Flower Essences Part 1: What Are Flower Essences?

Along with tapping, food journaling, and other useful tools for weight loss, flower essences can really add a boost to the process.  First developed by Edward Bach, M.D., these simple remedies balance our emotional body. Then our physical body, thoughts, and behaviors can adjust in a more positive direction as well.

Dr. Bach was unhappy practicing conventional medicine because of the severe side effects that drugs had on his patients. Even using natural homeopathic remedies had harsher effects than he wanted. So he shut down his office in London and started roaming the woods and fields. He took his time communing with plants, and soon developed a subtle ear for hearing what each plant was good for. He found that the flowers of plants were especially good for healing the emotional body. He distilled the essence from each plant’s flowers by putting them in a bowl of pure water in the sun. This was done without touching the flowers with his hands at all, as he did not want his own energy infused in the plants. He then took the infused water and added some alcohol to stabilize it. He made 12 original remedies this way; then went on to make a total of 38 remedies, now called the Bach Flower remedies.

Once he had his toolkit in hand, he reopened his medical practice and starting treating his patients with the flower essences. He found that even people with serious physical conditions/illnesses responded well. He concluded that emotional causes affect our physical body and lead to diseases and general dis-ease of all kinds. By going to the root cause, the effects were eliminated. Sounds a lot like EFT, doesn’t it?

There are now many groups that have developed their own set of flower essences, including The Flower Essence Society. Because everyone has unique challenges, there are a few essences that are especially helpful for each of us. The following list of essences includes some from Bach’s original 38, and some from the Flower Essence Society. They are available in health food stores, natural pharmacies, and online.

How to Take the Remedies

Remedies can either be taken long-term (a few weeks to a few months) or short-term with acute emotional reactions. When taken long-term, take them 4 times a day, 3 drops at a time. Either mix them in a small amount of water and drink, or drop them under your tongue (avoid touching your mouth. If you do, just rinse the dropper under running water). For acute conditions, you can take the same way as above for a shorter period of time, or take once and stop if you get the results you want, or take even every 10 minutes until you see a favorable change.

You can mix remedies and thereby take more than 1 at a time (up to 7). It’s harder to see what each one is doing, but can yield faster results if you need more than one. Stay tuned for future blogs, where I will go over some major flower essences that can be helpful to you. Or, give me a call for some free suggestions on what essence can help you.