The role of karma in relationships is real and we can see it play out in our daily lives and the people around us.

By now we’ve all heard of karma, and we’ve gotten the impression that it’s some malicious force that punishes us for our bad deeds. Not so! Karma is an old Sanskrit word that simply means “deed” but the ethical concept of karma dates back thousands of years in India.

Let’s clarify karma a bit so we understand its real influence over our lives:

What is karma, anyway?

Karma is actually the accumulation of our every thought, intention, and action from this and former lifetimes. It’s like a piece of luggage we carry with us on our trip from life to life only unlike luggage at the airport, it never gets lost! And bad karma doesn’t punish us; it makes us punish ourselves.

Negative karma sets us up for negative cycles that are seemingly never-ending. But just as there’s bad karma, there also exists good karma that protects us from harm and allows us to evolve towards personal joy.

See Also: How to Never Take Life for Granted

How karma really works.

Our ultimate goal is to settle old karma and generate as much positive karma as possible. So how does this energy play out in our romances?

Karma will wreak havoc in our love life if left unresolved (no pressure). Being blind to our individual karma will cause us to blame other people for the wrong things that happen to us.

We might be settling for the same type of partner, or making the same mistakes in relationship after relationship, but our karma won’t allow us to see that. We’ll think it’s bad luck or that all people are liars and cheats.

If we haven’t lifted the burdens of our past, they will block our future. Life is a circle. We travel ‘round and ‘round, meeting the same situations, circumstances, and people because they are part of our unique karma. But if we left the road a piece of baggage on the road some miles back, we’ll meet it again when we come around the circle.

This is why it’s essential that we clear our roadblocks for a smooth trip.

See Also: How to Meditate When All The Other Techniques Don’t Work

Karma, in action.

Breaking karmic patterns can be tricky because we may not have identified the karma that’s causing us to endure the same obstacles. The only way to break the barriers is to take different actions. That’s why we wrote The Karma Queens’ Guide to Relationships, a practical manual for recognizing and ending unwanted karmic cycles. We wanted to show our readers that every decision matters.

Everything we do comes back to us and even the most trivial choice we make now can have a massive impact later. Many times we ignore our karma and act in bad faith or out of ego and selfishness.

Take the case of Susan, who fell in love with a man who was married and had four children. These facts didn’t deter Susan, however, who was tenacious to have Adam if it was the last thing she did! Eventually, Susan charmed Adam to the point that he actually divorced his wife and left his four children. Susan couldn’t be happier, and quickly became pregnant with her own child with Adam. But Adam’s former wife outwitted them both. She sent all four of her children with Adam to live with him and Susan. These children had been thoroughly instigated against Susan and they figuratively ate her alive. She became desperate but Adam wasn’t seeing the problem, partly because these were his children whom he loved dearly. The kids were also influencing Adam against Susan, fabricating stories about bad things she had never done. After a few years, the situation became so strained that Susan actually gave up on the man she had fought so hard to be with. She saw the grim reality of what she had done: she had taken a man away from his family, and the dark karma was now turning against her.

Your story may not be as dramatic, of course, but if you’re not completely happy in a relationship then a karmic component could be the cause.

Use these three principles to create positive karma if you feel something is wrong in your relationship:

Keep sacred your karma

The golden rule to clean karma is to act with integrity not for other people, but for your own sake. Smile at everyone, even if they don’t smile at you. Keep sacred your karma by remaining aware of your thoughts, intentions, and actions.

It doesn’t matter who has mistreated a million times. You must continue to act according to your karmic reputation and not in response to the other person’s actions.

Continue to be compassionate yet indifferent. This doesn’t mean that you should keep sacrificing for a person who doesn’t treat you the way you deserve, or that you have to yield to their every whim. But you must still show a degree of understanding under any circumstance.

Don’t retaliate

Our first reaction when we’ve been wronged is to seek revenge, and this is normal. But in the long run this causes us much more harm than the temporary good it brings. Whether you’ve been betrayed or not, don’t resort to betraying another person.

Remember the phrase, do unto others as you would have them do unto you? Never forget it! If you’re unhappy in your relationship, simply move on but never purposely fool or mislead others just to satisfy your ego. Taking revenge will only backfire on you as it will trap you and perpetuate bad karma so that it continues on indefinitely in your life.

See the bigger reason

When we make a mistake, we tend to blame and criticize ourselves endlessly. Mistakes help us to resolve karma if we make the right choices. We all have some sort of outstanding karma. Karma certainly builds up in time and it’s nearly impossible to keep a completely clean record.

Errors in life are sometimes necessary because they can help end our karma, our soulful ties with people, places, or things. For example, many of our clients have made mistakes that have ended the relationship with their partner. At first they couldn’t forgive themselves but in time they’re actually grateful that the relationship came to an end because they weren’t completely happy.

There’s no escaping our karma, and why should we want to? If we keep our karma unstained and honor our karmic duties, we will get exactly what we deserve: inner peace, endless joy, and a truly fulfilling relationship.

To good karma,
Dr. Carmen Harra and Alexandra Harra

The post The Role of Karma in Your Relationships appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

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Do you want to learn how to use Snapchat?

I had heard of Snapchat but never paid much mind to it. Then I saw a bunch of people in my Twitter feed talking about it, using it and having fun with it. My interest was piqued and I decided to give Snapchat a whirl.

At first, I had no idea what to do or how to use Snapchat. Now I’m using it like a boss. You can too. I’m giving you the inside scoop. I’ll explain and show you how to use Snapchat, so let’s get started.

Set up Snapchat

1. Get the Snapchat app from the Apple app store or Google Play.
2. Set up your Snapchat account.
3. Add your friends or others you want to follow.
4. Tap the Ghost icon on the top of your screen. This opens your profile page.

For your profile page:

• Customize your Snapcode – Take a picture or video for your friends and followers to see. This appears in your ghost icon.
• Settings – In the upper right-hand side of Snapchat, tap the gear icon. Here you’ll manage privacy and additional user settings.
• Find – Add more friends. Follow brands and celebrities.
• See your score – Your Snapchat interactions create your score. See your snap score under the ghost icon, next to your Snapchat username.
• View Trophies – In the upper center of your screen view your Snapchat trophies by tapping on the trophy icon.

See Also: 8 Things You Didn’t Know There Was an App For

Start Snapping Pictures and Videos

With your phone in regular camera mode, you can take pictures as you normally do. Tap the circle button displayed in the lower middle of your screen. To take a video press and hold the button down.

1. Once you take a picture, you can add a filter by swiping right.
2. To use more than one filter after you’ve applied your first filter, hold your finger on the screen and swipe right with another. This is called stacking.
3. You can also add filters to videos by swiping right. With video, you get a few more options to use, although you can’t stack. Video lets you make your video display in rewind mode, Fast (rabbit) mode or super slow (snail mode).
4. You can share the picture or video with your friends or add it to your Story, which I get into a little further on in this guide.

Take Selfies and Videos. Customize Them.

1. From your profile page, swipe up. To take a selfie, tap the flip camera icon in the upper right corner. Next, tap the circle button in the lower middle of your screen to snap a photo or hold it down to record a video.
2. Want to add text? No problem. Go to the upper case T on the top right-hand side, then tap and type a caption to add to your picture or video.
3. Add some stickers by tapping on the small icon that looks like a piece of paper with the edge flipped up.
4. Draw a picture or doodle on your selfie with the pencil icon located in the upper-right of your screen.
5. Add filters by swiping right on your screen. You can unlock even more filters specific to your area by turning on location-based services.

To use lenses:

• In selfie mode hold your finger down on your face on your phone screen (not the take photo button).
  Now Snapchat will scan your face and you will see lenses that you can use to take a selfie or video within the lower right. Check them out; they are super fun!
• To use a particular lens tap it before you snap a selfie or video of yourself and it will be applied.
  Incoming Snaps and Chats
• To view incoming snaps and chats from your friend’s swipe right.
• To see a snap from a friend, tap once on your friend’s name to open it. Over time, the emoji next to your friend’s names will change based on your interaction with them.

Open a Chat

1. To chat with a friend, swipe right on their name. You can tap on a line of text, picture or video you want to save in case you need it later.
2. Send your friend a picture with the picture icon in the lower left.
3. You could also have a voice conversation by tapping on the icon shaped like a phone.
4. Use the quick snap button (little circle) within your chat to and send it to your friend.
5. Tap on the video camera icon and to have a video chat with your friend.
6. Send your friend some art with the smiley face icon.

Check your Privacy Settings

1. From your profile page, click on the settings icon, the little gear in the upper right-hand screen of your phone.
2. Scroll down to Who Can… Contact Me and View My Story.
3. Tap on View My Story. Then, select who you want to have access to view your story. The options are Everyone, My Friends or Custom, where you pick and choose who sees what.

See Also: Must-have apps for women who love to travel alone

View Stories

To learn how to use Snapchat, you’ll need to know about stories.

Want to view your friend’s compilation of videos and pictures? Swipe left on your phone’s screen to open the stories page. These only last for a 24-hour time frame so be sure to check the stories page often. Make your stories to share with your friends or you can make them public for all to see.

More pro-tips about stories:

• You can also watch stories made by brands and celebrities on Snapchat.
• Live stories are ones happening around where you live. They are from local users snaps and made by the Snapchat team.
• To keep things moving along, you can tap on your screen to see the next snap without waiting.

Once you learn how to use Snapchat, you’ll get used to the way it works and be a pro in no time. You might even wonder what you did without it. It can be a bit addicting at times but always fun! Snap and share my friends, snap and share.

The post How to Use Snapchat Like a Boss appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

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Do you want to know our secret on ways to travel the world for FREE?

If you are a traveler, you certainly know that traveling can be far too expensive. The good news is that there are ways out there to travel cheaper and longer. You may even end up traveling for free!

All you need to do is to challenge your comfort zone and think outside of the box. Even better, be outside the box or as I prefer to say, get rid of it! You need to play your cards right in order to be able to travel more and avoid paying too much.

Here are the 3 smart ways you can travel the world cheap or for free.

#1 SAVINGS

Are you tired of people saying you can’t save money if you don’t earn a ton? It doesn’t matter how much you make. The only thing to consider for money-saving is to spend less than your income.

These are some easy ways to increase your income:

1. Do you love animals? Be a puppy-sitter and earn some extras.
2. Find part time jobs.
3. Consider freelancing

After getting or increasing your income, count your monthly earnings and cut down your expenses. It’s important to write down every single penny you spend to avoid unnecessary costs. Mint is an app to help you monitor your income and outcome.

These are some expenses you could limit:

• Accommodation:
– Find a roommate. Fewer expenses and more fun!
– Join AirBnB and rent your apartment or a room for a couple of weekends per month.
– Bargain for better deals for your phone, mobile, internet contracts, etc.

• Transportation:
– Use public transportation to avoid expensive taxis and gas for your car or motorcycle.
– Buy a monthly ticket for public transportation.
– Try services such as Uber.

• Entertainment:
– What about home parties or gatherings with friends?
– Do it like a student! Have pre-drinks at home before a night out to spend less.
– Avoid costly events, festivals and parties.

• Food and grocery shopping:
– It’s time for you to learn how to cook!
– Avoid eating out. Search for Super Market deals.

#2 BUDGET TRAVELING

Learn how to manage your travel budget and create the perfect long-lasting travel experiences. Discover some cool tips and hacks to improve this skill and make saving cash a breeze. These tips will help you spend less for your airfare, accommodation, transportation and activities.

1. Do it like a local

Don’t treat yourself as a tourist if you are not willing to spend all your savings. Touristy areas tend to be way more expensive when it comes to your stay, food, drinks or activities.

There are websites and apps out there ready to help you create a real local experience. Couchsurfing is an excellent way to meet locals. Stay with them or let them guide you to explore insights into the local culture.

Instead of entering touristy restaurants, go to local pubs and join happy hours, local fairs or festivals. Look for bargains and shop from local markets.

See Also: The Top 6 Travel Locations for Single Men 2016

2. Passes and Discounts

So many offers and discounts are in front of us when traveling, but we tend to avoid them. Even if you are not able to find any, use your negotiation skills.

Check out discount stores. Many of them sell all kinds of tickets at a discount, passes, gift cards, etc. Visit a tourist information point even if you don’t consider yourself as a tourist. You can find discounts, free maps, and free events to join, so why not.

Use museum passes. Many of them will pay for themselves, and you will be able to keep coming back, or visit other sights that might otherwise not be worth the expense.

Additionally, make sure to negotiate deals. You can get great discounts when personally contacting an airline, a hotel, a rental, etc.

3. Group Traveling

Traveling alone isn’t a wise thing to do if you want to travel cheap. If you’re a solo traveler, find or form a group of people who are traveling the same destinations as you.

Case in point, reserving a hotel is not solo travel-friendly. Lots of hotels charge supplements for single travelers; single rooms tend to be quite basic and stripped down. Double rooms are cheaper and quad rooms are only a little more expensive than the double ones.

On the other hand, group discounts are literally everywhere! Whether that’s a tour, train tickets, a festival, etc., most service providers are willing to give over 10% discounts for small groups.

Do things as a group, even if you are a solo traveler. You’ll be surprised with the offers you can get for a group booking or the money you save when sharing your hotel room or getting group tickets. Check out Lifeky to organize a group travel and find travel buddies.

4. Avoid travel agents and touristy finding services

Go direct to the source to get an offer for the best accommodation. Agents charge fees and mostly offer high-priced rooms without discounts.

Use guidebooks. They are easy to find online for many services you might need when traveling.

See Also: 5 Common Travel Fears and How to Overcome Them

5. Services provided by nonprofessionals

More or less, we are all familiar with the sharing economy solutions and services provided by nonprofessionals. There are several websites, platforms and even blogs out there providing these kinds of services and most of the time, they are great value for money deals.

Do your research! Apart from the ones we’ve mentioned already, there are several local nonprofessional services out there.

#3 FREELANCING

Providing online freelancing services as a way to fund your travels is a very good idea for two reasons:

1. Be your own boss. You can work whenever and for as many hours as you wish, from any place around the globe. All you need is your laptop and some creativity.
2. Sell value, not time. A significant part to consider is that you need a job that brings in income without the need to spend hours and hours of work, as your primary occupation is to travel.

To succeed as a freelancer and generate revenue you need to follow a couple of rules:

• Create real value based on your skills and expertise, not your time.
• Commit to your job as you would do if you were Amazon’s CEO or at least as a small business owner.

Does it sound too stressful? Don’t worry! You don’t need an MBA at Stanford to profit as a freelancer. What you need to do is to feel and act like a professional and spend some time to answer these questions:

• Product – What kind of services are you willing to produce?
• Clients – Who would purchase your services?
• Distribution Channels – How will you reach your customers?
• Metrics and Automation – How will you fasten your work and count your results?
• Brand name – What do your clients have to say about you?
• Costumer experience – How will your customers be tremendously satisfied?

To answer the questions, follow the steps below.

STEP 1: List your skills!
Don’t miss out any of them! People tend to skip qualifications they believe are too obvious or not valuable enough. You will probably skip a skill you think isn’t useful enough or too noticeable. For example, you might be relationship advisor expert or you have skills in interpreting dreams. You will be surprised at how many services you’ll come up with.

STEP 2: List skills you could acquire easily.
Learn and list skills close to your field of knowledge which could be obtained in less than a 20-hour study. It could be a landing page design, basic video editing, etc.

STEP 3: Google your skills and potential skills listed and seek out opportunities globally.
Check out freelancing platforms like Fiverr or People Per Hour. Try to identify services in high demand and get inspired!

STEP 4: That’s your product.
Sum up what you have discovered. Combine your skills to provide services in high demand and get clients. No, you don’t need to be a professional designer, developer or an expert in any field to be able to provide services. Come up with the need you could cover in some way better than your clients do themselves. This means higher quality, or faster or cheaper services. For instance, you might be an excellent writer and able to compose great product reviews and in half time. So, that’s your product from now on!

STEP 5: Find your clients and distribution channels.
You can find online freelancing platforms to sell your services. To give you an idea…

• Sell blog posts at Zerys.
• If you are a designer, 99designs is ideal for you.
• For custom projects, visit freelancer.

STEP 6: Start. Test. Automation.
Create 6 to 10 different service offers, start promoting them in 1 to 3 different platforms and find where you gain the most results. Keep the services and channels that fit you the most, and automate them for your time management strategy. For example, if you are a PPT presentation creator, find the highest in demand template and use only this one.

STEP 7: Create your brand.

• Ratings are vital when freelancing. Don’t risk losing them! To get a high rate:
• Reject “problem-creator” clients.
• Refund directly dissatisfied customers.
• Ask testimonials from satisfied customers.

STEP 8: Create a great customer experience.
Customer experience even in big corporations and firms is based on two principles:

• Happy customers come back and suggest your service to others.
• What excites customers the most is an even better experience than the one expected.

Remember, always be kind, enthusiastic and a professional.

#4 ORGANIZE A GROUP TRIP & FUND YOUR TRIP

What about organizing your dream trip for a group? This is one of the ways to travel the world for free.

As an individual, you can be a nonprofessional trip planner and share it with ideal co-travelers. If you feel incapable of organizing your trip, finding friends to join you, and have no budget, use your creativity to:

• Create an amazingly unique plan and convince travel buddies to follow
• Place yourself among top travel pros using a unique selling point
• Fund your trip taking advantage of group booking discounts

All you need to do is follow the steps below:

1. Capture the idea
What kind of trip could you organize? You have a hint about what you would like to plan but it isn’t clarified in your head yet. If you can fit an overall travel experience in within three lines, keep going! You are on the right path, and you can explain your idea to third parties.

2. Create a social trip
Figure out your plan’s details and imagine the overall experience. What’s your secret sauce that would make your idea irresistible?

The magic formula you’ll figure out yourself is that it’s all about social traveling. It’s not about the destination nor the activities. It’s all about people! At the end of the day, it’s whom you live it with that you’ll remember.

That’s why you need to make sure to prioritize the human factor and answer the question “Who would you like to live it with?”. To define the perfect co-travelers, firstly you need to clarify what could bond you. Is it a common interest, hobby or personality? Let your shared values lead you to the answers on what to do and where to go.

3. Bargain for the best deals
What if I told you that you can approach travel service providers, ask for an offer and get a discount that could fund your trip participation? When seeking for a group booking instead of a single booking, you can indeed achieve a lower price and a better deal. Makes sense right?

Providers are willing to give over 10% discount for a group of 10-15 individuals. Do the math! Don’t hesitate; it’s up to you to find the best deals and reliable providers offering the best “value for money” deals.

All you need to do is start your research, make some phone calls, write emails and there you are. When best offers are on table, you can choose the most valuable.

4. The presentation. Where to say what and how?
The first thing to consider is which channel to choose. A self-created website, world of mouth, or social media? They are all different options. That’s why you need to set some criteria.

The perfect channel is the one that will lead you to the ideal co-travelers. Make sure to reach them. The most tested channels are found online. My suggestion? Keep it digital! This is how you can ensure your message will be heard and gain supporters. You should even consider the viral effect.

Secondly, what are you going to say via the selected channel? The best way to show people they can trust and like you is to represent yourself. Tell them your story, be honest, and let them know what makes you a great trip organizer.

What travel experience do you have to offer? You don’t need to focus on scheduling the trip day after day; that would make you a tour operator. Share a flexible travel plan full of creative ideas and inspiration. Keep in mind the sequence: Who. What. Where. Last but not least, present your offers and what your negotiation skills have achieved.

You’ve got it so far but do not know how to make your presentation outstanding. I have some tips for you

• A catchy title will attract more potential co-travelers. Ways to travel the world for free (or at least, much more cheaply than you’d expect) is already a catchy idea.
• Make it interactive. Use videos and photos for each topic explained above. They will make you presentation appealing, and you’ll gain attention. Additionally, they are easy to share!
• Add some fun. A funny story and some humor are more likely to bring attention and make you likable. Keep your content updated.

5. How to sell it
You have a great plan and presentation, but are you going to fulfill your travel desire if you are not able to find co-travelers? Gain specifically targeted traction to reach people you would like to join.

Lucky you, the web provides ways and tools to find, approach and engage like-minded people. I would like to share some excellent tips, even top marketers all around the world use:

– Uniqueness. One-up what “competition” offers and be unique.
– Social Media. Share the plan on your Social Media and ask your online circle of friends to share.
– Create real value. That could happen through a blog post. Are you a blogger? Perfect, but even if you are not, consider guest blogging in targeted media.
– Let Google find it. You could spend mere $10 on Google AdWords and gain targeted followers and potential co-travelers.
– Communities. Even if you are not willing to pay anything, the magic tool called “Social Media” is an awesome way to find travel buddies. Exclusive travel apps or mass social networks are both perfect. Find targeted Facebook groups, or Google Plus communities, join and share your plan. Get them involved, ask for their feedback!
– #Hashtagtime. Use hashtags that match your idea on Twitter, Instagram, etc. People you are looking for — people who are also looking for ways to travel the world for free — will search for you through them. Even consider creating your own hashtag to describe your idea.

Did you enjoy the article? Did you gain more ideas on ways to travel the world for free? Spread the world and share!

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