It’s easy to get lost in the busyness of this season, but with a little attention, we can get beneath the surface and experience the deeper aspects of Christmas. Here are some of the ways that people in our community have shared:
1) Deepen your love for your friends and family by sharing with them more than presents and social gatherings. Meditate on each of your dear ones and try to bless the soul qualities they are trying to express. See them as their own highest self and pray during this holy season that the true gifts of love, joy, peace, and harmony can be theirs.
2) Affirm gratitude in the giving: While you are writing cards, shopping or wrapping or distributing gifts, pray for and bless the people to whom you are giving. As you open cards and gifts, pray that the giver receives blessings… and give thanks to the One Giver behind all our efforts. In his book Affirmations for Self-Healing, Ananda’s founder, Swami Kriyananda offers a beautiful affirmation, perfect for this: “I give thanks to the giver behind each gift, and to the one Giver behind all that I receive”.
3) Take a “Christmas Vow” for all or part the month of December. A few suggestions: cut out sweets or low-energy entertainment, let go of non-necessary device usage and give more attention to the people around you, make a commitment to meditate more each day.
4) Offer divine love to everyone, those whom you don’t know, or perhaps to whom you’ve hardened your heart. Maybe it’s the grumpy neighbor down the street or the angry person at work, but find someone whom others have a difficult time accepting, and do something to make them feel that God loves them.
5) Listen for joy. Look for the light in each moment. Go to a Christmas music concert such as Handel’s Messiah. Listen to uplifting Christmas music at home. Try to sense and draw out the highest in each person or situation you encounter.
6) Practice forgiveness. Pray for anyone with whom you feel in conflict or a sense of unrest; take part in any forgiveness rituals that have meaning for you. Forgive yourself, too!
7) Create a small Christmas altar with a picture of Jesus or a “Nativity Scene,” and pray that the inner Christ Consciousness be born within you in this season.
8) Bring more light into your home. Light a candle each day, for peace, for harmony, and for love around the world. String colored or white lights all around your home and altar.
9) Read the Christmas story from the Bible—Chapters 2 from Luke and Matthew are the best. Read slowly, with deep attention, and inwardly feel the deeper inner meanings of the words. Read also writings that convey the mystical presence of Christ, the deep, inner teachings expressed in Jesus’s words.
10) Rest in silence. That might mean a few minutes of conscious breathing (breathe in, breathe out), or perhaps a full day of silence and seclusion. Silence will help you listen, see, hear and feel the joy that is our birthright as Divine children.
11) Spend time with other truth seekers. Try to set aside a time and place, with a few others if possible, when for several hours you meditate, pray and dedicate yourself to communing with the Christ Consciousness. Throughout Ananda, for instance, there are All Day Christmas Meditations – at Ananda Meditation Retreat, through Online with Ananda, or at one of Ananda’s communities, centers or meditation groups.
12) Serve, love and give of yourself. Look to see who might need extra help or energy. Serve in any way you can. Even stopping for a moment, looking into someone’s eyes, smiling and saying “thank you” can be a great service. Yogananda encouraged others to “give gifts of love and peace to those whom others pass by”.
13) On Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, go to a Christmas Service with your family, friends, or even alone. On Christmas morning, very early, before anything else happens, meditate deeply and let the Christ Consciousness be born in the cradle of your heart.
14) Keep the light going all year long. Save your gift tags and the Christmas cards you receive in a basket in your meditation space. Look at one of them each day throughout the coming year, and pray for that person or family.
15) Say “Yes!” with all your heart, to all you have before you. You will feel a new Christmas energy rush in to help you give and receive everything with calmness and joy.
With gratitude to Jyotish and Devi Novak, Savitri Simpson, Jacqueline Debets and other Ananda members, for thoughts, words, and ideas that contributed to this article