 million in the bank when you're 80 years old or 75 years old. If you don't have your health, you're screwed. What is that money going to do for you except buy you more people to pay to take care of your health for you? I'm telling you. Anyway, I'm going to get off that little soapbox. But that's the sixth law of karma, the law of connection. Okay. Moving on to law number seven. Law number seven is the law of focus. And I feel particularly connected to this one because the law states you have to concentrate on one thing at a time. Now, I do feel I'm generalizing here. I feel like it's a lot easier for men as a whole to stick to this law, the law of focus. I feel like women are, in general, able to, you know, they always say there's like 10 things going on in their mind at any given time, and I'm certainly guilty of that myself. But the law of focus is really resonating and stating be here now. Be in the present. Focus on what you're doing. Do it well and then move on to the next. Concentrate on one thing at a time. That's law number seven, the law of focus. Okay. So moving on to law number eight is the law of giving and hospitality. And that states give to the things you believe in. And I love this law. I love this because giving doesn't always mean finances. It doesn't always mean a financial gift. It means your time, your attention, yes, your financials, your giving of your experience, sharing your stories of your childhood, sharing and giving to that which you believe in. So let's just say, for example, you really believe in adopting shelter pets instead of going to breeders. Okay. I'm not saying it's right or wrong one way or the other. But you don't have the time or you don't have maybe the physical space or your work will not allow you to adopt a shelter pet. Okay. There are so many other ways that you can contribute to something that you believe in. You can spread the word on social media that it's, you know, show examples of other people adopting pets. Maybe you share positive stories of adoptions on social media. Maybe, like I do, there's a, I believe very strongly in senior care for pets and these wonderful senior pet sanctuaries. I just, these people are like angels on earth in my personal opinion. There's one in New Jersey. It's called Marty's Place. And it's a senior dog sanctuary. And they take hospice pets that have either been abandoned in the shelters in their older years or their owners couldn't take care of them. And they give them a dignified, beautiful life in their later years and toward the end of their lives. And they take care of them throughout their final days. And I just, I can't get over there and volunteer my time. I can't. I can talk about it here on my podcast. And maybe it will inspire other people to maybe either adopt a senior pet or give their time or their energy or donate to them. What I do every month, they have an Amazon wish list. So every month I send them a can, or excuse me, a case of canned senior dog food. And it's $20, $25, something like that. It's something that I believe very strongly in. And it's something that I do every month. And it makes me feel really good. And it follows along that law of giving and hospitality. And, you know, I know that they appreciate it. And it makes me feel like I'm doing some good in the world. It's a positive action. And it's something that I believe in. Maybe you want to volunteer your time to read to kids at a homeless shelter. Or, you know, maybe you want to, I don't know, work at a water station at one of the local races, you know, because you're community. Maybe you just feel very strongly about community. So you want to donate your time or donate your energy to helping out at a church barbecue or whatever it is. But that's the law of giving and hospitality. That's the law of giving and hospitality. It's the karmic law number eight. And it's wonderful, I think, personally. Okay. Moving forward, here we go. Law of here and now. That's karmic law number nine. And what the law of here and now states is that we should embrace the present, let go of negative thoughts and behaviors from your past. It's about being here and now, living for today. You cannot change the past, unfortunately. I know all of us would love if we had the opportunity to go back and take back something we've said or done or maybe, you know, hell no, I know I would have invested in Amazon right before the pandemic, like one of my friends did. She's like, oh, I just had this instinct that I should buy some Amazon stock. And I'm like, oh, gosh, she made a quarter of a million dollars. God bless. You know what? She's an amazing human. Good for her. Sure, I would go back and change a few things if I could, things that I've said, things that I've done. We've all been there. But the ninth karmic law, the law of here and now says embrace the present. You cannot change anything in the past. Let go of negative thoughts and behaviors from your past because they will affect your present. So let go of them and just realize that you can't change them. So just be okay with that or say, oh, you know what? I can't believe I made that choice. Whatever. You know what? What's done is done. Moving forward. You see what I mean? Okay. Moving on to the law of change, the tenth karmic law is the law of change. And I love this one. This really touches on the idea that we must learn our lessons. So the law of change states that history will repeat itself until you learn the lesson and change the behavior to stop the cycle. I'm going to tap into a client that I was working with who, lovely human being, a young woman, just a lovely human being. And she so desperately wanted to have her person. And she so badly just wants to find her person and get married. And a lot of people are like that. There's a lot of guys out there like that, too. It's fine. It's not right or wrong. It just is what it is. But in her case, every time she got involved in a relationship, she lost herself. Her energy shifted away from her. She put all of her energy into whomever she was dating, into that relationship. She gave her power away. And guess what? Every single time, that relationship failed. It didn't matter who it was with. The relationship ended because she didn't learn. She gave away all of her power. And each time this happened, it would hurt her more. She would get more frustrated. Or it would be a nastier breakup or a more disappointing breakup. And I said to her, listen, been there, done that. Many of us have, okay? I'm not telling you you're a bad person. However, you're not learning a lesson. And you're not changing the behavior to stop this cycle. You keep giving away your power. And you're not sticking to the energy that you were in when the relationship came in. So, for example, I spoke to her recently. And she's working on herself. She's working out. She's focusing on her work. She's fostering her friendships with her girlfriends. And she's not getting super, you know, tied up into, oh, my God, this guy I'm dating. Oh, my God, this guy I'm dating. And that was about a month ago or two months ago when I spoke to her last. And she was doing great. And she was, I'm not saying that you can't put your energy into your relationship. I'm not suggesting that. But what she was doing is she was dumping all of her power into the relationship and forgetting about all the other stuff. So she called me recently. And she's like, you know, I want to do a reading. And I was certainly happy to do it because now she was all nervous because the relationship wasn't working out. And she couldn't figure out why. And I said, what are you doing? This is the same thing that happened last year with the last one. And I said, what is it that you're doing that you did last year? And she says, I'm dumping, yeah, I'm dumping. And I said, yeah, you're making him the center of your universe. You're giving all of your energy to him. That's not what attracted him to you in the first place. Now you've switched it up. So this is going to continue to happen unless you change your behavior. You've got to figure it out. You've got to see it before it happens. Learn your lesson and change the behavior to stop this crazy cycle. Otherwise, you're never going to find the person you want. You're always going to be disappointed. And the universe doesn't play. Would you call it God or the universe or chi or prana, whatever, whoever's pulling the strings, to all of us, the universe does not play. If you don't learn that lesson, it's going to get harder. And it's going to hurt more next time around until the light bulb goes on and you're like, oh, the problem is actually me. What a shock. Anyway, that's the law of change. That's the karmic law number 10. Okay, karmic law number 11. How's everybody doing? Everybody still here? Are you still with me? Thinking of things in your own life that maybe these laws can apply to? Okay, the law of practice, excuse me, the 11th karmic law is the law of patience and reward. And that law states that you should be consistent in your karmic deeds, be consistent in your goals, and they will come to fruition. Consistency is key. Consistency is key. You can't run around being a jerk and throwing negative energy around and being selfish or, you know, just being a person with no integrity and do one nice thing and think that what it is that you're looking to get is going to come to you. It's not, period. You've got to stay consistent. You've got to stay focused. And you have to keep reminding yourself of what your goals are. You know what I'm saying? If you want to drop 20 pounds, you can't keep eating all the bad stuff that got you 20 pounds overweight, go out for one run or go to the gym for a week and think it's going to change. Like, oh, okay, it's going to happen. No, not going to happen. Okay? Karmic law number 12, the 12th law of karma, is the law of significance and inspiration. And that law states that every contribution you make will affect the world. Each of us is born with a specific gift, a specific mission, and a purpose that only we can bring into the world with our own uniqueness. It's authentically sharing your skills, being who you are, and living your life as your best self will affect the world. It will contribute to the world around you, either through your children, either directly through your actions to your community, I mean, or within yourself, just bringing positive energy into the world and shifting a negative to a positive. Whatever it is that you are born with, maybe you're a teacher, maybe you're a public speaker, maybe you're a medium. I don't know. I'm an animal communicator and it seems to be helping. My goal here, you know, is to help people in their lives the way people have helped me. That's why I'm doing this podcast is to only be helpful to people and help hopefully inspire people. But when I do my animal communication work, I want to help these animals and I want to help their owners. You know, everybody's got their own specific gift. Figure out what your mission is. Figure out what your purpose is. What makes you unique? What can you bring into the world? Everybody's got something. Maybe it's just kindness. Maybe you inspire people because you're able to rise above nonsense and still be kind. Maybe you're freaking hilarious. Maybe you're, you know, maybe you bring joy to people around you because you make them laugh. Whatever it is, the law of significance and inspiration states that every contribution you make will affect the world. Maybe you're an incredible parent. Imagine that. Imagine you're an incredible parent and your child grows up saying, I had the most incredible parent. And then they become an incredible parent because of you. Everybody's got something. So just embrace it and really just stay authentic and stay true to who you are. Keep making mistakes and learn along the way, you know. But we're all here for a reason. We all have a divine purpose. Anyway, thank you if you're still here. Thank you so much for going through these 12 karmic laws with me. I hope that in some way I've been able to inspire you or teach you something or give you a tool that helps you to live your best life. I try to stick to as many of these laws as I can. You know, some days are better than others. Let's face it. But I do refer back to them, not just when I'm talking about them on a podcast, but I do try to keep them in mind as I go through my daily life and use them as guidelines, you know. And hopefully you'll be able to do that too. So thank you so much for being here with me. I'm Jennifer Luciana. Like I said, you can check me out on my website. It's JenniferLuciana.com. I'm on TikTok and I'm on Instagram at TheRealJenniferLuciana. I also have a YouTube channel. If you look up Jennifer Luciana, it's there. Those videos are a little bit old, but hopefully still helpful. And I hope you guys have a great day. Thank you so much for being here. Stay blessed, you guys. Find some joy in today, and we'll see you next time. Bye now.