Flower Essences for Grief and Heartache
Have you noticed how fresh flowers can have a strong impact on your mood and feeling state? The vibrant colors, effusive scent and signature features can all elicit a unique response.
For centuries, cultures around the world have utilized flowers for medicinal purposes. Chamomile flower tea is common for calming nervous bellies or anxiousness. Rose petal tea for calming inflammation in the body and healing a tender heart from emotional upheaval. Hibiscus flower tea is an excellent summer remedy for cooling the body and relieving kidney challenges.
Flower Essences are infusions made from the flowering part of the plant. A simple recipe is to fill a bowl with water (distilled, spring water or reverse osmosis) and add your flowers to the bowl. If it pleases you, add your very own intention to your infusion. This can be something like, intending healing or adding more joy to your life. Allow your infusion to sit overnight in the moonlight - or sit outside during the day. After 12-24 hours, discard the flowers and use the liquid for your flower essence. Add a small amount of brandy to your solution for shelf stability. Herbalists like myself, consider this as a way to capture the essence of the flower’s subtle energy in the water to utilize for mind-body-spirit support. Every flower has a unique signature that is offered for healing support. Complementary medicine much like flower essences continues to gain in popularity as a way to add support to a healing protocol.
Dr Edward Bach is one of the lead formulators in Flower Essences. His story is quite fascinating. Dr Bach began his career as a house surgeon. He found himself working in a hospital in London as a consultant and a bacteriologist. He found himself desiring more ways to assist his clients’ healing and found his way to homeopathy. Again, he kept digging deeper into other ways he could work with the emotional body of his clients. He came to believe that illness stemmed from disharmony between the body and the mind. He viewed symptoms of an illness as the external expression of negative inner emotional states. Dr Bach turned to flowers and their subtle energies to work on emotional support for his healing protocols. His commonly used blend called Bach flower remedy is a beautiful signature mix containing Star of Bethlehem, Rock Rose, Impatiens, Cherry Plum, and Clematis. You can utilize this blend for grief, fear, shock to rebalance your emotional state. You can find this in a pet version to use for your beloved animals during fireworks, thunderstorms or when your sweet furry friend is missing you while you are on vacation or away.
Energetix’s formula Field of Flowers contains 38 flowers which they suggest could be utilized for symptoms such as fear, despair, anxiety, compulsiveness, worry, despondency, intolerance, withdrawal, irritability, aggressiveness, impatience, obsessiveness, and apathy.
Use your formula 3-4 times throughout the day and add to your water or take under the tongue. Most clients notice a shift in 2-3 days - though each person is unique in their experience.
In times of grief or heartache, nourish your tender heart with one of these formulas.
Using Rumi’s words as a remedy, “Grief can be the garden of compassion. If you keep your heart open through everything, your pain can become your greatest ally in your life’s search for love and wisdom.”
In Joy,
Meghan Kate Dwyer
