Sometimes I do consultations where I eventually refuse the sale and refund the money. And it’s almost always for the same reasons: because the person hasn’t experimented enough with flower essences to feel safe and they want me to guarantee that the flowers won’t create an unwanted reaction. Frequently they want to work with me because they are afraid they will make a mistake in choosing and the flowers might do them harm. (That’s not possible. If you choose the wrong ones they won’t do anything.) Other people are afraid they might stir up emotions they don’t want to feel or that they might have one of those temporary and very rare resistance responses they may have heard about. (You might feel unsettled or feel like crying for a day or two or feel tired or have some other physical discomfort from not being ready for the healing that needs to occur.) But that’s not what they want! They want the “magic” they’ve heard flower essences can provide—they don’t want to feel their feelings or process anything from their past, and they want me to guarantee that won’t happen.
So I refund their money because sometimes you HAVE to honestly face how you feel and let the emotions out.
Sometimes a single shift in perspective or a simple energy shift can change everything and flower essences frequently can help that happen. And when that’s the case, it does feel like magic! But guess when that doesn’t happen? When the problem is at least partly related to trying to shut your feelings down.
Case in point: tonight Paul and I went for a walk and I kept trying to steer the conversation away from politics without success. I started to feel annoyed, and came home anxiously agitated and craving my favorite calming fix—vanilla ice cream. But I’ve been indulging too much and need to lose weight so I talked myself out of it and dowsed for a flower essence to use instead. The choice was Snapdragon. “What?” I thought. “Snapdragon is for when you’re snapping at people or “gritting your teeth” to hold emotions back. I know how I feel, don’t I? I feel anxious!” But I also knew I had been trying to avoid talking about politics and was feeling snappish about it so I gave it a try.
And guess what? I immediately started yawning, yawning, yawning and releasing tension until up popped the emotions buried under my anxious agitation—GRIEF! Grief about what I see happening in politics, grief and despair about what it could mean to our country and to the world, and grief about what it has meant already. I spent a long time releasing my emotions by crying and yawning some more and then up popped thoughts about what we could do to eliminate fraud in politics and protect voter rights if we voted the right people in. Not what THEY will do but what we the people will insist they do as soon as they have the power to do it. And suddenly, I didn’t feel despair anymore—I felt hope and joy! For real.
So back to flower essences in general. Trying to use flower essences to avoid feeling your feelings is a mistake. That’s not how it works! We need to talk more about hidden emotions or ones we push down that flower essences might bring up.
Using this modality is not like using drugs or alcohol to numb all your painful emotions. If that is what you’re wanting to use them for, you won’t necessarily find it a bed of roses. In fact, Wild Rose is one of the essences people mention as being a bit surprisingly effective at making a person aware of their buried emotions in the early stages of the healing process. It’s for people who have given up, feel apathetic about their lives, and resigned to their fate. The flower essence awakens the desire to dig into life with a sense of purpose again. It can reawaken joy . . . but not before addressing the reasons why you gave up! And that often, temporarily, means facing and releasing the feelings that made you want to give up in the first place. It can be a catalyst that works exactly as I described with Snapdragon for me above. You release the feelings, a new thought comes in that gives you hope about something you can actually do to bring about change in your life, and you’re back on your feet again.
But first, you might need to shed a few tears. And that’s a GOOD thing.
Stuffed emotions block the free flow of energy in your body. Flower essences are a type of energy healing that uses the power of plants (the energetic essence of flowers) to inspire the healing you need. So if your energy blocks come from beliefs you carry, you might gain insights that shift those beliefs. If they come from habitual thoughts, you might find yourself thinking new thoughts and letting the other ones go. If it comes from the overwhelming pain of grief or fear you might receive soothing relief. But if the blockage comes from trying not to feel your emotions at all, those feelings will rise to the surface to be released.
If you can let that happen, great. But if you resist, you might wind up with one of those rare resistance responses like a rash or headache. If that happens, take a break from the flower essences. Grab your journal or call your therapist and take a look at what you’re afraid might come up, what you’re afraid to feel. If you’re willing to go there, Agrimony can help unearth what that’s all about.
If you’re not willing, flower essences might not be right for you.
––––––––––––––––––––––––
Flower essences are used to assist with mind-body-spirit interactions and individual results may vary. They are extremely dilute which makes them quite safe. But because so little physical substance can be detected in a flower essence solution, these products are presumed to work on an energetic or vibrational level—something that cannot be adequately tested by western scientific methods. Claims made by me, therefore, are based on personal experiences and the evidence of the combined multiple decades of case notes by Dr. Edward Bach as well as Healing Herbs and Flower Essence Services (the companies who make the ingredients I use in my products). This is not, however, accepted medical evidence or substantiated scientific evidence from a modern allopathic point of view. I am not a medical doctor or licensed healthcare practitioner.
Statements made have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. The information provided on my blog, websites or by this company are not a substitute for a face-to-face consultation with a health care provider, and should not be construed as individual medical or mental health advice. Consulting with a health care provider is a must for anyone taking medications or working with a medical or mental health condition, and highly recommended before using any herbal product. Please consult your doctor or health care provider for any possible contraindications and/or interactions with current medications. I trust you to seek the medical guidance you need to use any of my herbal products healthily at your own risk.