You all know I’ve based my practice upon holistic health: ensuring that we treat not only our bodies, but also our mind and spirit, to achieve wellness of our whole being, rather than our whole body.
Bach flower remedies are a wonderful tool that can help us address emotional concerns, or emotional roots of other concerns. Many times we may have a wellness goal that appears physical (such as losing weight, or boosting immunity to winter germs), but when we explore solutions, we find that these have an underlying emotional component that needs to be addressed (such as emotional eating, or a fear of being outside when it is too cold). Adding a proper Bach flower remedy to your plan can help address these roots, thus making problematic behaviors easier to minimize, and making your desired changes easier to achieve.
Bach flower remedies were developed by, you guessed it, Dr. Bach. Dr. Edward Bach was a physician and homeopath in the 1930s. He believed that better health could be obtained by treating the mind in addition to the body. After much research, he developed a system to address the “mind” component of health. His system centers on 38 flower essences, with each flower corresponding to a certain emotion. When we have balance in our emotions, we are healthy. If we have too much or too little of an emotion, we live in an imbalanced state, which can cause issues not only with emotional wellness, but also can affect our physical and spiritual wellness as well.
I use these flower remedies in my practice to help foster internal balance, and to help get past behaviors or emotional states that may be blocking the road to our success. They’re akin to homeopathic remedies, in that they don’t interact with medications or supplements, and they are generally safe to use. The traditional preparation is in alcohol, but I also stock glycerin based remedies for those clients who cannot, or choose not to, use any alcohol.
Here is my personal journey as an example. I have REALLY struggled with a major anxiety disorder for my whole life. I had my first full blown panic attack at about the age of three, and it took me many years of suffering and battling until I (mostly) beat it in my early 30’s. However, I still tend to be an anxious person and I do need to sustain an intentional balance in my life, focusing on all aspects of health daily, to ensure that my mental health remains in this balanced, “happy,” “positive” state. Last year, I began to have these vague sensations of anxiety-esque feelings. I’d be cooking dinner, and all of a sudden just feel a twinge of uneasiness. Or I’d be driving to work and suddenly just have a sense that something was off and not quite right. After these feelings started, they’d increase in intensity over the next couple of hours before resolving of their own accord.
Knowing this would likely become a resurgence of generalized anxiety over time, I looked to my flower remedies to quell the behavior before it gained momentum. I chose Aspen as my remedy. Aspen is indicated for vague fears or anxiety, without an identifiable cause. Think of the proverbial “quaking Aspen.” The positive outcome from an Aspen remedy is a feeling of inner peace and security. I simply took a few drops of this remedy under my tongue a few times per day, and those “twinges” of anxiety just went away after about a week or so.
Let’s contrast this with a different remedy for anxiety: Mimulus. This remedy is indicated for an identifiable source of the anxiety. Back at the beginning of 2020, when COVID-19 was running rampant, and no one had any answers about how it was transmitted, or how to treat it, I (along with everyone else) was understandably feeling very anxious. As the pandemic progressed, my bit of what I considered a healthy anxiousness progressed to what I considered the start of an unhealthy response. My anxiety was growing, and I saw that I was making decisions out of an unhealthy fear rather than a healthy cautiousness. Again, I turned to a flower remedy to catch this anxiety before it turned into a serious mental health issue. I had Mimulus on hand, and took it daily for about two weeks, several times a day, until my symptoms resolved. Over the course of the next few months, I continued to use Mimulus here and there when I felt the need to address a spike in my emotions.
So how do we figure out which remedy or group of remedies are “right”? Well, in a consultation, I typically just listen to my client as we talk about their difficulties, their goals, and their obstacles. Usually a good conversation makes the needed remedy, or group of remedies, pretty obvious. So, of course, you can reach out HERE
if you need some help to find the right solution for you. If you want to try this yourself, start with first identifying the group that seems to match your struggle; Bach categorized his 38 remedies into 7 groups: fear, uncertainty, indifference, loneliness, oversensitivity, despondency/ despair, and overcare/ obstinate. From there you can narrow down which remedy in the group matches your needs.
The Bach Centre has a nice reference guide that identifies each of the 38 remedies and the indications for each; you can find that HERE.
They also have a more extensive explanation for each remedy HERE.
Start with the quick guide and identify some possible remedies that sound good to you. If you’re unsure, or if you want a bit more information on your chosen remedies, you can go to the full explanation page.
If you’re still not sure, or just want some validation that what you’ve chosen is “right” for you, reach out to me HERE and I can offer some guidance. I’m happy to help!
Let’s get you to that next level in your health journey!!
Blessings,
Melanie
