Have you ever seen a graph of exponential growth? Look at this link for an example. Notice how linear growth seems to be making a lot of progress right from the beginning compared to the exponential growth model. But there is a sweet spot when the exponential growth line surpasses linear growth and skyrockets from there. What does this have to do with flower essences?
The changes you might initially experience from taking flower essences may be subtle. You might wonder how flower essences could possibly help you get from where you are to where you want to be. You might question how flower essences could possibly help you manifest the life you dream of since it seems incredibly different and far from anything you are currently living. If you study the exponential growth model, you will notice that there seems to be little change for the first phase of time. Then, all of a sudden, as if out of nowhere, there is a dramatic shift in growth. If you use flower essences, you might experience subtle, small changes for the first few weeks to months after which time you might notice that there have been huge changes to your life. You might have been inspired to make major shifts in your life which in turn produced other changes. These changes, even the ones that seem arbitrary at first end up revealing a brand new reality, one that you had only seen in your visualizations and dreams.
To better understand how this might work, let's walk through an example. Let's study the case of someone who wants to be in a relationship, find a new job, and move to a place that she likes better than where she is currently living. After working with a flower essence practitioner, she realizes that the common theme holding her back is a lack of courage that is preventing her from taking calculated risks. She is afraid of the consequences of her actions, but her fear has created a risk as well; her fear has kept her from the possibility of having what she really wants. Her flower essence practitioner selects the following essences: Aspen for the fear of unknown situations, Mimulus for the fear of situations that she is aware of, and Cerato for lack of trust in the decisions she makes. For the first few weeks of taking these essences, she notices that she is drawn to trying a different commute home than the one she normally takes. This leads to meeting a new friend on her walk home. She finds herself browsing job boards and noticing that she is drawn to a different type of job than the one she has. The more she learns about her likes and dislikes, the less scary the idea of changing careers becomes. She notices a magazine cover featuring a city she had always been curious about living in but had never visited before.
When she unexpectedly gets a few extra days off of work for her successful completion of a project, she decides to visit this city to find out what it would be like to live there. As she continues working with her flower essence practitioner, she starts noticing that fear isn't holding her back like it used to. She decides to stop using those flower essences. As she talks with her flower essence practitioner, she realizes that she is seriously consider moving to the city she visited, but at the same time, she has started appreciating new aspects of her current city. She is prescribed Scleranthus for her inability to choose between the two options. As she continues to take this new essence, she starts to realize that the city she currently lives in doesn't have the job opportunities she is interested in pursuing. She decides to explore possibilities sending in resumes to a few jobs in the city of her choice.
A few weeks later, she receives a call about a job she had applied to and after a phone interview, she is flown in for an in-person interview. Immediately, she knows that if she is offered the position, she will move. A few weeks later, she has settled into a new apartment in a new city with a new job. Looking back, she realizes that without conquering her fear, she would never have taken the small steps necessary to make big changes. As she continues to work with her flower essence practitioner, she is given Honeysuckle and finds it easier to let go of the past without letting go of her fond memories. As she examines her past relationships, she realizes that she has let jealousy and envy block her heart from feeling open to love. She takes Holly flower essence and notices that after a few good cries and rants in her journal, she feels more peaceful and loving. A few weeks later, she is invited to a party by her coworkers and meets an interesting man who asks her out on a date.
Two months later, nearly a year from her first conversation with her flower essence practitioner, she recounts her year using flower essences. Starting from a place where she was looking for a relationship, a new job, and a new city to live in, she now has all of that. Instead of struggling and dealing with setbacks and disappointments, she found that flower essences helped her take small, inspired steps. She took time to listen to her intuition which saved her from making decisions based on comfort and routine which would have led her to stay in the same city and same job. She allowed herself to waiver between the two cities and explore the new city with a trip before making a commitment to move. This new process was fun and exciting instead of stressful and dreadful. She learned that change can be a good thing when supported by the use of flower essences. Her flower essence practitioner listened to the story behind her wishes and chose flower essences based on larger themes to create lasting changes.
This is quite a common experience with those who take flower essences. People typically notice small shifts at the beginning leading to transformative changes after a certain amount of time. Flower essences have the power to help people create exponential growth in their lives. Working with a flower essence practitioner, subscribing to informative resources about flower essences, and combining solid introspective practices such as meditation and journaling all help accelerate this personal growth process. If you are just beginning this process, remember the graph of exponential growth and how the first phase of time looks to have minimal progress, but if you are patient and continue to work with flower essences, you may be one of the many people who experience tremendous personal growth and lasting changes.
If you have already experienced this phenomenon, please share your stories with us. Click on this post's title and leave us your thoughts in the Comments section. Your testimonials and stories are valuable to newcomers; we thank you for sharing and helping foster a community around the resources that have helped you create the life of your dreams.
Showing posts with label mimulus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mimulus. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Q&A with Flower Essences Practitioner Debra Bluth
Today, we have a very special exclusive Q&A session with Flower Essence Practitioner and Herbalist Debra Bluth.
On behalf of Manifesting with Flower Essences, I would like to extend a warm welcome to Debra. I had the privilege of attending a presentation by Debra at Herbstalk 2013 in Somerville, MA. She has some fantastic insights about flower essences from her years of experience working with them and I am thrilled that she has agreed to do a Q&A with us here.
Q: What led you to flower essences?
A: I’d been exploring herbs for a little while and I would see the Bach flower essences near the herbs in our local co-op and I felt curious about them. I decided to give one a try on a whim and my experience with that essence (mimulus) was powerful enough that I then grew really curious. Although I dabbled for many years with them, eventually something in my spirit really began hearing them call. I resisted for a few years and it actually was a kicking-and-screaming sort of thing until I finally acknowledged that this work was a real calling for me.
Q: How long have you been using flower essences and what is your most profound experience from using them?
A: Well, that dabbling started 17 years ago, and I would say I’ve been consistently using at least one essence ever since then. I didn't fully embrace them as a path, though, until about 6 years ago. It’s hard to pinpoint one experience that is the most profound, honestly, because so much of my experience with essences has been profound. I CAN say that flower essences have literally saved me – they brought me through a very deep and dangerous period of depression that I don’t think I would have made it through otherwise. I needed a practitioner to help me through that time, because sometimes we need someone else to guide us and mirror us – it's hard to treat ourselves, as we can never really see ourselves. But aside from that experience with the essences, I can attribute flower essences to so much personal healing and development... it’s such a fascinating process to experience how the essences are working on us – the changes in our thoughts and perceptions, and then into our behavior… so many choices open up… our lives just begin to become richer and fuller, and we become so much more ourselves.
Q: If you could pick one or two flower essences that you would always have on hand, what would they be?
A: I think I would always have a protection blend with me – essences like angelica and st. john’s wort, cinquefoil and garlic. And I think I’d always have a clearing blend with me – essences that move energy out – like goldenseal and moxa and sweet annie. So I’m cheating a little with your question, because I am allowing myself blends rather than single essences! I’m also a big fan of red cedar, which is very grounding and centering. And motherwort, which helps with boundaries.
Q: Do you make your own flower essences? What inspired you to do so?
A: Yes, I do. Making essences is really important to me, and many of the essences I use in my practice are ones I’ve made. The communication and spiritual connection with the plant while making the essence leads to a very deep connection with the ‘finished’ essence, and that strengthens the possibilities of what happens when you use it. A gateway opens between you and the plant, and that energy becomes stronger with time, just like any relationship can deepen. I've been very inspired by teachers of mine (David Dalton, Kate Gilday) and their connections with the plants. I knew I wanted to live with that kind of connection and integrity, and I want to be able to pass it on to others. The field of flower essences is always evolving, and I want to be part of that evolution and discovery, learning how to further our ability to help others.
Q: How could flower essences be used to make the world a better place? What do flowers offer us and how can we tap into that to help us live better lives?
A: That’s a profound question. I’m a huge believer that as we become more whole in ourselves (which is what the flowers help us do), the ripple of our own healing moves out into the world. We’re kinder to other people, we’re kinder to the earth. As we become more whole, we become more loving, sensitive, and patient, and this ripples out to everyone around us – and by everyone I mean not just humans. As we become more empowered, too, we are inspired to act truthfully for what we care about. Life becomes larger than just our personal story. A deepening of our sensitivity increases our capacity to feel a larger web of connection. I think personal healing is a truly political act.
Thank you Debra for sharing your insights and information with Manifesting with Flower Essences. To learn more about Debra, please visit her website at http://www.seedandlegend.com.
We invite all of our blog readers to share thoughts and questions by clicking on the title of this post to view the Comments section.
Bio: Debra Bluth is a flower essence practitioner and herbalist practicing in Brighton, Massachusetts and Yarmouth, Maine. Certified to work with flower essences by David Dalton, she also completed his advanced practitioners’ clinic, and now apprentices more closely with him at Delta Gardens. Her eyes first opened to the plants 18 years ago while in a shiatsu certification program, and years later she continued training through The Boston School for Herbal Studies, Bevin Clare, Katja Swift, Mischa Schuler, and Kate Gilday, among others. Debra holds a B.S. in psychology from Tufts University, an MFA in choreography from California Institute of the Arts, is certified as an integrative yoga therapist and shiatsu practitioner, and currently teaches classes in yoga, movement, and experiential anatomy. She also facilitates an online nine-month chakra apprenticeship for women. You can contact her at and join her email list at seedandlegend@gmail.com.
On behalf of Manifesting with Flower Essences, I would like to extend a warm welcome to Debra. I had the privilege of attending a presentation by Debra at Herbstalk 2013 in Somerville, MA. She has some fantastic insights about flower essences from her years of experience working with them and I am thrilled that she has agreed to do a Q&A with us here.
Q: What led you to flower essences?
A: I’d been exploring herbs for a little while and I would see the Bach flower essences near the herbs in our local co-op and I felt curious about them. I decided to give one a try on a whim and my experience with that essence (mimulus) was powerful enough that I then grew really curious. Although I dabbled for many years with them, eventually something in my spirit really began hearing them call. I resisted for a few years and it actually was a kicking-and-screaming sort of thing until I finally acknowledged that this work was a real calling for me.
Q: How long have you been using flower essences and what is your most profound experience from using them?
A: Well, that dabbling started 17 years ago, and I would say I’ve been consistently using at least one essence ever since then. I didn't fully embrace them as a path, though, until about 6 years ago. It’s hard to pinpoint one experience that is the most profound, honestly, because so much of my experience with essences has been profound. I CAN say that flower essences have literally saved me – they brought me through a very deep and dangerous period of depression that I don’t think I would have made it through otherwise. I needed a practitioner to help me through that time, because sometimes we need someone else to guide us and mirror us – it's hard to treat ourselves, as we can never really see ourselves. But aside from that experience with the essences, I can attribute flower essences to so much personal healing and development... it’s such a fascinating process to experience how the essences are working on us – the changes in our thoughts and perceptions, and then into our behavior… so many choices open up… our lives just begin to become richer and fuller, and we become so much more ourselves.
Q: If you could pick one or two flower essences that you would always have on hand, what would they be?
A: I think I would always have a protection blend with me – essences like angelica and st. john’s wort, cinquefoil and garlic. And I think I’d always have a clearing blend with me – essences that move energy out – like goldenseal and moxa and sweet annie. So I’m cheating a little with your question, because I am allowing myself blends rather than single essences! I’m also a big fan of red cedar, which is very grounding and centering. And motherwort, which helps with boundaries.
Q: Do you make your own flower essences? What inspired you to do so?
A: Yes, I do. Making essences is really important to me, and many of the essences I use in my practice are ones I’ve made. The communication and spiritual connection with the plant while making the essence leads to a very deep connection with the ‘finished’ essence, and that strengthens the possibilities of what happens when you use it. A gateway opens between you and the plant, and that energy becomes stronger with time, just like any relationship can deepen. I've been very inspired by teachers of mine (David Dalton, Kate Gilday) and their connections with the plants. I knew I wanted to live with that kind of connection and integrity, and I want to be able to pass it on to others. The field of flower essences is always evolving, and I want to be part of that evolution and discovery, learning how to further our ability to help others.
Q: How could flower essences be used to make the world a better place? What do flowers offer us and how can we tap into that to help us live better lives?
A: That’s a profound question. I’m a huge believer that as we become more whole in ourselves (which is what the flowers help us do), the ripple of our own healing moves out into the world. We’re kinder to other people, we’re kinder to the earth. As we become more whole, we become more loving, sensitive, and patient, and this ripples out to everyone around us – and by everyone I mean not just humans. As we become more empowered, too, we are inspired to act truthfully for what we care about. Life becomes larger than just our personal story. A deepening of our sensitivity increases our capacity to feel a larger web of connection. I think personal healing is a truly political act.
Thank you Debra for sharing your insights and information with Manifesting with Flower Essences. To learn more about Debra, please visit her website at http://www.seedandlegend.com.
We invite all of our blog readers to share thoughts and questions by clicking on the title of this post to view the Comments section.
Bio: Debra Bluth is a flower essence practitioner and herbalist practicing in Brighton, Massachusetts and Yarmouth, Maine. Certified to work with flower essences by David Dalton, she also completed his advanced practitioners’ clinic, and now apprentices more closely with him at Delta Gardens. Her eyes first opened to the plants 18 years ago while in a shiatsu certification program, and years later she continued training through The Boston School for Herbal Studies, Bevin Clare, Katja Swift, Mischa Schuler, and Kate Gilday, among others. Debra holds a B.S. in psychology from Tufts University, an MFA in choreography from California Institute of the Arts, is certified as an integrative yoga therapist and shiatsu practitioner, and currently teaches classes in yoga, movement, and experiential anatomy. She also facilitates an online nine-month chakra apprenticeship for women. You can contact her at and join her email list at seedandlegend@gmail.com.
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