Flower essences are concentrations of plant energies, there are no chemical constituents from the plant sin the remedy, it’s all energy. I used them many years ago but had no noticeable success. I was on the way to the breakdown that has darkened my family’s life to this day. The thing was, in my anxiety, I was throwing them down like you would any herbal remedy or industrial medicine tablet. Six months or so ago, I was lead to try them again and wow, what a difference! I use them as designed, and boy they are powerful. That has lead me to study them deeply and to plan to one day become a certified practitioner.

Every emotional state has both positive and negative qualities about them. The concern we have for someone who is behaving in a way that is clearly the opposite of what they are capable of and may actually be causing harm.themselves may express itself in anger and frustration. The love and concern you feel in f this situation can be overshadowed by the energy of the anger. Taking the right flower essence can bring that situation back to a more even level by adding the positive energy of love and concern for the wellbeing of the other person. The essences don’t work directly against the negative emotion but reinforce the positive, resolving the negativity.

Since Dr. Bach discovered the 38 remedies in the Bach Flower system, there have been many, many more flower essences discovered and put to highly effective use but the Bach system is a stand alone set of remedies that work alone. That’s not to say that you can’t combine them with other essences but often there is no need to.

The Bach Flower Remedies are a very popular and effective way to deal with negative emotional states. They are far more potent than the common methods of self prescribing would suggest and can sometimes produce an effect that is very unexpected.

As with many herbal remedies, lots of folks try something that is vaguely indicated once, it doesn’t work, so they write off the who discipline. I am lucky that life brought me back to the remedies so that I can understand them far more deeply. I’ve written this post to show how the one we may, at first, think is the perfect one may indicate something deeper and more appropriate. In this way, I hope to deepen reader’s approach to their whole natural medicine journey.

Sometimes, it seems that you have the right remedy, then it peels back another layer and you see the need for another or maybe a combination. That’s normal and natural, we are very complex spiritual beings and, it is pretty safe to say that there is no single remedy for many things, especially when dealing with emotional and spiritual issues.

What are my personal experiences with the Bach Flower Remedies?

I took Holly (indicated for anger and resentment directed at somebody in the present) and my clogged nose and sinus congestion cleared within seconds. It is cold and flu season as I write this and I had a cold last week which is still hanging around in the form of a little nasal congestion. I was getting annoyed with it, always making me clear my throat and sniff to clear the congestion enough to breathe well. Holly is the remedy indicated for the negative emotional states of anger and jealousy so I tried two drops, directly under my tongue. In seconds, I was swallowing the thick mucus that flowed down the back of my throat. Wow!

I recently sent one of my seasonal emails to the folks who support our website through donations and subscriptions. the email was all about colds and flu and included a few of the Bach remedies that apply to our mental and emotional states during these inconvenient illnesses. I hadn’t thought of Holly at the time of posting it.

I first tried Vine many years ago at a time when I was trying to control our finances very tightly for a while. Eventually, Jelina and Marlon told me that they weren’t happy with the amount of control I was putting into getting us a little ahead and, to be honest, I wasn’t happy with it either but justified it because we had just bought our first home and we needed to get the bank balance back in balance. Vine is the remedy suggested for issues of over control and dominance, so I tried two drops directly under my tongue. Within 15 minutes, I headed for bed and slept all afternoon and night. After a couple of days, I relinquish my control of the finances to Jelina and we have been much happier ever since.

Recently, I had picked up a bottle of Vervain to add to my stock of remedies (they’re very economical but pricey upfront so I only buy one or two bottles as needed) and thought ‘I haven’t tried Vervain yet and it isn’t a remedy I had any great familiarity with, so let’s have a dose’! I was driving and was quite tense and in a hurry to see someone but hadn’t taken the Vervain for any particular reason. I felt my neck and shoulders literally slump and my hands, which were, at the time, gripping the top of the steering wheel, found their way to a safer and more relaxed position at the bottom of it. My sense of urgency vanished and I enjoyed the drive through the hills much more than I thought I would.

I found that taking Beech before recommending remedies to anyone . There is no pressure or urgency to come up with the right remedy and the interview flows a lot better. Beech helps to stop the tendency many of we amatuer herbalists have of bringing remedies to mind when talking to someone and allows a much better picture of the patient and their ailment. Whenever I’m studying and I get to thinking that ‘oh, so and so can do with this’, I take a drop of Beech in a little water and that line of thought vanishes. It is a common thing with healers, to associate a remedy or herb with a particular person in their circle of friends but it’s not a pattern that is always appropriate. We may not know the person or their situation as well as we could before making such a decision and the person must come to us, asking to help. Labelling a person with a need for a remedy before they’re even aware that they may need it is the wrong way to go. Beech can help prevent this.

Larch. I put off trying Larch for a long time. That’s a bit of a joke, as Larch is indicated as a remedy for procrastination, which I experience a lot. In fact, I’m writing this right now as a way of putting off taking Athena for a promised walk. The unusual thing I find about Larch is that, beyond helping me get in and do things, it helps me reduce masking a list of too many jobs that need doing. I have a habit of making a huge list of thing to get done and get quite anxious by the end of the day when they haven’t been completed. When I take Larch, I don’t schedule that impossible amount of work and am happy with attempting and finishing one or two things successfully. This actually leads to less procrastination because I’m not dreading the effort needed to achieve what my ego says I should be able to do. The days flow much easier and I am less anxious.

Willow, which is indicated for long held anger and resentment has an amazing effect on my body. I have experienced many incidents, accidents and physical assaults throughout my life and thought I had resolved many of them. I also thought that most of the aches and pains I feel are the result of a life not gently lived. Both may be the case but taking Willow, temporarily relieves my joint pain and headaches. I’m not 100% sure but I have noticed that occasionally after taking it, my vision seems a little clearer. Obviously, all of these ailments are the result of deep seated anger at myself and others that haven’t been resolved and are expressing themselves physically.

Someone very close to me was plagued by nightmares of running in the fields where they grew up. They would run and run and never get anywhere. It was terrifying to them and worse, they could never identify what they were running from.  They were   also the kind of person who would continuously take on more and more jobs and roles in order to help others.  Two Bach Flower Remedies came to mind and worked brilliantly. Rock Rose was indicated for the terror in the dreams while Elm was used in order to help them realise that they didn’t need to support everybody and could take time for themself. From the first night, onward, they slept soundly and deeply. The nightmares had plagued them intermittently for a lifetime, so we don’t know if they’re resolved yet but a little Star of Bethlehem will be used to help them deal with any unremembered trauma that may be triggering the nightmares and Pine to help with any guilt that may be associated with the memories that could be triggering the nightmares.

Rock Water caught me by surprise. I had though I’d narrowed down Beech as my type remedy and that took a while. I was often critical of frustrated with people for not working towards a better world, one where we can all shine. Beech is for those who are excessively critical of others but deeply down, they want to see people to achieve their potential but the energy just gets misdirected on the way. Vine was not quite right, I’m a pretty dominant person naturally but not one who enjoys contriving others . Vervain was actually a closer match, relieving the need to share and encourage what I have learned with others but still the underlying tension remained.

One recent day, I thought to myself ‘don’t be so hard on yourself, the answer will come’. There was the issue, summed up in a single sentence that worked its way to the front of my mind  and Rock Water is the answer. It’s the remedy suggested when one has too high standards for themselves and is hard on themselves when they don’t meet them. For a decade or so, I have been having evening anxiety attacks. I thought it was something to do with the time, as they always came around dinner time. After taking Rock Water for a while, they abated, not completely, but noticeably. I came to the realisation that it was to do with settling down after a day’s activity. As I settled down in the evening, I wasn’t letting go of the need to be busy during the daytime. At the time I was suffering deep depression and other issues so was, some days, incapable of even taking a shower, so any achievements should have been enough. Of course, my cultural programming led me to believe that I should always be busy but it was impossible. In the evening, I usually ran through a mental list of the jobs I had done during the day or the achievements I had gained. Of course, it never seemed to be enough and I felt guilty about not achieving enough, even if the list was 10 things! The Rock Water helped me to realise that that was what I was doing and to realise that whatever I had managed to achieve, it was enough, whether 1 thing or 10.

After the Rock Water helped me to a realisation, I have added Vervain to help me switch off and take downtime when it is appropriate. Pine is helping with the daily guilt.

Where to start with the Back Flower Remedies

There are certain remedies that it’s good to start treatment with, either on their own or as part of a combination. These are those that I’ve found useful to start with, especially when the correct remedy or combination is unclear. Just a note, I’m not a qualified practitioner but have developed a love for this system of healing. It is a love that, even as a neophyte, has brought people to me that I can help with the remedies. Not many but some.

A lot of practitioners like to start a treatment program with Star of Bethlehem. Star of Bethlehem helps us to release  and resolve trauma, whether current of historical. That’s a good approach as many of us carry unresolved trauma within us. That trauma can come from many sources, some that we may bit even recognise or acknowledge as traumatic – we all deal with trauma in our own way and what is traumatic to one may not be traumatic to another. Trauma locks up energy that we could otherwise be using in our life for healing or other work. Star of Bethlehem releases some of this, sometimes it brings it to our consciousness to acknowledge and integrate, other times it 8s released without us knowing.

Another that is commonly used to start a treatment routine is Wild Oat. Wild Oat helps us to find our purpose in life. It helps us to align our goals and ambitions with our life’s purpose. Aligning our goals and ambitions with why we are here frees up so much energy and we can use that energy better for healing or following our life’s purpose. Wild Oat is often used when other remedies don’t stand out for a person. It helps clarify things and often the needed remedy will pop up.

One Of the remedies that doesn’t seem get a lot of recognition in this area of starting treatment is Pine. We use Pine for folks who are blaming themselves for something that may or may not have happened in their lives. Our present culture makes it easy to blame ourselves for our shortcomings or events that we may or may not have had any control over. Many people internalise whether it exists or not. Relieving all of the energy blocked by self blame is another step to freeing the soul of the person suffering and make it easier to select other remedies.

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Other herb pages on Ligaya Garden

We cover a lot of ground on many herb related topics here on our website. There are whole pages devoted to different topics as well as frequent posts. Some of the links are –

Garden Herbs

Wild Herbs

Making Remedies

Mushroom medicine

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