A reader sent an email asking the following: When someone has a very hard life, and has dealt with rough circumstances since childhood, does that mean they are experiencing the fruits of bad karma?

Bad karma could create an opportunity for you to correct previous actions and lead to tough circumstances in order to do that. For example, you might have lived a previous life as a thief in which you stole money from people who needed it. Then in another lifetime, you may have been given the opportunity to learn what that feels like by having someone take something very valuable from you.

However, just because you’re going through a tough time or find yourself living a challenging life doesn’t mean you’re making up for a previous wrong doing.

We choose the circumstances of our lives prior to that lifetime. There are certain experiences that we want to have and certain lessons that we want to learn. If we think that certain circumstances will help us to learn a particular lesson, then why not bring them on?

Also, we sometimes look back on challenging circumstances and realize that they were the best things that ever happened in our lives — in retrospect. For example, have you ever met someone who got laid off and out of a desperation for money they explored a career opportunity that they would not have explored otherwise and it turned out to be a great move for them?

There are so many similar stories, which is why it is not a great idea to label a circumstance while you’re still influenced by it. When you look back on past experiences, you can easily see how some bad things were blessings in disguise, while some things that you believed to be great at the time were really forks in the road that took you down a dark path.

Old souls — those who have reincarnated many times and have many life lessons under their belt — often agree to take on very challenging life circumstances so they can experience a deeper level of growth and expansion. We all know that our most challenging times are often the times in which we grow and change the most. So equating tough circumstances to bad karma isn’t always accurate.