A 10-letter word that can add a spark of excitement to your celebration. Make it your best friend this festive season and see yourself enjoy the festivities more and better.

Christmas is round the corner – the time we all eagerly await the whole year. Tinkling bells, colorful decorations, bright lights, the Christmas tree decked up like a bride, a sumptuous feast with loved ones, gift exchange and the highlight of it all – a delicious plum cake! And, New Year is not far either. Another occasion to celebrate, party and go crazy. Isn’t it exciting to plan and prepare for all this?

But sometimes the excitement can be too much to handle. Running around in a frenzy and making preparations for the big day can be quite tiring and stressful. Let it not come in the way of you enjoying the moment. Meditation – a simple 10-letter technique - can help you enjoy the festive season to the fullest.

#1: Your guests will enjoy only when you do

Christmas and New Year are occasions to meet loved ones, some after a long time. You obviously want everything to go smoothly, the preparations to be the best for the big party, and your guests to feel comfortable. It’s natural to stress out but consider this: how would you enjoy the day you have prepared for so much unless you relax? A few minutes of meditation can help. It will provide such deep rest to your mind and body that you are fresh to receive your guests and spend quality time with them.

#2: Reveal your creative side

Baking a Santa-shaped cake or decorating your Christmas tree differently, now is the time to flaunt your creativity to friends and family. Let them come over and be surprised at your brilliance. When you meditate regularly, creativity is a natural outcome. It helps reveal some unknown facet of yours which you may have never known existed!

#3: Feast and make merry

Festival time deserves to be granted permission to indulge – in sweets, chocolates and all kinds of delicacies. After all, it’s just once a year. Agreed. But sometimes the time after the festival does not turn out to be favorable to our health. Some of us put on weight while some sit with an upset tummy. So isn’t prevention better than cure? With regular meditation practice, you start becoming more aware of your eating habits so what you eat and how much becomes easier to keep a watch on. This awareness can be of great help during the festive season.

Also, have you noticed how we tend to overeat when we are stressed out? Meditation can take care of this also: by releasing deeply stored stress in the system. Less stress, less tendency to overeat or to gorge on junk food.

#4: Introduce yourself as who you naturally are

There will be lots of people to attend to in this season – some known to you, some not. With the former, you can be your usual self but it’s the latter with whom you try to be pretentious and pleasing. Meditation restores the naturalness in you so that you can be yourself not just with loved ones but with everybody at your party! Daily meditation brings you more and more close to who you really are from within – innocent, joyful and loving. It reveals this hidden personality in you.

#5: Remember why you celebrate Christmas

The true spirit of the festival is really in giving, being grateful for what we have and being compassionate to those who don’t have enough. Remember the cause of celebration this Christmas – as you wrap gifts for your loved ones, consider some donations to charity; as you bake that mouth-watering plum cake, remember the poor kids on the street and keep some share for them; and as you write your wish list to put in the stocking and hang it on the Christmas tree for Santa, make sure you ask something for the needy as well.

With regular meditation, this feeling of service for the society comes naturally. Meditation fills you with such gratitude and contentment that you feel happy for what you have and also feel a natural desire to share what’s on your plate. And the more you share, the more it grows, right?

Keep an open heart this year and feel the joy in you dwell up as you beam with content for bringing a smile on somebody’s face. Have a great festive season!

Inspired by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's wisdom talks

By Pritika Nair

Based on inputs by Priyadarshini Hariram, Sahaj Samadhi Meditation Teacher