We bring in all that we get

From "The Art and Science of Raja Yoga" Swami Kriyananda writes in the chapter on Affirmations that we create the events in our life - events we both enjoy and despise.

The reasoning for this goes back to the aspects of how things manifest in creation.  He writes:

The universe of thought, known as the casual universe, manifests itself on a grosser level of vibration as energy, the astral universe.  Man's inner thoughts, similarly, must be energized before they can be translated into outward action.

 He gives an example from Yogananda. Yogananda had a student who was getting into a lot of car accidents.  Yogananda told him to "be more careful" and the student was a bit perturbed.  He evidently wasn't the seeming cause of the car accidents.  As his car was hit while parked, or from behind.  But then in time, he kept getting the same advice from his teacher.  Finally, he realized he needed to be less careless in his life.  As he changed his attitudes in life, the accidents stopped.

This is a perfect example of how seeming unrelated situations come back to us.  How karma and emptiness play out in our lives.  I have a friend who's a great teacher to me.  Many would be shocked to hear that, as she's so bitter, mean spirited and angst driven.  But her life is a lesson to all.  Everything she has, she attracts.  Her bitterness returns again and again.  She exclaims a political viewpoint she feels, if met will write the world's ill's.  But if it's met, she'll have another problem.... and another.  She blames one person, then another and another.  What returns to her life is lack.  Lack of peace. Lack of work.  Lack of health.

In my own life, I tend to live out of fear.  Fear of the boss. Fear of job loss. Fear of loosing my family.  I need to not do that.  My friend is a great example of the return.  It's simple harmonic theory.  We create a harmonic and attract a similar chord in our lives.