For The Holidays – Cinnamon Audio Meditation

This meditation is great to listen to around the holidays! (click on the above link to hear it)

Cinnamon invites us to explore our family around us, and come to a deeper understanding of who they are to us.

Have some cinnamon essential oil burning in an aroma lamp, or maybe do this meditation in the bath, soaking in the cinnamon essence. The cinnamon scent will trigger parts of the Limbic System allowing you to access levels of your unconscious, that will help you journey in this meditation.

In this meditation, you will meet your parents, siblings, and relatives and come to a place of loving forgiveness and understanding.

Even if one or all of these people have passed on and are not on this Earth plane anymore, you can still see their essence in your mind’s eye and still follow the meditation.

Below is a rough outline of the words you will hear. It was first published in the November 2006 edition of “Echo”, the local Charlottesville ‘new age’ newspaper.

THE MEDITATION—

Inhale and see yourself in a safe and cozy place. Feel yourself relaxing and opening to your own inner infinite possibilities. In an expanded meditative state, you can access all your inner knowing, all your inner understanding and all your inner truths. Relax and sink into the deep sense of Being. Inhale cinnamon’s rich spicy scent and allow yourself to drift to a scene where you see yourself surrounded by your family. Imagine that the cinnamon aroma can take you to a time and space where you are joyously savoring family life. You might travel back to a time when you were a child, or maybe you see yourself as an adult. Maybe the cinnamon scent reminds you of something yummy baking in the oven at holiday time. It may bring you back to memories of Thanksgiving or other seasonal holidays. Wherever you are, know it is the perfect place to be for this meditation. Wherever you go or what ever you visualize, stay with it and allow the vision to be, unedited and real.

Cinnamon brings you to your inner hearth and home. Look around you, at your gathered family. See each of the members clearly in your mind’s eye. Maybe some of these people make you feel happy, others might make you feel a little uncomfortable. Some might make you feel like a small child, others see the adult in you even if you visualize yourself as a child. Cinnamon reminds you that everyone of your family members plays a role in how you see yourself.

Inhale the aroma of cinnamon again. One by one, call each of your family members and ask them to stand in front of you. Begin with your father. See him standing in front of you (pause and visualize him. See him really clearly in your mind’s eye). Sense how he makes you feel in yourself. Which parts of your body’s energies are open, which close and repel? (Pause and check into your body’s feelings). Does your father have a message for you? (Pause and listen for a message). Your inner knowing reminds you that you have chosen your father for a karmic purpose and he is here to teach you a lesson about yourself. Your father, standing here in front of you, is here to reflect a quality or a characteristic or a trait back to you. He is here as a reflection, of something you are within yourself. When you look at him, you are looking in a mirror of your history, your ancestry, your patterning. Inhale the rich cinnamon scent and allow your inner understanding to receive the message he has for you today. As you gaze at the image of your father in front of you, be aware of a softening in your Being. Feel a sense of forgiveness and of love bringing you to a deeper level of compassion towards this man. He represents an inner aspect of self, and in that, you can feel love and honoring for him. You can also feel the love and honoring of self because in this vision, you and he are one in the same. (Pause and let the feelings flood through you). When you feel the truth of the forgiveness, thank him and allow the image of your father to fade. Once again imagine yourself amongst your family at a holiday gathering.

Inhale deeply and invite cinnamon to open the veils so that you see your mother standing in front of you now. Recognize that she, also, represents an inner aspect of self and that she mirrors back to you a quality of self that you may or may not like about yourself. Repeat the exercise of asking her what lesson she is here to teach you today in this meditation and listen for the answer. (pause). Is there anything that you might need to forgive her for? Can you understand that as you forgive her, so you forgive yourself? (pause and sense the understanding). Allow the forgiveness in and see the love and honoring that passes between you two, once again knowing that she is nothing more than a reflection of your own inner aspect in this meditation. Breathe in cinnamon’s fragrance and when you feel that you have come to completion with your mother’s message, allow yourself to dissolve into a family setting again.

You may wish to repeat this exercise calling in a brother, a sister, an aunt/uncle, a step-parent or one of your children. Permit your inner guidance to lead you to where you need to go next in this meditation. Maybe you wish to rest now and just enjoy cinnamon’s bouquet as you drift in the love and warmth of the family gathering. Be where you need to be, without judgment. You might even stretch your imagination to see everyone at the family gathering begin to morph into reflections of you so that when you look around the room, all you see are aspects of yourself looking back at you. You are your true family, you have everyone and everything you need residing inside of you. Be with yourself and joyously open to all your different selves. (Pause and be with this vision).

Before you leave this meditation, take a moment and bow to each and every aspect of yourself, as mirrored by your family. Give thanks and love to each one, knowing they are all here to support you through your journey on this earth.

When ready, slowly inhale the cinnamon and bring your awareness back to your physical body

Know now that you can go to a holiday gathering with renewed compassion, love and acceptance for all family members.