“May your days be merry and bright” — what a great line from the song “White Christmas.” It is a beautiful and heartfelt wish.

This sums up what most people look for on Christmas Day or the other holy days celebrated at this time of year. Yes, you want your family gathering to be merry and bright. This is the focus for most people on Christmas. Let go of your agendas for what you want. See how you can help others get what they want.

It’s not so much about the physical gifts, probably. It’s more about the time together, something that may happen too rarely these days.

A full heart is also the secret to having all your days be merry and bright. Not artificially merry, but filled with the love and joy that overflows from a full heart. Your days are bright when they are lit from within, with your own inner light. Now we are talking about yoga.

Yes, your yoga makes you able to share light, love and joy with your dear ones. Your yoga makes you able to give more to the world. Your yoga makes you happier as well as healthier, and fills your heart from the inside out.

As a yogi, this means you fill yourself up before you get together with others. Do more yoga is true on every day, including Christmas Day. Do it for them! As well as for you. You will all be happier.

Plus you might take a moment to remember the one whose birthday we celebrate on December 25. His life and death have affected millions of people for thousands of years. Don’t try to ignore him. You may not be attending a Christ-mass, a religious ceremony in his honor, but give him a breath or a few, a little space in your mind and heart.

His message was very yogic. Yes, it has been interpreted in different ways throughout the millennia. This is why yoga says you must have a living Guru – one who can keep you from the misinterpretations that lead to so much pain.

The whole point is to be filled from the inside-out. The only reliable source for that filling is inside. This is why Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5:14). Yoga tells you to bring your light with you everywhere you go.

If nobody notices, that’s OK. It’s not about how they see you. It’s about how you see you, oh Shiva. And it’s about how you can make their day merrier and brighter, for that’s what they want, just like you. Oh, Shiva.