Karma Farmer

For the last couple of weeks I have struggled with my mindfulness and happiness.

I have been spending time with a friend who has had health issues and is in need. Friends have had fall outs with each other. I had another bout with the dreaded fatigue.
All of this has seeped into my life in a negative energy kind of way, and left me feeling flat and exhausted.

When things get on top of you, or all come at once, it is hard to tread the water and keep your head above!

I have had to go back over all my tools, re-reading certain posts from this blog, and my favorite books, to bring myself back to where I need to be.

It is easy to let sneaky negative influences creep in when all seems to be problematic. The Buddhists believe there are no problems, just situations. I am trying to focus on solutions for situations rather than the problems I first saw, because as we all know, focusing on something will just make it bigger and stronger. And there is always a solution...or there could be no problems!

I have moved away from concentrating on what is upsetting my friends or myself and really started thinking about how I can deal with the situation, without getting too emotionally involved, because if I do that and gather the negative energy, I am of no help to anyone.

I have come up with solutions that I can use, and this has left me feeling positive and active. I may not be able to solve a whole situation, but I can certainly start improvements.

So I re-read, used the tools, caught some sunlight whenever I could, rested, meditated, cleared my mind...it has been going 100 miles a millisecond with all of this. LOADS of junk mail! It has been quite a job to keep reminding myself that it is just junk mail and that I am telling myself stories when I imagine; this is happening because...or someone meant that when they said...or they must think this...all just made up stories.

When we get angry, upset or negative we want to change the external, we want someone to behave differently, or say something else, or see things our way. But it is the internal we need to concentrate on, only we can let ourselves feel negative, upset or angry with a situation. We can only change the internal. We can only really be happy when we are aware of the internal. When we feel anger, but can accept it, and make a choice not to act negatively on it, we are empowering ourselves. We have made a positive choice.

So all this was going on when I came across this Chinese saying about Karma;

If you plant melons, you will harvest melons. If you plant beans, you will harvest beans.

How true, how simple. It gave me an idea for a new tool. Karma Farming!
What if every time I planted a seed of good karma (a positive action), I actually visualize a little paddock marked say COMPASSION and I planted a little seed.

So I set up my imaginary farm. I have paddocks for all the good qualities that I deem important. I even have a paddock for each of my children; every time I am patient or kind (when feeling frazzled!) off I go to the little paddock and plant the seed. Very soon I will have many crops! And I will be repaid in the same way; I will sow my reward...because that’s how Karma works.

And it is fun! My farm is in a sweet little valley and the paddocks have charming wooden fences with arches over the gates with the name of each quality that I am sowing. I am taking great care...I’m a Karma Farmer!

suzy x