Some people wonder why their lives are miserable. If they didn’t have bad luck; they’d have no luck at all - and nothing ever seems to improve. Well, for every action there’s a reaction and if most of the actions you taken your life are harsh, uncaring, negative and without love – seems like you can’t expect much else in return.
Life is always filled with consequences and to understand all that, we could begin with Universal Law. If you're more of a secular person, some of the Universal Principles will make sense to you. Here's one: "for every effect there is a definite cause and for every cause", there is a definite effect. Those causes include your thoughts, behaviors and actions.
You’ve also heard the expression “like attracts like”. So what we tend to be attracts others much like us. If we are loving and kind, loving and kind people tend to be attracted to us. If we are evil and harmful, we tend to attract those, too. Sometimes it goes deeper to what you believe about yourself attracts others who demonstrate that. Particularly powerful, that one.
Another Universal Principle we might consider is what you focus on expands. So, if you see your life always wanting for money, guess what you receive (never enough money)! If you see your life filled with abundance, abundance in many forms flows to you. It's a true belief that drives this, not an afformation or wish. This also includes negative thinking verses positive, optimistic thinking.
For the more religious among you - let's refer to quotes from the Bible that specifically speak to the same sort of lesson. Although I am paraphrasing a bit, in Galatians 6:7 it says: What you sew you also reap. Sound similar? The way you live your life shows back up in how your life rolls out.
In Luke 6:37, it says: “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.” Again, more of the same.
They all tie more or less back to the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” This simple rule doesn’t promise what you sew you reap but it does caution us to perform correctly on the first half of the equation and the odds are we'll have a much more loving and caring life. In fact, every major religion on earth teaches the same rule.
Confucianism: “Do not do to others what you would not like yourself.” Analects 12:2
Buddhism: “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.” Udana-Varga 5,1
Hinduism: “This is the sum of duty; do naught onto others what you would not have them do unto you.” Mahabharata 5,1517
Islam: “No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.” Sunnah
Judiasm: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellowman. This is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary.” Talmud, Shabbat 3id
Taoism: “Regard your neighbor’s gain as your gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss.” Tai Shang Kan Yinn P’ien
Zoroastrianism: “That nature alone is good which refrains from doing another whatsoever is not good for itself.” Dadisten-I-dinik, 94,5
And, if that still leaves a few skeptical, we can always harken back to the origins of nature's law of Cause and Effect. If we reflect closely on our lives and our behavior, we have a pretty good idea how the rest of our life might unfold before us.
This might be one of the few circumstances where nobody could disagree with this simple fact – if you want a wonderful life, try being a wonderful person.