Bach Flower Remedy Consultations

The Bach Flower Remedies are a means of restoring peace of mind and a healthy balance giving our bodies the opportunity to combat ill health through its' own healing process.

The 38 Flower Remedies discovered by Dr Edward Bach in the 1930's treat physical conditions by assessing the personality, mood and emotional outlook of the individual and by so doing, represent a complete healing system in their own right.

Dr Bach was a Pathologist and Bacteriologist. After years of research and study of intestinal diseases at University College and the London Homeopathic Hospital, he discovered that emotional disharmony was the root cause of physical ailments. By carefully studying every patient, Dr Bach proved to himself many interesting facts.

He found that patients with the same disease, although receiving the same treatment, responded in different ways. He concluded that progress was affected by personality and mental states. Two people given bad news will respond in different ways, one will suddenly become very strong and say, "I will not be beaten" another may say "oh, I can't be bothered to fight, what's the point ?" The Bristol Cancer Care Centre presented at a Conference some years ago, a study showing that those patients with a positive mental attitude had an extended life expectancy of 5 more years or more.

Though immediate attention must obviously always be given to, acute medical conditions, trauma, physical pain, infection and bleeding, Dr Bach concluded that a positive frame of mind and an awareness of a true purpose in life, was the key to recovery. In other words, once patients have received attention for the bleeding (or whatever) the remedies will help speed up the healing process by addressing any fear, shock and trauma involved, which in normal circumstances may not be considered.

This is generally a very emotive subject, but essentially, if you feel a sense of deep unhappiness for long periods in your life, or you realise you do things to please everyone else MOST if not all of the time, you may at some stage conclude that life has no real meaning for you. You may ask yourself where do you fit in, in taking care of everyone else are YOUR needs being met ? These feelings can be soul destroying. In some instances, may make you feel bitter, angry, resentful.

On the other hand, those who are seriously involved in a life project seem to go on and on regardless of whether they drink 4 pints of Guinness every night and smoke 40 cigarettes (not that I am advocating that lifestyle) ! I once saw a television programme about a man in his late 90's who had a motor cycle shop. He only slept for about 3 hours a night and was still to be seen at his workbench every morning until late in the evening. His mental faculties were as sharp as ever.

If you wake up one morning realising that you have spent most of your life fulfilling someone else's dreams (good intentioned though they might have been), this can be very depressing. Life has a habit of throwing these thoughts at us as the years advance .. we become more conscious that life is passing us by and we ask ourselves, what have I done with my life? Then there is the possibility that we will feel anger that the days are now limited for us to fulfil OUR dreams.

For example, most parents are naturally very ambitious for their children but sometimes questions have to be asked -. Is there a possibility that we feel ambitious for our children because we failed or missed opportunities throughout our life and so we use our children as a second attempt to succeed? Or are those ambitions genuinely in the interests of the children?

Over the years I watched my children growing up - when taking them to their various activities, many parents were running up and down the swimming pool with stop watches, screaming instructions at their children. On other occasions, after competitions almost verbally abusing their children, criticising and telling them they were "stupid" because they should have done this or should have done that. I wonder (with hindsight) whether those children FELT at the time, like it was THEIR interests which were being nurtured. How many would agree it was "for their own good ? And I have to add that I am not putting myself on a pedestal here - I am sure we are all guilty of this "crime" from time to time during our parenting days. There are many occasions that I can recall (and my children will happily confirm!) where I thought I was doing/saying something for the "good of my children". I cringe now when I look back and wonder what planet I was on at the time !!!!

I digress----. is it any wonder then that we saw many, as they grew into their teens became more independent and drop by the wayside. They gave up the very sports which they had been competing at successfully for years, much to the disappointment of their parents. The question is were they involved for so long with those activities because it was part and parcel of growing up and they enjoyed the "taking part", the exercise and socialising with their friends or were they doing it because their parents enjoyed basking in their children's success?

These are life experiences which leave us with a variety of negative and positive emotions. Excess negativity, overall dissatisfaction with life, feelings of failure that could literally result in lacking a basic will to survive.

Of course we all have emotional up's and down's on a daily basis -.. that's life - but long term our energy becomes drained and it is when we find ourselves not being able to "pick ourselves up and dust ourselves down" that problems can occur.

Any long term stress on our emotional outlook will without doubt, have a negative knock on effect on the physical. Stress inevitably takes its' toll on the whole body.

How do the remedies work?

Each of the 38 remedies address a particular mood, personality type or state of mind and are divided into 7 distinct groups for Fear, Loneliness, Over-sensitivity, Over-care for others, Disinterest/Apathy, Despair/Despondency and Uncertainty.

A few examples are LARCH to boost confidence, OLIVE to energise when we feel exhausted emotionally and physically. CRAB APPLE is a cleanser which can help to cleanse the mind of negative thoughts and can also help to cleanse on a physical level. It is one of the ingredients of RESCUE CREAM, a skin salve which is applied externally for cuts, grazes, burns, stings, in fact any skin condition. Rescue Cream contains no lanolin. The other ingredients in Rescue Cream are the same as those in Rescue Remedy. ROCK WATER is for stubbornness. A stubborn personality/attitude to life may manifest itself as fixed/rigid conditions in the joints etc

Every day of our lives, we all experience the gamete of emotions. We all occasionally lack confidence, feel weary, nostalgic, intolerant, judgmental, angry, irritable, critical, fearful, anxious, over conscientious, resigned to illness, apathetic, we may lack self respect or sometimes feel overwhelmed with responsibility in relation to our jobs or relationships.

How many people feel overwhelmed many times throughout every single day with the responsibility of parenting ? Problem is, because we are all so good at putting on the mask - we are afraid to let others see we are not coping, particularly at work- that could mean our job might be at risk.

It is normal to feel hate (it's the opposite of love), but we are brought up believing that it is bad to hate or feel envy, jealousy and greed. But these are NORMAL emotions. Rather than suppress them we would be better to address them. Taking the flower remedies will not change the problems that you are faced with - they do not act like drugs - they will not miraculously make your partner love and respect you, or your boss/colleagues appreciate you for what you really are but they can help balance your emotions which will ultimately enable you to see things in a different light and therefore deal more appropriately with the problems that you are faced with EVERY day.

Suffice to say that next time you are asked to work late without pay YET again, you can take a deep breath, step back and say "no" without fear of reprisals and with a sweet smile on your face. You will be amazed how your calm exterior will stun those around you.

Because they are probably expecting you to burst into tears, start screaming and shouting or taking a deep breath and saying "OK" whilst muttering under your breath and feeling real angst. THINK how much better you would feel !

You could then walk back to the station with a skip in your step and go home to your family/partner feeling good for a change, re-energised instead of kicking the cat the minute you walk in the door and later falling asleep in the chair through the sheer exhaustion of it all.

So we can see how long term negative emotions which sometimes "take us over" can result in deep sadness, unhappiness or even culminate in life threatening illness. Feeling timid, shy, experiencing long term "butterfly" stomachs etc, feelings of resentment or doubting our ability to cope can lead to panic attacks and create disharmony throughout our entire body, our life and can have a knock on effect on everyone around us - but that's life I hear you say. But I say, life's too short to spend it feeling angry, inadequate, unfulfilled. Or simply "out of kilter".

The Bach Flower Remedies are a means of restoring peace of mind and a healthy balance giving our bodies the opportunity to combat ill health through its' own healing process. The remedies are very safe.

They can be taken orally, or can be applied externally, added to massage oils or put in the bath. They should be diluted in water and can be taken by children/babies and in conjunction with all other medication.

RESCUE REMEDY may be taken neat from the stock bottle if no water is available though care should be taken as the remedies are preserved in brandy which may not be acceptable for everyone for religious or other reasons. Normal dosage is 4 drops, 4 times a day or may be taken intensively as and when necessary. The remedies can also be added to food or any other drink. They do not have to be taken on a "clean tongue", ie outside of food and drink as with homeopathic remedies.

FEEL YOU NEED TO TAKE ALL OF THEM ? Most people do ! If you are unsure, then until you can learn more about the remedies through the many self help books available from The Bach Foundation or any good bookstore, or obtain advice through a one to one consultation with a registered Bach Practitioner, a safe bet is to take RESCUE REMEDY which is a good all rounder to take in emergencies, and contains 5 remedies :

- Impatiens is for those who are easily irritated, shocked or anxious

- Star of Bethlehem is for the after effects of shock and/or trauma

- Cherry Plum indicated for people who feel they can no longer cope

- Rock Rose is for terror (frozen with fear) - under acute threat

- Clematis for those who feel muzzy headed, unable to concentrate

In a Bach Flower Remedy Consultation the practitioner will spend the time asking questions about your physical health and the emotional up's and down's in your life and listening to how you deal with those problems.

It's not so much about what stressful and traumatic events have happened throughout your life but how you dealt with them at the time and are continuing to deal with them. Have you buried your emotions in the hope that they will go away or do you wear your grief on your sleeve ?

For instance, if you experienced a traumatic breakdown in a relationship it is more important to know how you dealt with it. You may be smiling sweetly at your ex partner every time you meet but is that smile safe in the knowledge that you have sewn prawns into the hems of the curtains in the home which he has set up with his new girlfriend. This is a simmering rage and would warrant the remedy WILLOW for resentment. Or would you email everyone in the company he works announcing that he was sleeping with a prostitute and be happy to sign it. If so, this is boiling rage - the remedy for which is prickly HOLLY!

You may think that these feelings are OK and well they might be, if they are short lived .. expressing your emotions in this way may be beneficial provided they do not harm anyone else. However, if they persist and become destructive to both you and others and furthermore, prevent you from "moving on" in a satisfactory way, this is when the emotions you are experiencing need to be addressed to prevent physical and mental illness.

Something that "eats away at you" emotionally will create an excess chemical reaction (acidity) in your digestive system which has the potential to "eat away at you" physically.

After careful consultation you and the Practitioner will choose between 6 - 8 remedies that closely match your state of mind at that time. Two drops of each remedy will be mixed with water and put into a 30ml bottle with a dropper.

The aim of all Bach Flower Consultations is to teach the patient the benefits of this simple safe healing system to enable them to use the remedies on a daily basis to balance mood swings or address more serious problems.

"Health depends on being in harmony with our souls" -.. Health is our heritage, our right. It is the complete and full union between soul, mind and body; and this is not a difficult far-away ideal to attain, but one so easy and natural that many of us have overlooked it. Dr Edward Bach

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Friday, 25 August 2006