There is always a reaction to any action; nothing goes unnoticed. Many would call this balancing of energy "karma." Colloquially, it might be expressed as, "what goes around, comes around." The golden rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," is another expression of this action-reaction concept. Another way to describe this law of the universe is, as Elizabeth Haich writes in her book, Initiations: "When we strike our hand against a wall, the wall strikes back without intending to! It is not the wall, which really strikes back, but our own blow bounces back. In any case, whatever we hit always gives back the same blow we gave it."

Karma is not about punishment; it is about energy. Remember, every thought, word, and action consists of energy. You activate this energy. Think of Newton's third law of energy: For every action there is an equal reaction.

If you think, speak, and act negatively, this same energy will come back to you. The same holds true if you think, speak, or act positively out of love. The more you create a positive, loving state of energy, the more you will experience this in return.

Karma is a field of energy. It surrounds individuals and seeks balance. People who see energy or auras know that energy, generated from within the body, is evident around the person and extends into the aural field.

During the process of one of my soul retrieval journeys, I came across something that appeared as a dark, looming cloud of energy surrounding my client. I asked my spirit helpers about this energy, and they informed me that it was karma, which had accumulated around this particular person. I shuddered because it looked awful and had the feel of anger and hatred. I immediately thought that we needed to leave this negative energy alone. I believed that others' karma should not be interfered with because it was part of their destiny. (I had always heard that karma, as described in books and by other people, was something a person was stuck with and had to live out.) My spirit helpers said to me, "Jan, are you here to follow your human rules, or are you here to do a healing?"

I was dumbfounded. Never did I expect a comment like that from my spirit helpers. I realize now that this journey was an important turning point in my learning. The spirits used this journey to help me understand that "punishment" is a human concept. The spirits never inflict punishment; they love all beings unconditionally. My spirit helpers taught me repeatedly that all karma is healed through love, as love instantaneously heals and balances all energies.

Loving yourself and loving others will create change in the most adverse situations. Remember, there is no experience that is less or more important than another; there is no lifetime better or worse than another. Each life circumstance comes with its own set of challenges and experiences, and all are part of the exquisite whole.

Karma is not hung on you like a scarlet letter; however, you do build an energy around you. This energy accumulates and is always in motion, as it tries to maintain balance with other energies. Sometimes this balancing is quick; sometimes it will take years; sometimes it flows into other lifetimes, but it will balance. If ever you question why certain things are happening to you, take some time to look at what you are doing and thinking.

You can change your life by changing your thoughts, your words, and your actions. At any time, you may choose the path of enlightenment. All negative life situations, all fear, can be balanced and reversed through love. You can choose to open the heart, forgive, let go, and be happy. No matter what your past, love heals. Even in situations where you find no reasonable explanation for why things happen the way they do, your life can change.

We are not stuck with disastrous lives or having to live out a particular karma if we choose to change our thinking away from fear and judgments. So much of our thinking keeps unfortunate things in motion. If you are experiencing, or have experienced, many struggles and hardships in your lifetime, you can be assured you are not being punished or held in an unmerciful way by some judgmental God. You can also be assured that there is a bigger picture being played out with your life than that represented by current circumstances. There is a divine plan designed uniquely for you that is based in unconditional love.

Judgments prevent you from seeing life from a holistic view, and they keep you caught in your pain. The same holds true for unforgiveness. The failure to forgive imposes chains on the heart of the unforgiving. Forgiving is always for self. It clears the energy field instantaneously. Try it. You will see what I mean. When one forgives another, there is a physical, emotional, and spiritual freedom for both the giver and receiver. Forgiveness, like love, heals two souls at once.

So let me recap. The soul is vast, it is immortal, and it adheres to no timeline. Each lifetime could be represented like an individual word on a page of an enormously long novel. Life creates the story, filled with romance and loneliness, gain and loss, terror and glee, destruction and creativity, betrayal and glory, wealth and poverty, royalty and destitution. All facets of life are experienced wholly, and each lifetime is valuable. Everything necessary to create wholeness for your soul is present. Each lifetime follows the laws of the universe—creating, co-creating, accumulating, being.