Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?
Have you ever asked the question “why do bad things happen to good people?” Or (even more confusingly) “why do good things happen to bad people?”
Often we just throw our hands up and say “life’s not fair!” However, this is an incorrect statement because life indeed is fair. We all create our realities using the same rules as everyone else. It’s just that the rules have nothing to do with being good or bad!
To understand these rules, the first thing we should keep in mind is that many of us have been raised to believe that good deeds are rewarded and bad deeds are punished. We are programed to believe that if we act as if we are “good,” good things will happen and if we act “bad,” bad things will happen.
Now, this type of programming is used to manipulate our actions so that we will behave the way our parents, teachers and governments want us to behave. However, even though our parents, teachers and governments believe that good and bad can be defined and receive consequences, the universe does not.
The truth is, the universe isn’t punishing or rewarding anyone. Again, I’ll say it again for more effect: the universe isn’t punishing or rewarding anyone.
The universe is only ever responding to your thoughts through the Law of Attraction. You get what you expect, regardless of how good or bad you are. That’s it. If you expect that “good” things are going to happen to you, it doesn’t matter if you are mean or nasty. Your expectations will still yield positive results.
The same is true in reverse. You may be the nicest, kindest and most helpful person, but if you have negative expectations about how things are going to turn out in life, that is what you will get.
So, although we have been taught that we should be good and do good by others to get good things, what really matters is what we think will happen to us. This is why we all know a few “bad apples” who have the best luck, and a few “good apples” who are always getting beat up by life’s circumstances.
If you don’t believe me, look for evidence in your surroundings. Check out your friends, relatives and coworkers, especially the ones who seem to have particularly good or bad luck. You will find that it isn’t how “good” or “bad” they are that determines their realities, but rather it is their expectations.
For example, I have a personal friend who is one of the nicest, kindest, and most generous people I know. She’s absolutely wonderful. However, she always seems to be getting sick, she has money problems, relationships issues and problems at work.
Why does this friend suffer so much? Well, she’s always talking about her bad luck and her problems. She’s always worried about the future. She’s always concerned about how things are going to turn out. Therefore, the universe delivers her a reality that is chock-full of bad luck, worry and concern.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, I think back to a manager I had several years ago who was rude, arrogant and irresponsible. She was hated by just about every member of the staff. However, she was given promotion after promotion, and good things just seemed to drop into her lap.
Why did this manager do so well? Well, she was always talking about how great she was, and how much everyone loved her and how deserving she was. None of the rest of us agreed, but what we thought didn’t matter because we weren’t the ones creating her reality-she was.
Now this doesn’t mean that good deeds are irrelevant. For many of us, being kind to others and helping our fellow man helps us feel good and lifts our spirits. If you feel uplifted by helping others, helping others is a great idea-because it makes you feel good about you! Feeling good about you will definitely help you receive good things from the universe.
Spreading love and kindness are great ways to raise your vibration and make you feel good about who you are and what you are deserving of. So keep doing that, because it absolutely can help.
Just remember, though, that the most important thing is that you have positive expectations for yourself. Ultimately, your expectations are what dictate what you get and what’s held away from you. Without positive expectations for yourself, no amount of kindness, generosity or helpfulness will ever deliver you a positive reality.
What happens to you is ultimately an inside job. You don’t have to run around trying to prove how good you are or how deserving you are based on anyone else’s rules or expectations. What matters is how you feel about yourself and how you feel about the things you want.
So be as “good” as you need to be to feel good about yourself, and take measures to be as optimistic as possible about the things you want. Talk up your strengths, and speak about your desires as if you expect them to manifest in your life. This is how you create reality the way you wish it to be.
I hope this helps to answer the question “why do bad things happen to good people?” If you have any thoughts on this subject, please let me know below in the comments!
Thanks for reading,
Andrea
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Image Source: This image was reproduced with permission from the artist, Cameron Gray. All rights reserved.
25 Comments
Amanicat
Andrea!
Thank you for sharing. This article helped me to understand deeper how powerful our thought can be. Most important thing is it helped me and make me confident to always listen, believe to myself rather than listen to other people just to make them happy or try to fit in with them. As we know we are the only one who responsible of our live not others.
Keep up! Love your blogs and glad to share positive energy with u here 🙂
Andrea Schulman
Hi Sovi! Thanks for your sweet comment. I really appreciate it. Have a great day <3 -Andrea
Bobby
Great article as always!!! Sooo true! Watching the secret right now as I read this. Feeling very rejuvenated! Amazing things to come!
Andrea Schulman
Thanks Bobby! That’s my favorite movie…I may have to watch it again this week too 🙂 🙂
Babs
Does the LOA apply to children who are unaware of mindfulness? I have to take exception to the LOA on the issue of child abuse as children have no way of attracting or deflecting their parents or caregivers. I’m just standing up for survivors of CA. Love your blog!
Andrea Schulman
Hi Babs!
GREAT question, and one that I’ve thought about at length as someone who has had a similar past. The way I have personally resolved this question is that I’ve come to believe that perhaps my consciousness selectively chose a particular childhood path that would provide me with clarity for what I wanted in this lifetime. I have gained a lot from my early childhood experiences that I wouldn’t give up now (despite the pain), and they have shaped me into having greater spiritual awareness than I think I would have been able to have without them.
If you follow Abraham-Hicks at all, they talk a lot about the power of clarity from the dark side (or what they call “contrast”), and that the movement from the dark to the light is one of the most powerful and rewarding experiences any of us can have. That resonated very strongly with me as it is exactly how I have experienced it…
I could write a lot about this but I’ll just share one more story. As a teacher I had a young man in my class who had suffered extreme early trauma, orphaned at a young age and having had to endure homelessness in high school. However, this young man is one of the sharpest, most inspirational and most influential people I’ve ever met…he shines so bright I was floored to learn about his past. I’ve chosen to believe that this young man has risen because of the trauma, not in spite of it, and perhaps it was a very particular life situation his consciousness chose in order to help him access his greatness.
I may have to write an article about this…thanks for asking such a great question Babs! <3- Andrea
Ash
Wow, I love this article because it really helps you understand the law of attraction in real life!
Andrea Schulman
Thanks Ashly! Glad you liked it 🙂 -Andrea <3
Anonymous
It has to me bad as happened to good my brother nd father cheated me 10crores hats of to cheaters
Andrea Schulman
Thanks for sharing your story Anonymous 🙂 -Andrea
Sally
Loved this article thank you. It was very refreshing ????
Andrea Schulman
Thank you Sally! Much appreciated. -Andrea 🙂
val
Havoc can also be created in a person’s life, not by your energy (words, thoughts, feelings, actions) but also by the negative energy of another person (their words, thoughts, feelings, actions) in close proximity. You could become ensnared by their mess being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sometimes bad things happen to us as a consequence of somebody else’s sin or by somebody else’s negative energy. (Columbine and movie shootings). Man, by himself, is indeed a victim of circumstances. Negative things happen to him that are out of his control, but tapped into God’s power, all good things are possible.
Remember Jonah proved this in the Bible. He ran from God to escape, got on a ship and a big storm came. Everyone on that ship was in that storm because of him. That is why you do not want to hang out with negative people because they attract negative situations to themselves. God may give you warnings to flee or cause something to happen that may make you late, thus saving your life.
Andrea Schulman
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Val. Very interesting connection you’ve provided! Much appreciated <3 -Andrea
Madhoolika
Superb. I was undergoing a lot of turmoil. Many questions answered.
Andrea Schulman
Thank you for commenting Madhoolika! Thanks for your positive feedback 🙂 -Andrea
Rebecca
Andrea, l am loving what you are saying. I was thinking, this is the answer to what I have been doubting! And then l knew l had an example (unfortunately). My partner… he is loving, supportive, accepting, amazing! But, he was married for 28 years. He had positive expectations for the future, no doubts, no worries concerning his wife and then boom! She had an affair, walked out on him, left him devastated and he had no clue! He never expected it, worried about it… he trusted her implicitly. It never crossed his mind… He was totally shocked. So isn’t this an example of him not creating his future? Is it different because it is to do with someone else? Was it meant to happen so we could be together? It just seems a bit simple, if you don’t mind me saying, what you are trying to say. I know people who just don’t think, have no expectations, or no worries and randomly good or bad things happen to them. Surely life is more complex than just expecting good things to happen? There are examples around us. I knew a man who was deeply depressed, he thought negatively and was a pessimist, but he found love! I don’t believe he created that! What do you think?
Andrea Schulman
Hi Rebecca:) You are right, it IS very simplistic, however in the big picture it does get quite complicated. Our realities are constructed by an infinite number of details, and therefore they are the sum total of all of our thoughts, beliefs and expectations. In other words, there’s a lot going on in our minds that contributes to what actually occurs in reality. It’s hard to completely gain control over one specific issue or concern because there are so many other things going on in the background that have the capacity to interfere with the ultimate output.
So it would be hard for me to guess the reason as to why this happened to your partner especially as I can’t ask him specifically. Perhaps he trusted her but wanted more? Perhaps there were other issues in his life that spilled into this arena? Perhaps being left was something he’d experienced before in other instances, perhaps through other partners, friends or family and it was a new manifestation of the issue of being left?
I guess what really matters now is if he is happy in your current relationship. Are things going very, very well? If so, perhaps the shedding of that relationship allowed him to have an even better relationship because he indeed had positive expectations about love. If your relationship is a fruitful one, that supports the claim that he was indeed happy with his previous partner, because he was already a match to a good relationship, so the universe had to bring him another one.
Just keep in mind that there are LOTS of thoughts and expectations that go into creation. We aren’t able to usually isolate out thoughts and expectations in order to affect just one manifestation, because all of our manifestations are entwined with one another.
At the end of the day, the best bet for creating success in life is to walk through life as optimistic and joyously as possible. This will allow a greater number of thoughts and expectations to create a greater number of successful manifestations. However, this doesn’t mean there won’t be any lingering negative expectations hanging around in the conscious or subconscious that still have the potential to throw you a curve once in a while!
XO, Andrea
Isen
Hi Andrea.
I have been trying to understand the Law of Attraction and “believe” in it but based on my past experience I can’t. I was always a positive person, had my goals, dreams and I was able to get from life want I wanted. I got married, graduated from university, was very athletic and had a good job. I was happy and very positive. Everything went in the right direction until 2 years ago when I had a car accident and injured my spinal cord (broke my neck). I never thought that I could have a car accident as I was an excellent driver. For months after the accident I was sure that it is a bad dream as I could not understand that something like that could really happen to me, I never lost hope that I will gain back my straight and my health. However, since the day of the accident everything in my life started to change for worse. Not only I lost my mobilities in my body (have weaknesses in many parts of body), I’m in constant pain, but also my husband and friends left me, I got fired and as much as I’m trying to stay positive now it is harder and harder….
Andrea Schulman
Hi Isen! When it rains it pours, huh? I’m really sorry to hear it and I hope things get turned around for you soon. Here is an article I wrote awhile back for my friends who are dealing with difficult times. Perhaps you may find it useful: https://raiseyourvibrationtoday.com/2015/08/06/embrace-your-pain-to-raise-your-vibration/
sharon
These articles are definitely helping me. I was raised you must be good to people and good things will happen to you. I have been there for many people in my life. I just didn’t think that by expecting good things to happen to me they would. I love the concept of this approach. But why not. I will change my thought pattern to expect more for myself. Thank you, Andrea.
Andrea Schulman
Thanks for the positive feedback Sharon. Best wishes to you! <3
pratiksha sonkar
Thanks Andrea… every post of urs touches a chord within me… i keep waiting fr them eagerly…may God bless you dear.. n u knw wat ur posts have wrkd fr me….lyk a miracle…thanks dear
Andrea Schulman
Aww thanks Pratiksha! That means a lot to me <3 <3
johnkantarelis
i do agree to a point,but this world is is control by evil, and this evel is try to distroy the good, even jesus said it and he said i cant promise you agood life in this world because this world control d by evil