How can you make your Christmas even more meaningful this year?
We thought we’d like to talk a bit about happiness.
Have you ever asked yourself where happiness comes from?
Sometimes Christmas can become about buying lots of gifts in the pursuit of making yourself or others happy, but happiness is a state of mind, and so cannot come directly from a gift, which is quite clearly not a state of mind.
That means (luckily) that happiness doesn’t depend on physical stuff - happiness can be increased merely by focusing your mind on more positive thought patterns.
Instead of an opportunity to become stressed about emptying your bank account, Christmas can be a great opportunity to increase two wonderful thought patterns: love and gratitude.
Love
Love isn’t as mysterious as you might think. From a Buddhist point of view it can be described as a heartfelt wish for someone other than yourself to be happy. Check your mind when you feel love for someone, whether it be your dog, your mum or anyone else. That feeling wishes that person to be happy, and is very warm and pleasant. Love is an easy way to make yourself and others happy.
Here are two ideas on how to make Christmas an opportunity to develop your love:
- Give your love as well as a gift. By cherishing all the people in your family and friendship circles, and by remembering that their happiness is also important, you can increase the positive Christmas vibes all-round.
- When buying and giving gifts, try to do so with a mind of love for the person you are giving to. This can be an easy way to make buying things a happy activity rather than a chore.
Gratitude
There are many scientifically-proven benefits of gratitude (https://www.happierhuman.com/benefits-of-gratitude/). Gratitude is simply feeling happy about something in your life. Here are some ways to integrate more gratitude into your life this christmas:
- Be grateful to have your family and friends. We live in a huge net of kindness and interdependence, but most of the time we don’t notice it. All you need to do is think about the ways they have been kind to you - whether that may have been material support, emotional help or other - and watch your gratitude and happiness flourish.
- When making (and eating!) your Christmas dinner, try to think about how many people were involved in making it, and feel grateful for each one. Actually, each meal we have depends upon the kindness of so many beings. If we recognise this then even eating can be an opportunity to develop gratitude.
We hope these tips improve your Christmas! Send us a message if they have done!
Also a little reminder form us: if you are thinking of buying any Tranquil Plants as Christmas gifts, do so before the 17th of December and leave them outside of the box until two days before Christmas!
Merry Christmas from the Tranquil Plants team!
