Flower Essences

Flower EssencesSince the dawn of Humanity flowers have given cause for wonder. Steve Johnson, creator of the Alaskan Flower Essence Project, calls them “….. the crowning achievement of the plant kingdom, divine expressions of creativity made manifest through heavenly scents and stunning displays of colour”. This divine nature is also present on a subtle vibrational level, where each flower carries a unique life-affirming pattern of energy that we absorb when we’re near them, and can use for healing.

Flower Essences – Positive Energy in to Liquid Medium

Flower Essences are the result of transferring these positive patterns of energy into a liquid medium. This is accomplished by placing healthy flowers, at the peak of their perfection into a crystal bowl of pure water that is left to potentise in the sun. The resulting infusion is preserved (usually in alcohol or brine) and now carries the healing vibration from the flower. When we take a flower essence, just like when we hold a flower, that flower’s particular vibration informs our own energy system. It’s through this exchange of vibrational information that healing can occur. Individual flowers and their essences have characteristics which, when we match them to our own mental and emotional state, can have a profound healing effect.

More recently, Essence makers have been using the energy of gems and minerals, animals and healing environments to create Essences. Just as with flowers, these things have their unique energy patterns which can contribute to the healing of our own energy systems.

Essences are unique in that they are a source of intelligent healing energy that is available to both educate and empower the person taking them. They may be readily introduced into any health care programme, and do not interfere with nor are they adversely affected by other forms of treatment, such as homeopathic remedies or prescription drugs. They may be safely used by people of all ages, and can also be a gift of healing to members of the animal and plant kingdoms.

Gardeners know from experience how healing it feels just being in a garden full of flowers, but we also give flowers to people recovering from illness. Have you ever wondered why we feel comforted by flower essences when we’re feeling down? Or how being close to a flower can have such a positive effect on your well-being.

The healing powers of flowers were known of millennia ago in Greece and Egypt. They were rediscovered in the first half of the last century by Dr Edward Bach whose ‘Rescue Remedy’ combination is probably the best known. While practicing as a medical doctor and then a homeopath, he identified that many of his patients had unresolved emotional disturbances. He surmised that these emotional problems were the cause of many of their ills and if he could help people heal at the emotional level, their physical ailments might also improve.

Giving up a successful Harley Street practice to research the beneficial effects of flowers, he produced a range of 38 Flower Essences which, he felt, covered the entire range of human emotional ills. Since his successes in treating his patients with Flower Essences, they have undergone something of a renaissance and there are now dozens of different sets made with flowers from all over the world.

While we engage in the ups and downs of today’s world, we can sometimes find ourselves struggling. The stresses we carry can often be a contributing factor to physical symptoms as well as mental or emotional distress. People often find that, as Dr Bach identified, as they address their underlying emotional patterns, physical symptoms also clear up. Although we might recognize the patterns of response we have to difficult situations as unhelpful, and even understand their causes in our past, it’s another thing entirely to resolve them and let go of those ingrained behaviours.

Essences act as catalysts for change and transformation. They assist in clearing the blocks (the negative beliefs held in the subconscious mind) that stop an individual getting in touch with their true or higher self. This allows the positive virtues of the higher self – your intuitive part which knows your life purpose – to assert itself. When this happens the negative beliefs and thoughts are dissolved and balance is restored. A course of Flower Essences is often all that’s needed to help release the underlying negative energy patterns and move forwards with courage, confidence and renewed enthusiasm.

Each set of essences has its own characteristics, and can help our healing at different levels. Some act subtly at deeper levels on chronic problems. You may need to be taking these over a longer period to benefit fully. Others have a more immediate effect and are good for acute issues. People often report feeling benefits after just a few days. Each set of Flower Essences has its own suggested dosage but your own experience and intuition should also inform you about this especially if you’re combining essences from different sets.

As well as the individual essences in each set, there are also special combinations that have been found to help in particular situations. You will find details of these combinations in the pages dedicated to each set. Time and time again, people are astonished with the amazing results they get using Flower Essences. Children can be helped through all sorts of difficulties and problems, if they’re unwilling to sleep on their own or if they won’t join in with the rest of the family for example, there’s usually an emotional issue that hasn’t been addressed at the root of it.


by Adam Rubinstein
www.healthlines.co.uk

Bach Flower Remedies

Many of you will already know that ‘Bach’ relates to a unique system of 38 plant and flower remedies developed in the 1930’s by Dr Edward Bach, a well qualified and respected doctor and homeopath.

Dr Bach was innovative in his approach to healing and ahead of his time. He suggested that emotional distress or imbalance was the root cause of disease: ‘As the herbs heal our fears, our anxieties, our worries, our faults and our failings, it is these we must seek, and then the disease, no matter what it is will leave us.’ Dr Bach’s system of flower essences remedies are chosen or prescribed according to a person’s emotional outlook, mood, character and personality, not on a physical illness or symptom. In this way, emotional harmony or balance is restored and ‘disease melts away as snow in sunshine’.

This allows us to be the best we can be – truly ourselves. (It also strengthens the immune system by allowing us to cope with the things in life that can’t be changed – e.g. bereavement). The Bach Flower Essences Remedies have been an integral part of my life since 1983. I have progressed from a deep suspicion of their healing powers to being a committed and passionate practitioner and teacher – a true measure of the self-development aspect of the Remedies.

Dr Bach’s intention was that the system should be simple and accessible to all. To this effect the Bach Centre offers its practitioners the chance to progress to become Bach teachers. All registered practitioners are encouraged to empower their clients with the knowledge of how to use the remedies for themselves, truly to ‘Heal Thyself’ as Dr Bach intended: ‘It has the power to cure disease; and, in its simplicity, it may be used in the household.’

So how do you ‘choose? In day-to-day life, we come across challenging and distressing situations – It could be an unexpected bill that you can’t pay, redundancy, bereavement, or even a visit to the dentist that you expect to be painful.Any of these situations will cause an emotional stimulus or response in the brain that may lead to dis-ease if not dealt with. As Dr Bach explains:’ Disease is in essence the result of conflict between Soul and Mind, and will never be eradicated except by spiritual and mental effort.’

Each of us is unique and reacts in our own way to given situations. This is the key to using the system successfully. One person with painful arthritis will take to their chair or bed and lose hope that anything more can be done to improve the situation (the Bach Flower Remedy Gorse would be indicated here for very great hopelessness) – such a person has given up the belief that more can be done for them.

A different person may well ‘soldier on’, fulfilling their responsibilities when in great pain and actually making their physical condition worse and expending energy when they can’t spare it (Bach Flower Remedy Oak is needed here for such a person will fight on, discontented with themselves if illness interferes with their duties or helping others). You will note that the physical condition is the same, but the outlook of the ‘patient’ is different, so the remedy choice is different.

The Bach system is extremely safe to use, with high quality standards (It is a licensed medicine). It can be used for babies, the elderly, the dying, even those having chemotherapy. Anybody! Bach does not interfere with prescribed medication, and can be used alongside any therapy or healing modality. It should be also noted that this system stands alone as a valid and effective healing system and self-development tool.

The remedies are robust, and not easily interfered with. They are preserved in grape alcohol (weak brandy) and this gives rise to the one contra-indication to the system – If you are a reforming alcoholic using a drug such as Antabuse to stop you ingesting alcohol, then you will react to these remedies. Don’t let the number of remedy choices put you off trying this system – if a ‘wrong’ choice is made, no harm is done whatsoever. Indeed, if you are dealing with a complicated or chronic situation, then the remedies can be mixed into a one ounce dropper bottle of mineral water for long term use – up to 6 or 7 maximum at any time. Take 4 drops of the mixture 4 times a day.

As a Bach Foundation Registered Practitioner, I work to a specific code of practice and was trained by The Dr Edward Bach Centre, Sotwell, England. This code of practice asks that the remedies are selected via the consultation – by ‘talking’. This allows the client to articulate their problems, perhaps for the first time, and thus the consultation is a crucial step in the healing process. Any other way of choosing remedies removes the system from ordinary people, which is in itself contrary to Dr Bach’s intention, but it does not discount intuition and inner knowing.


by Clare Midgley (founder of Balance Holistic Healthcare)

Flower Essence Links:

Balance Holistic Healthcare – holistic Healthcare company to provide quality information, advice and treatment using a
range of therapies products and supplements.

Healthlines – Healthlines is a resource centre for some of the most popular and successful essences from around the world. Adam and Angie
offer information and support for therapists and the general public well as distributing the products by quick and efficient mail order, worldwide.

Dr Edward Bach Centre –  centre for education and information on Dr Bach’s work.

Bach Original Flower Remedies – products and information on Bach Flower Remedies.

Healing Herbs – leading producers of the Bach flower remedies.