Bach Flower Remedies
Once upon a time in London, England there was a renowned Harley St. physician, surgeon, homeopath and bacteriologist who decided to quit the city and go to live in the countryside. In his ever ending quest to help ease the emotional burden of daily life for his patients he set about the countryside in search of an answer he felt only nature could provide. Dr Edward Bach understood the complexities and bounty of flowers and devised a system of remedies based on homeopathic principles that would deal with the full of gamut of a person’s emotional needs. His complete system was comprised of 38 individual flower essences each representing and working with a specific emotional issue as well as one combination of 5 flower essences he used for emotional emergencies called ” Rescue Remedy."
Rescue Remedy
Over the years, many have imitated Dr. Bach and devised flower essences of their own, specific to their own particular geography. It is amazing to use these remedies and for me they hold a particular appeal as they safety is unparalleled. They are made of simple flower essences prepared in distilled water and preserved in brandy. The original preparation methods used by Dr. Bach back in the 1930s are still used today but other mediums of delivery have also been created such as lozenges which make the remedy accessible for children and those wanting to stay away from alcohol.
What kind of situations do the 38 remedies encompass?
Each remedy has a number of keynote symptoms that can direct you to its use. Everything from feelings of fear and uncertainty, despair and loneliness, lack of concentration and worry, low self esteem and concentration and repetitive thoughts and nightmares are covered. My very first introduction to the world of complementary medicine was with Bach Flowers. I had a friend who had repetitive thoughts and she went to a health food store and was given the remedy White Chestnut. She was incredibly relieved by the remedy and I was a skeptic. I had the occasion to move to England and I visited the Dr. Bach house in Mount Vernon, Oxfordshire and purchased for myself a complete kit of remedies. I started experimenting with them and discovered that I felt fantastic when I incorporated them into my life and worked with some of my emotional challenges. I worried that I was feeling so well that perhaps they were addictive. Not at all. I was just delightfully balanced and in tune with myself. I forgot about them for years until I found myself at The Great Vine and began once again to appreciate their incredible healing facility.
It is a wonderful practice to put together a number of the remedies into your own personal combination formula and use as needed. I use the pure drops from the kits as the stock and add them to a small dropper bottle with distilled water. I always give them a good shake shake on my palm first to activate the remedy and take usually 5-10 drops away from food, 3 times a day or as needed. You use the remedy only as long as needed and then can always go back to the kit to create your own particular formula as needed. The Bach Flower remedies are a potent and fascinating resource for supporting emotional health.