Showing posts with label practitioner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label practitioner. Show all posts

Friday, July 12, 2013

How to deal with a difficult person or situation using flower essences

Do you ever feel trapped in an unpleasant situation and just can't seem to get free of it? Are you a self-development expert who can't understand why all of your efforts seem to be in vain when it comes to this one very sticky, very annoying situation? Here are some approaches with flower essences that may just be what you need.

Whether you are frustrated about an annoying boss, a negative co-worker, a bullying teammate, or a friend or family member that is picking on you or teasing you excessively, you can try the following flower essences to help alleviate the issue not just in the short-term but to transform the interaction entirely so you are not faced with the same issue over and over again. Just to note, this is only for frustrating or annoying situations and not issues of abuse, harassment, etc. For those types of matters, please consult the appropriate professional immediately.

Before we list the specific flower essences, let's figure out the distinct parts of the annoying situation. One part is the persistent nature of this annoyance. It seems to be a repeated annoyance every time you interact with a particular person. Another aspect is that the issue is part of some routine part of your life and because of that, you are unable to or do not want to consciously break free of interacting with this person either because of a job, a familial relationship, long-term friendship, sports team or activity group, etc. Another part to the problem is that you seem to be singled out so that the issue is something you face alone or with just a few people as opposed to mass oppression in cases like oppressive regimes, conditions of war, etc. Those types of situations require greater resources and professional help; please seek out appropriate help and professional care in those circumstances.

Here are 3 Bach Flower Essences that can be used together to address annoying/frustrating situations:

1. Bach Flower Remedy Chestnut Bud
2. Bach Flower Remedy White Chestnut
3. Bach Flower Remedy Centaury

Though each of these flower essences can be used for a variety of issues, in this case, we have selected Chestnut Bud to illuminate the areas in which one finds themselves repeatedly in the same situations. White Chestnut is used to help alleviate repeated thoughts that continue to play over and over again like a broken record. Breaking out of that thought pattern allows one to see the situation with a new perspective and also relieve the stress of unwanted thoughts repeating themselves indefinitely. Centaury is used here to help restore one's individual power. In situations where someone is being picked on, one may feel powerless to do anything about the situation. By fortifying one's power from the inside, this new vibration will help create an invisible boundary of energy that makes it harder if not impossible to be singled out or picked on.

Some situations may be more complex and require a consult with a flower essence practitioner to address unique circumstances or longer-term underlying issues that need to be dealt with using other flower essences. For simple cases where it seems that everyday life would improve dramatically if one particular annoying situation could be alleviated, these 3 flower essences may just be the answer you are looking for. You can create your own personal blend by adding several drops of each of these essences into a bottle of water and sipping from this bottle of water throughout the day. Some flower essence practitioners have described this method using the image of a hammer tapping away at the issue each time this water is sipped. With many persistent taps throughout the day, the problem or issue crumbles. This might be a more effective method than taking the flower essences only 3 times a day. If you were to sip from the bottle throughout the day, you would be imbibing the energy of the essences 10 or more times per day. This persistence with the issue may be just what you need to deal with an equally persistent, annoying situation. To figure out how many drops of each essence to put in a bottle of water, click here.

Flower essences are powerful; if you are going to try this for a situation you are dealing with, be aware that within the first few days, the situation may become exaggerated and you may find yourself feeling even more frustrated as the situation comes to a turning point. At this point, you might find yourself in a heated discussion with the person or a breaking point with the situation. You must be prepared to be completely honest with yourself that you want to find a solution to the issue and take responsibility for your thoughts and actions. If you are not ready for this, stop taking the flower essences or for a gentler approach take the flower essences once a day or once every few days. However, you may also find that when you take the flower essences, you are easily able to stop thinking about the annoyance and the person that would usually pick on you may just stop their behavior because they sense a different energy around you though you might not be doing anything differently on a conscious level.

It is hard to predict exactly how a situation pans out, but flower essences usually bring about some change. The process can sometimes feel difficult because the process of change itself can feel difficult. However, if you are ready for more awareness in a situation, flower essences definitely bring issues to light. Each individual's particular experience with them will really depend on how many other issues exist in the background. If you have done a great deal of personal development work and have been using flower essences for a while, many of the shifts may feel fairly gentle since a lot of major issues have been cleared. However, if you have always stuffed away your emotions and suppressed every instinct and feeling you have had, it may feel like any inner work feels like a trigger that could cause an inner volcano to erupt. Bach's Cherry Plum flower essence is great for the fear of losing control. If you use these flower essences for a few weeks, you are likely to notice some positive changes. With continued use of flower essences for a variety of issues, you'll clear out old patterns and start noticing life becoming easier, lighter, and more aligned.

Have you used any of these flower essences before? Do you use other flower essences for these issues? Click on the title of this post and leave us your thoughts in the Comments section.

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Exponential Growth: What does it have to do with flower essences?

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.

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.