“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” This is the power of responsibility, the complete ownership of who you have been, who you are, and who you will become –  Victor Frankl  ” Man’s Search for Meaning.

When you don’t take responsibility for your life, you give up your power and get caught in a cycle of victimization. Your life feels as if it is predetermined by the erratic whims of people and situations that are beyond your control. You blame your parents, your genetics, your relationships, your educational status, the economy, the political climate, and countless other factors as the cause of your unhappiness. This “victim” or “poor me” mentality is not only unproductive and stagnant, it is unhealthy and damaging to your sense of self.

With the attainment of personal responsibility, however, comes a higher awareness. Responsibility is a declaration that you will no longer be a victim. It implies that you can chart your course rather than being tossed around like a ship without a rudder on a stormy sea. Those outside events no longer determine your destiny. Even in challenging times you can take responsibility for how you will view the situation and see it as an opportunity for growth.

Karma, the Sanskrit word for action, implies not only the actions you take in the form of thought, speech, and deed, but also the consequences of those actions. Every action you take generates a force of energy that returns to you in kind. The energy you put out into the universe will at some point return to you.

The Law of Karma is a system of checks and balances that manages how that energy is registered and how it comes back into your life. There’s nothing mystical about karma; it is the direct expression of cause and effect

Becoming responsible is recognizing that where you find yourself in this moment is the culmination of all the choices you have made throughout your life. Countless decisions and choices have led you to this very moment. Understanding that you, as infinite choice makers, either consciously or unconsciously, have been sculpting the clay of your experiences into the reality you are now living is an incredibly powerful moment of awakening.

It’s not always easy and can sometimes be uncomfortable to see your life as the result of both good and bad choices, but ultimately you recognize that it’s you; it’s always been you. Once you own that knowledge, you can become the conscious creator of your experience going forward.

Owning your karmic debt means that you are accountable for yourself. No one speaks for your actions or your lives but you. You alone answer for your choices and actions. This is a powerful insight that helps to keep you honest and cognizant of making evolutionary choices that are nourishing for everyone touched by your actions.

Knowing that you will have to be accountable places the steering wheel of your life squarely in your lap. At the deeper soul level of awareness, shifting responsibility doesn’t exist as an option. In this way accountability is a gift that helps to keep you in your lane—nudging you back to ever increasingly appropriate choices.

Becoming responsible gives you the freedom to have a creative response to every situation as it exists now. When you are trapped in a karmic loop of conditioned behavior, you are unaware, and therefore unable to make a different choice. When you choose to take personal responsibility for yourself and make conscious choices, you can bypass the unhealthy programs of your past conditioning. As Swami Vivikananda reminds us, “Karma is the eternal assertion of human freedom. . . Our thoughts, our words, and deeds are the threads of the net which we throw around ourselves.”

Expanding your awareness to witness your choices gives you the means to cut the binding net of your old, limiting actions and make a spontaneous and creative new choice.

Excerpt of article written by Adam Brady and published on https://chopra.com/articles