The best gift does not need to be wrapped. We begin the festive season searching for the perfect present, seeking joy and laughter with our friends and family, but all too often we are left wanting - struggling to find positive ways to connect.
A solid foundation and grounding in mindfulness practice will keep you in good stead when faced with difficult social situations over the festive season.
As inherently social beings, good connections with others can have tangible health benefits including longer life expectancy, faster recovery from disease and a greater sense of happiness and wellbeing.
Practicing mindfulness regularly will help you face challenging situations head-on.
Regular compassion meditation, as advocated by Stanford University's Centre for Compassion and Altruism Professor James Doty, can reduce negative neuroendocrine, inflammatory and behavioural responses to psychosocial stress.
Doty says practicing compassion can also inspire others to be more kind to you.
But where do you start? Meditating in a lotus position, sending warm fuzzy thoughts to somebody else sounds like a recipe for cramping leg muscles, wandering mind and battling negative feelings towards someone who has done us wrong.
Becoming more balanced and mentally stable can be hard with the demands of a hectic lifestyle. If only those around us were more calm and positive, right?
Here's the simple approach to get you started. Find the physical practice that relaxes your body and calms your mind to prepare you for your meditative practice. Yoga, walking or swimming could help prepare you mentally.
It is challenging, so it’s good to start with easy, short repetitive actions.
Slowly shift the way you think, feel and respond. Building compassion towards self and others means clearing your own mental and emotional slate first.
Kamal Sarma's Mental Resilience is a brilliant entry level work to help you get into meditation.
What I love about Sarma is how he demystifies the process without relying on too much jargon. There's no talk of lofty goals of levitating in the lotus position oozing zen like a yogi master.
Sarma’s teachings include ways to send love and kindness to other people. Those you love - and those you don't.
The greatest show of compassion is when we can genuinely care for and show kindness to those we might feel do not deserve it. This is one of the greatest learnings to be taken from Doty's research which is supported by the Dalai Lama.
Author Dr Stephanie Dowrick also addresses compassion and courage in her Human Virtues teachings.
Dowrick advocates a small daily act of courage such as going beyond our comfort zone to help others.
Perhaps that could be giving our loved ones the gift of presence this Christmas.
Sol Walkling is a mind body studio manager.
