Q&A session with Warren Bellows about Floral Acupuncture

Listen to an exclusive Manifest with Flower Essences Q&A session with Warren Bellows, licensed acupuncturist and co-author of the book Floral Acupuncture. If you have any questions or are interested in a consultation, please visit the Floral Acupuncture website.

We welcome your thoughts, questions, and comments. Click on the title of this post to leave us a comment or start a discussion with others in the Manifest with Flower Essences community.

Coming soon: Q&A session with Warren Bellows about Floral Acupuncture

This week we will be featuring a fascinating interview with Warren Bellows, licensed acupuncturist and co-author of the book Floral Acupuncture. Sign up to receive a link later this week to listen to the interview or check back soon at http://manifestwithfloweressences.blogspot.com.

The healing or awareness crisis: What is it and how can you move through it?

The often ignored or rarely discussed phenomenon known as a healing crisis or awareness crisis is something that people who use flower essences or partake in other types of healing work are familiar with. A healing/awareness crisis is a situation in which the person taking the flower essence will often feel exacerbated symptoms of the very issue he or she is trying to resolve using the flower essence. An example of this is discussed in this article.

Flower essences bring an undeniable clarity to a situation where it brings to the surface anything about the particular issue being dealt with that was hidden or submerged. With this new level of clarity, it is really difficult to pretend that the issue doesn't exist and often times the person is led to take some action. When an issue involves more than one person, what often happens is that the flower essence works on the energetic level and shifts are made. Other people around this person may feel that something is different even though there is no physical evidence they can point to. Subsequently, the behavior of others around the person may change (sometimes in a positive way and sometimes in a negative way).

More often than not, with any type of healing, what happens is that the person doing a lot of healing work on themselves shifts their energy to a much higher level; before he or she changes their conscious behavior, this energy shift is felt by others and triggers their issues. This discomfort in others often results in them lashing out for things that don't make rational sense. If you feel like you are facing arguments that hold no rational meaning or if you feel unfairly picked on or bullied, there is a very good chance that others around you aren't taking responsibility for themselves. It is not your fault. Your new, fresh energy can no longer hold a place for their negativity. You might wonder how in the world they are able to sense that when you haven't changed the way you interact. Energy healing is very powerful. If you walk into a home with a lot of negative energy, you can often feel it before you can identify any evidence. Similarly, someone who is used to a certain level of negativity actually struggles with positive energy. If someone is bitter and angry, being around energy that is positive sets them off even more. You are in no way responsible for that, but it is a warning to you that flower essences (or any other type of energy healing) are powerful and they will unearth and clear away old patterns.

If you are going through a healing or awareness crisis you have several choices. Some of those options are discussed in the article linked here. If the issue you are dealing with had something to do with those around you, some ways of handling the situation are to give yourself some space from those who are reacting negatively; talking won't necessarily solve something that isn't necessarily rational. For example, if you are doing self-acceptance work and it is in someone's best interest that you have low self-worth so they can control you, the minute the other person senses a new energy from you that appears more self-confident and self-assured, their fear of losing control over you is triggered. It doesn't mean you are doing anything wrong; it means that the situation of control can no longer remain the same. The other person may or may not choose to work on their own issues. In the meantime, you will either spend less time around that person or you will make a decision to completely stop interacting with them. You may also choose to slow down the process by stopping flower essence therapy and other healing methods until you can make conscious changes to your environment.

Healing using any modality creates change. Change in and of itself is not a bad thing; however, our mechanism for integrating change is important to long-term life satisfaction. Once we have a certain level of clarity, we will attract people and situations in line with our new energetic blueprint. We will no longer be operating from a place of childhood patterns or victimhood.

Not everyone experiences a healing crisis every time they take a flower essence or do healing work. This is just something to be aware of when you feel frustrated that things seem to be getting worse before they get better. With some support, love, and a new perspective, you will most likely continue on your healing journey and notice that your life improves a great deal. Unfortunately, in order for new people and opportunities to come into your life, you may have to leave behind situations that you have outgrown. Follow your heart and make these changes with compassion and calmness. Do not do things in haste or out of retaliation or anger. Allow yourself time to integrate the changes and make choices from a place of empowerment. You are responsible for yourself; those who truly respect you will allow you to change and they will deal with their own issues and triggers with maturity. Those who have controlled you, bullied you, or expect you to follow their command will no longer be able to handle being around you and your new boundaries until and unless they find a new way to relate. Give yourself the gift of freedom and healing by following through on what feels right to you while respectfully and consciously untangling yourself from drama and chaos.

Since the process itself can be rocky, you may consider taking one of the following flower essences for the healing crisis itself. Some flower essences suggested for a healing crisis are: Aloe Flower Essence, Crisis-Desert Emergency Formula, Desert Jointfir Flower Essence, and Zephyr Lily Flower Essence. You may also consider taking Bach Flower Rescue Remedy.

A close up look at beautiful flowers

Enjoy this beautiful video which features a close up look at some beautiful flowers. This close up look is great if you are learning to make your own flower essences and are studying various features and signatures of flowers. If you are using different flower essences, see which flowers resonate with you at the moment. If you are particularly drawn to one or several of the flowers from this video, note them down and research the flower essences made from those flowers to see if you could use those flower essences for what you are currently experiencing in your life.



Do you have a favorite flower? Leave us a note in the Comments section by clicking on the title of this post. Thanks!

Do you feel like life's punching bag? How to use flower essences to stop the madness!

Does it ever feel like you've finally got things under control and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, someone else's stress overflows and becomes your problem? Out of the blue, a friend, co-worker, or family member decides that you are their punching bag and they start berating you, putting you down, and blaming you for all of their problems? Then, when you go out of your way to try to alleviate their stress, they refuse your help or find new reasons to blame you or judge you. Finally after some introspection you become aware that you are not really the problem after all.

Many of us are used to being nice and backing down and accommodating others, helping out, and doing everything in our power to keep the peace. Then, without provocation, and for something as simple as a bad weather day or a deadline, someone decides that they need to take their frustrations out on someone, and you just happen to be there and they take that as an invitation to use you as a human punching bag for their emotional distress. You feel like you've done tremendous spiritual work, you try to find compassionate ways to deal with other people, and you end up having to clean up a mess that is not yours.

This pattern seems to repeat itself and you can't figure out why you are always in the position of being a victim. You wonder why this happens and people tell you that it's because you are successful or that it's easy for others to be jealous of you because life just seems so much better for you. You know deep inside that you've worked hard to get where you are. What you need is a protective shield to keep out other people's negativity. Start by creating a protective barrier around you to shield you from someone's negativity in your environment (especially a roommate, co-worker, family member, neighbor, or someone who you share space with on a frequent basis and can't avoid). Try FES Yarrow Environmental Solution. Just to be clear, Yarrow Environmental Solution is an herbal and flower essence combination, so if you are not ok with any of the herbal tinctures in the solution, take Yarrow Flower Essence instead.

You might want to simultaneously take Bach Flower Remedies' Centaury if you feel like you have a hard time saying no to someone's requests or if you feel like you've always come across as nice and others perceive that to mean they can take advantage of your niceness. If you feel like the other person is bullying you or emotionally blackmailing you, you might want to take Aquarius Flower Remedies' formula Stop Bullying Me which contains flower essences of 12 flowers and 1 seed essence to help you gain confidence and add an additional layer of protection from negative forces.

You could take FES Black Cohosh to help enhance courage to stand up to a situation rather than back down. If you have always given in because you didn't have the courage to express yourself and set boundaries, this flower essence could help.

If you have had a lifelong pattern of expecting others to treat you badly based on early childhood experiences or even past life influences, you might consider taking FES Oregon Grape. Though you may believe that you have good reason not to trust other people because of having gone through a series of difficult situations involving people's behavior towards you, you may want to stop attracting this type of behavior from people in the future. Oregon Grape helps instill a positive expectation of people's behavior, opening up the possibility to attract more trustworthy, kind people into your life.

Finally, if you have been bogged down with the negative energy of others for so long that you have felt heavy-hearted and discouraged at the idea of things ever changing with these situations, try FES Borage. This flower essence helps bring out optimism, courage, and loving heart energy. By using the other flower essences first, you are ensuring that you have created a protective shield, built up the courage to speak up for yourself and set boundaries, cleared lifelong distrust of others, and then from this place of safety, you are opening up your heart energies to feel optimistic and loving.

It is important to cover all different aspects of an issue, because without doing that, you could bring more harm to yourself. If for example, you ignored the main issue and decided you just need to feel more optimistic and trusting and took flower essences for that, you might still be in a situation where people continue to take advantage of you. You will end up feeling even more distrusting of people and resentful if you allow those behaviors to continue. Therefore, it's crucial to examine all different aspects and first understand what your emotions are telling you, because emotions are a warning system. Feeling angry is like an alarm going off telling us that something is wrong. It doesn't always mean that we can fix an issue outwardly so that we get everything we want the way we want it or that other people are always the problem. What it means is that something doesn't feel right and we need to understand all the things that contribute to that. If in fact we find ourselves in a situation that is just not safe or healthy for us anymore, we need to look out for our physical and emotional safety and well-being and take action in the real world.

Flower essences help us through the process of learning about our emotions, bolstering inner qualities such as courage and confidence, and sometimes lending us creative insights or intuitive hunches. However, all of this is usually a precursor to taking some action in the physical world. In some cases (and especially after we have cultivated a strong inner spiritual sense), problems and issues sometimes disappear without us having to take action. However, waiting indefinitely for that may not be the best way to handle day-to-day issues. It might be best to bolster communication, handle our own emotional triggers, and use compassion but set strong boundaries and take decisive action to let others know that what was ok in the past is no longer ok anymore. Once you make it clear that you are not to be disrespected, things will change in the physical world. Either people will step up and learn a new way to communicate with you or they will stop interacting with you. Again, if any situation is dangerous, inappropriate, abusive, etc. seek out professional help.

By using a variety of flower essences to solve an issue from multiple angles, you will find creative and effective ways to not only resolve this particular issue but you may also stop attracting similar issues in the future. Feel free to share your story and how you resolved an issue with someone who took out their stress and negativity on you. Click on the title of this post to leave a comment in the Comments section.

The million dollar promise: Why our pursuit of the best keeps us from actually having it

Many manifestation methods focus on the big payoffs with headlines like "Manifest a million dollars" and "How to manifest your dream house, car, and more". When I started this blog, I wanted to focus on manifesting the inner qualities that create the life we have come to expect from having the million-dollar dream. I believe that it is possible to manifest many wonderful things, some of which are material in nature, but I want to place the emphasis on the idea that while we are in the process of manifesting those long-term goals, it's really important to focus on the qualities to make the here and now the life we want to live. Sometimes that means that sacrificing our precious energy on things we don't like with the intention of the possibility of having something in the future might not be the best strategy for most people.

I'm not judging what goals are worth manifesting and what goals aren't worth pursuing. The greatest gifts I have experienced through the use of flower essences have been the change in my inner climate; by that I mean the immediate and lasting changes that affect my day-to-day life including a deep sense of spirituality and peace, a greater connection to people around me, and many different small but very useful serendipitous events that make everyday life fun and exciting while illuminating the idea that we belong to this amazing, interconnected Universe.

What does all of this have to do with flower essences? As a blog about flower essences, Manifest with Flower Essences is focused on a longer-term approach to creating the type of inner emotional space that illuminates (or creates) the type of life that most people deeply crave - fulfilling relationships, purposeful careers, an abundance of good food, good conversation, enlivening entertainment, opportunities to give back and make a difference, and a deep spirituality that is about embracing a greater good and living a life that is in sync with principles that make our time on earth a reflection of our higher selves. As lofty a goal as that might seem, using the tools provided by nature such as flower essences that at the core vibrate at the energetic resonance of harmony might be the thing we need to help us create that inner space. Of course, I have the highest respect for time-honored traditions such as meditation and energy healing which have had a profound impact on many healing journeys. Alongside those are techniques such as EFT, Reiki, acupuncture, homeopathy, hypnosis, journaling, and many more. Flower essences are one of many great tools and work very well with all of these.

My understanding of flower essences until now is that on a short-term basis, each flower essence can yield immediate results for a specific issue. On a longer-term basis, flower essences selected for different issues work on a subconscious level bringing to light things we can experience and let go of. This emotional release keeps us from attracting situations that were resonating at the frequency of the problem, thus allowing us to get to a neutral place. If alongside the use of flower essences we practice visualization, we are imprinting the energy of what we desire, thus making manifestation easy and highly probable. The amazing thing about manifestation is that what we desire is a certain feeling that we equate to a certain thing. Our subconscious mind is great at attracting one of many possibilities that yields that feeling. Thus, once we start resonating at the vibration of fulfillment, excitement, love, etc., we are constantly attracting and manifesting many experiences that fit those qualities. The very fabric of our lives changes to the point where we are living the type of life we would have envisioned having if we had a million dollars, a dream home, a dream car, belonging to a specific club, having a particular job title, etc.

When we focus all of our energy purely on very specific external goals, we run the risk of making decisions that shortchange us in the short-term. We pursue the wrong things because we are told what should make us happy through societal expectations, commercials and advertisements, peer pressure, family pressure, etc. The danger in manifesting what we think we should want instead of what our hearts truly desire is that our short-term is spent pursuing things that may or may not manifest while our long-term happiness is dependent on actually liking what we manifest. When we define one option as the best, we don't check in to see if it is an authentic desire, and worse yet, we don't allow alternate realities.

I can't promise anyone else that they will experience what I have experienced, but from when I first started using flower essences for several years (alongside other modalities such as journaling, EFT, and hypnosis), I can say that the journey has been absolutely life-changing. Within the first few weeks, I started noticing immediate changes. Within 6 months, I started noticing major changes. Within 2 years, I felt like I had won the life lottery. Not a day goes by where I don't feel a deep sense of gratitude (not a forced gratitude that feels like guilt or emotionless run-of-the-mill lists). The type of gratitude I'm talking about is a feeling of "I can't believe how wonderful my life is". The irony is that I look around and notice that many of my material circumstances are exactly the same as from before I started using flower essences, I've experienced some very difficult transitions, and endured some deeply-saddening personal losses. Flower essences didn't transport me into a different world; it made me grateful and more deeply connected to the world we live in right here, right now. It gave me the courage and support to face tragic grief, empathy to forgive difficult situations, and a sense of magic from being able to manifest the type of everyday synchronicity that makes life easier and more enjoyable; from running into a friend just when you need her to the perfect parking spot when you need one these everyday magical moments are more profound than they appear. None of this might make sense to you, and I can understand that. It's hard to compete with million dollar promises. But one thing I can tell you is that there is nothing quite like feeling like you have won the life lottery right here, right now. It means that even if you are waiting to win the lottery, you'll be doing it from a much better inner space. I think that's worth as much if not more than a million dollars.

As I dig into and share the details of my journey with flower essences, I will feature specific essences that I have used in the past and how they helped me get where I am now. If you are a flower essence practitioner, I urge you to share you thoughts on this post. The reason I started this blog was because I couldn't believe that something as simple, elegant, and profound as flower essences had existed all along and I only found them 15 years into my self-healing, self-development journey! I wanted to give people the shortcut. Why wait for years to discover this when you can have flower essences to accelerate your journey right now? So many others who have been using flower essences for a while have shared stories of their life transformations through flower essences. If you have never posted a comment before, I ask you now to share your success stories about flower essences. It's only through reading enthusiastic testimonials from others that I was convinced I wanted to try different flower essences, and I'm resisting saying the rest is history (see previous post about this). What I can say is that I have manifested an amazing soul-mate relationship, wonderful friendships, a great living space, exciting activities and groups, more abundance, daily synchronicity, and a deep sense of peace and gratitude that permeates the very fiber of my being. If I can play even a minuscule part in your success by providing you information that could help transform your life, then I'm honored to be able to do so.

If you want to read some testimonials to get inspired, I recommend the book Bach Flower Remedies to the Rescue by Gregory Vlamis.

Floral Acupuncture: Book Review and Upcoming Interviews

If you haven't already read the book Floral Acupuncture, I would highly recommend it! This book by by Deborah Craydon, Certified Flower Essence Practitioner and Warren Bellows, Licensed Acupuncturist is a great way to combine the best of two healing techniques - flower essences and acupuncture. This book uses the 38 Bach Flower Essences as an example, though the technique of using flower essences on acupuncture points could conceivably be performed using any type of flower essence. Using the wisdom of the ancient technique of acupuncture, this book details a do-it-yourself approach that walks you through the step-by-step process of applying an individual flower essence on specific meridian points based on what aspects you want to treat.

We will be featuring Q&A sessions and interviews with the authors of the book in the near future. If you have a question you want answered, click on the title of this post and leave it in the Comments section. We will try to cover as many of those questions as possible during the interviews.