You love them and hate them at the same time. You want to be near them but can’t stand their presence all at once. Passion and pain coexist. Unless you experience it, you won’t understand it either.
That is a karmic relationship for you in a nutshell!
A karmic relationship involves irresistible attraction with a tempestuous twist. Not all karmic relationships are toxic though most of them are. They are often intense and short-lived.
If you have not lived through a karmic relationship, all these incongruous aspects will make you wonder, “Why would any sane person want to be in such a relationship?”
From a logical point of view, your thoughts are justified. However, the mysteries of relationships are just that – mysteries. Why you have a relationship with someone and why you do what you do in a relationship is beyond human understanding. It just happens and it is what it is.
A karmic relationship is one such relationship we know very little about but can wreak havoc in the lives of those involved.
Read on to learn more about karmic relationship, meaning, stages, signs, and more. In this article, you will also find tips on how to get out of a karmic relationship.
What is a karmic relationship?
To understand the meaning of a karmic relationship, you first need to know the meaning of karma.
Karma is a Sanskrit word that roughly translates to “action”. The concept of karma finds its origin in the eastern religions, Hinduism and Buddhism. Though they differ slightly in their meanings.
Karma explains the cause and effect in our lives. You reap what you sow. However, in both Hinduism and Buddhism, karma is not restricted to the present life. It is carried over from your past life and can get carried over to future lives. In simple language, this means, that if you do something bad in this life, you may end up paying the price for it in this life or in future lives. And the good things happening in this life are often attributed to the good karma from past lives.
However, the concept of karma diverges in some aspects in the two religions. In Hinduism, karma is considered a suitable behavior as per the roles assigned in society, often including religious rituals. In Buddhism, karma is seen as the right intentions and ethical actions.
Now with “karma” explained, let’s move on to karmic relationships.
A karmic relationship is explained as the reconnection of souls from previous births. Afterlife or life after death refers to the continued existence of the soul of a person after the death of their physical body. The soul of a person is the identity or consciousness of the person. After death, the soul is believed to get reincarnated in another body.
The individuals in a karmic relationship must have been in a relationship in their previous births. After death and reincarnation, they come together in the present life to settle the unresolved issues. The resolution of “unfinished business” is what makes karmic relationships turbulent.
Freeing the soul from its karma is an essential step for it to evolve and enrich itself. This is believed to bring in spiritual awakening or enlightenment.
Karmic relationships can be immensely helpful in your spiritual journey and in realizing your potential. This relationship need not always be romantic. You can have a karmic relationship with practically anyone you know – friends, colleagues, parents, siblings, and other family members.
Types of karmic relationships
Now that you know that a karmic relationship is one at a soul level, you may want to know whether other spiritual relationships can be described as karmic relationships.
The answer is both yes and no. There are at least two more spiritual relationships that we know of – soulmate connection and twin flame relationship. Though all of them transcend lifetimes and run through births and rebirths, they are not the same. The circumstances and the way the souls connect are different.
Let’s understand these soul relationships more to comprehend the difference.
1. Soulmate connection
It is believed that the Universe loves to play cupid and connect up souls and create circumstances to bring soulmates together. A relationship at the soul or spiritual level is meant to help both individuals involved to move on in their life’s journey and find their purpose and fulfill it.
There is nothing more or less to a soulmate connection. Through such a relationship, you find a companion to travel with you through life’s journey, offering you unconditional support and love in the process. All of us are on the lookout for such a person all our lives and when it happens, we feel as if all our desires and dreams have come true.
A soulmate connection doesn’t have anything to do with karma or the splitting of a soul.
Related: How to Recognize Different Types of Soulmates
2. Twin flame relationship
This again is a soul-level connection – a relationship of two people, each possessing the halves of a single soul. At times, after death, a soul splits into two and inhabits two individuals in the next birth. Like two magnets being drawn towards each other, these two soul halves have an overwhelming tendency to come together. It helps that the Universe, the ultimate matchmaker, acts behind the scenes to bring them together.
A twin flame connection has some back story. They were a single soul in their previous birth. Being split from the same soul, they are inevitably drawn toward each other. However, here again, there is no karma involved. Twin flames come together to help each other.
Being a mirror of each other, this relationship is not easy to handle. Due to this, a twin flame connection is intense and short-lived. However, breakups and reconnects are too common.
Related: How to Know If Someone is Your Twin Flame
3. Karmic relationship
When two people in a relationship part ways without resolving their issues, they reconnect in their next birth to sort things out. This is a karmic relationship. They cannot get away from the relationship even if they find it unpleasant or even traumatic.
The Universe works in mysterious ways and this is one such instance. A karmic relationship is something hard to ignore or resist even after understanding the consequences. It is believed that couples need to sort out their issues for their souls to move on. If it is not achieved in one birth, they are brought back together in the next to find a resolution.
Purpose of karmic relationships
The purpose of a karmic relationship is to pay your karmic debts and get past them to move on in life. When in this relationship, you should be able to learn, grow, and heal from past experiences.
The concept of karma is related to the cyclical nature of our existence. We live, accumulate some karma, both good and bad, and die without paying all the karmic debts. When we are reborn, the karmic debt is carried over. Unless we manage to pay off this debt, it will continue to hang like a Damocles sword over our heads.
A karmic relationship is a chance we get to pay off the debt connected to the past relationship.
10 karmic relationship stages
Like any other relationship, a karmic connection also goes through stages – from your sixth sense telling you that something important is happening to finally managing to shake off the toxic relationship.
Here are the 10 stages of a karmic relationship.
1. Dreams and intuitions
Have you ever sensed what is coming to you? Maybe you dreamed about it. Or just felt it in your bones. Often this is how a karmic relationship begins.
2. Coincidence and synchronicities
Something out of ordinary happens in your life and lo and behold! You find yourself in a relationship! You meet this person quite by chance. When you think about it, it feels as though the Universe was conspiring to bring you two together.
3. The encounter
You may bump into this person in an unusual setting but instead of brushing it off as a casual meeting, you seem compelled to pay attention to the person. It feels as if you have known this person forever and this person has a magical hold over you.
It is not unusual to feel an instant connection with this person. This person seems to tug at all the right strings in your heart and arouse a whole lot of esoteric feelings.
4. Feelings and emotions
You can sense a vague feeling of familiarity with the person. This will make you feel at ease in their presence and open up to them more than you normally do with others. You find yourself enjoying their presence. Every moment spent apart seems like ages and your heart longs to see them again.
This person seems to evoke all sorts of sweet and tender feelings in you. Attraction and romance are integral parts of a karmic relationship. It also looks as if the other person is going through the same process as yourself. Soon, you will develop a deep connection with each other.
5. Can’t get enough of it
You are loving this phase. Everything in your world seems perfect. You want more of this and want this to continue forever. You find it hard to focus on anything else in life. You find yourself addicted to this person.
6. Tides turns
From the heights of love, romance, and unadulterated happiness, your life starts slipping away. Drama, chaos, and confusion make an entry unannounced. This is followed by a slew of negative feelings like sadness, anger, and even hate and disgust.
Even now there are moments when you love and care for each other. Unfortunately, the good times are short-lived. You will begin to sense danger at some point. You no longer feel safe with your karmic partner. You feel unsure of where you stand in the relationship. Your words and actions are often misunderstood and they seem to trigger extreme negative emotions in your partner.
7. Old patterns return
What started as love at first sight, soon turned into a bumpy ride. Ups and downs, undesirable situations, and negativity slowly yet surely creep in unawares. It looks as if your life, together with your relationship, is going out of control and you have no say in it.
You may be finding it difficult to explain, but to you, this bad patch seems familiar, as though you have gone through it before. Though you are not aware of it, you are just slipping into the old pattern of your previous life together and repeating the same mistakes.
You find it hard to communicate effectively with your partner. You feel confused and stuck in a rut from which you don’t know how to escape. You are no longer sure who is to blame for all these.
8. Realization and acceptance
This is the moment for you to wake up from your slumber and take matters into your hand. This is the opportunity for you to break free from the set pattern and change the narrative of your life as well as that of your relationship.
Only by resolving your issues, you can set yourself free from this karmic connection.
9. Growth and progress
You feel at peace though your relationship is going through a bad patch. Reaching this stage is not easy; only the strong-willed manage to cut through the chaos and find the right path ahead. The rest continue to struggle in the relationship, not knowing what to do, even when it is crystal clear that the relationship has no future.
The best way out of this turbulent relationship is through self-care. Learning to practice self-acceptance and self-love and cultivating self-belief, self-worth, and self-confidence can help you navigate through this painful period.
In fact, you don’t have a choice about this. You can do this quickly or you can prolong the agony by dragging the relationship longer. Unless you figure this out, you have no escape from your karmic relationship.
10. Breaking free
Being in a karmic relationship can be emotionally draining. The problems pile up so high that you finally decide to get out. This is not exactly easy to achieve as the bond is very strong, transcending lifetimes.
Acceptance and letting go don’t come easy. However, that is the whole point of a karmic relationship. The earlier you manage to achieve this, the faster you can put the relationship behind you and move on in life.
You have learned your lessons and you have paid your karmic debt. You are finally free.
15 Signs of karmic relationship
Ups and downs are common in all relationships. So, how to identify that you are in a karmic relationship? Here are a few telltale signs of a karmic relationship.
- Instant connection and a sense of destiny
- Makes you selfish and addictive
- You want to control and create dependency
- You see repeating patterns
- Makes you irrational and brings out your fears
- Something feels off and you feel unsafe
- Triggers your insecurities and exposes your dark side
- Trouble in communicating your thoughts and feelings
- You feel drained and display self-sabotaging tendencies
- Find yourself unable to resolve issues
- You experience all-consuming emotions like anger and rage
- The relationship stagnates
- Turbulent and short-lived
- Find yourself unable to let it go despite knowing it is unworkable
- You refuse to give up and continue to search for a way out
Karmic relationship vs Twin flame vs Soulmate
All three are relationships that happen at a spiritual level. There ends the similarity. Everything else about them is different.
The way the two individuals involved connect with each other is similar and the initial feelings of familiarity and intense feelings for each other are also there in all three.
However, the purpose of the relationship and how it pans out are different.
While a karmic relationship is all about resolving past karma so that you can move ahead in life, a twin flame connection is just the coming together of two halves of the same soul to reveal their true self to each other. A soulmate connection doesn’t have any purpose other than bringing two compatible souls together.
However, in practice, identifying and differentiating these three relationships are not so easy. At times, to make matters more difficult, you will find elements of two or all three of them in the same relationship. Two people in a karmic relationship can be soulmates or twin flames. The lines get blurred at times, making them hard to recognize.
If you are experiencing love and hatred, joy and sadness, exultation and depression at the same time, you have to be in a karmic relationship. If the relationship is bringing out the worst in you and you find yourself reluctant to let it go despite being aware of the harm, it has to be a karmic relationship.
How to get out of a karmic relationship?
This cannot be repeated often enough – karmic relationships are hard to get out of or let go of. Only by resolving the relationship issues and realigning your thoughts and actions, you can hope to achieve this.
Here are some steps you can try to make this happen.
- Cultivating self-acceptance and self-love
- Forgiving yourself
- Developing a grateful attitude
- Improve your communication skills
- Develop self-respect and confidence
- Learn to stand by your beliefs and be resolute
- Try not to be too hard on yourself
- Set aside some me-time
- Healing meditation, breathwork, and yoga to gain peace and mental clarity
- Get close to nature
- Turn inward and understand yourself
- Analyze your situation from a third-party perspective
- Reach out to family and friends for support
- Make a plan for leaving the relationship
- Lay the foundation for a life of freedom
Bottom line
It may be hard for you to believe now that beautiful life and healthy relationship are waiting for you once you get out of this toxic relationship, especially when the going is tough. Convince yourself that this is just a phase and short-lived. Your life will bloom again.
Karmic relationships come into our lives for a purpose – to free your soul of the karmic debt and achieve spiritual awakening. When you go through the different phases of a karmic relationship, from euphoria to desperation, and eventually breaking free, your attitude and life as a whole will change in ways you never thought possible. That is your ultimate gift.
When you were drowning in toxicity, you were unaware of the burden you were bearing – of unlearned lessons and unresolved issues from your past life. These and more were creating hurdles for your spiritual awakening.
Once you have all that behind you, you are all set for peace, nirvana, and a life filled with love and happiness. Let go of the past and embrace the future.
Recommended Reading: