Merry Christmas and Happy New year Everyone 😊

Did you know money is the greatest cause of stress in the current world?

It is Celebration time and we are all geared up to exchange gifts that we have been purchasing and collecting to share with our dear and near ones.

Celebrations are wonderful opportunities to connect, share and express our love, happiness and togetherness with everyone around us.

As many of us have been chasing to find the best gifts for our closed ones. I would like to take a moment to share about money and remind you of all the gifts that we can offer during this celebration time, even if we don’t have money.

Money is a medium of exchange that allows people to obtain what we need to live. We do need money to satisfy our basic necessities which includes food,clothing, shelter, education, transportation and sustenance in this world. However, even after fulfilling our basic needs, we still keep chasing money to give us more in our daily life .

From very early years , society has ingrained in us that being successful means being rich and powerful. So, we blindly followed the same and started believing that money has the power to satisfy all the desires of our mind. We run behind objects of our desire, keep accumulating more and think that we can satisfy all our desires and feel contented. However, this never ends as we would end up in a vicious circle where our desire shifts to a different object as soon as we attain the object of our desire .This cycle continues forever.

So, even though externally we have been accumulating more and more, internally we are never satisfied. The culprit behind this desire is our own temptation to possess more than what we actually need in our life. Our own temptations take away our peace and happiness and make us run behind objects one after the other. This way our life goes on, chasing the unknown , forgetting our own physical/mental health and the value of human relationships.

True wealth cannot be purchased with money and that includes valuable gifts of time, peace, happiness, health, love, family and relationships ,character, purpose, trust, humility, wisdom and much more. Even if we have all the money in the world and don’t have one of these then our life will be empty and dry.

So, my dear friends this festive season let’s take some time to reflect on our true wealth and share these valuable gifts with people around us by

• Spending time and energy with our loved ones.

• Celebrating the good health of our family members by telling them that they matter in your life.

• Celebrating relationships in our life by expressing your love and offering help to them in whatever way we can.

• Celebrating ourselves and our achievements by rewarding yourself with self care and self love.

• Expressing our gratitude by thanking someone who has helped you to survive, learn, grow and succeed which includes your parents, teachers, mentors and coaches.

• Donating whatever we have in excess as food/clothing/money to someone who is struggling to survive and make a living.

• Expressing our apologies to someone whom we have ignored, insulted or hurt intentionally/ unintentionally .**

In the end, only 3 things matter :how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you -** Buddha**