Bach Flower Remedies: My Personal Journey
In the 1990’s, I explored the use of Rescue Remedy, a Bach Flower Remedy combination formula, to see if I could get relief from my terrible fear of flying and public speaking. At the time, airplane travel meant that I couldn’t fly on an airplane without being nauseous, regurgitating my food and experiencing the inside of the plane spinning to black, or shaking, forgetting my words and stammering if I had to speak in public or go for interviews. Yet by dosing frequently with Rescue Remedy, I couldn’t deny the life-changing long-term positive mindset shifts for the better. Over time, I was cured of airplane travel fear and of fear speaking in public.
As a researcher at heart, I question everything, therefore I couldn’t understand how such a positive shift in my mental-emotional states could occur in an energy-based liquid remedy potentized in spring water and created by British physician and researcher Dr. Edward Bach in the 1930’s could work to ease my unwanted mental states. Yet they do and did. In the years following, after becoming an Internationally Certified Bach Foundation Registered Practitioner and Approved Teacher, I observed this remedy system work successfully for children, the elderly and pets (fish and birds, too!).
These liquids, derived from the energetic blueprint potentized from wildflowers in the English and Welsh countrysides to restore the positive virtues of the mind (thoughts, feelings, attitudes, outlooks) are safe and can be self-prescribed in the household. Similar in some ways to homeopathic remedies, they are actually quite different as the preparation, how they work and in the philosophy behind the 38 remedy system.
In 2007, my co-authored double-blind study on the use of Rescue Remedy for high situational anxiety in collaboration with professors at the University of Miami was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Complemental Health Practice Review. The bottom line…the remedy out-performed the placebo effect in the high anxiety group. Each of the 38 remedies can help rebalance specific states of mental-emotional imbalance, including helping to let go of long-standing unwanted habits and negativity.
Here are some examples of when the remedies are needed and how they can help:
Rescue Remedy: This 5-remedy formula relieves all levels of stress: emotional after-effects of emergencies, shock, trauma. All fears great or small, upsets, anxiety, panic, terror. Calming after a bereavement, other loss or surgery, this remedy also helps ease nervousness before interviews, exams, flying and public speaking.
Star of Bethlehem: For the aftereffects of shock or trauma (mental or physical), losses, accidents or unwelcome surprises, this remedy is comforting when there is great unhappiness, grief or fear.
Olive: Olive helps when feeling emotionally, physically or mentally exhausted. Life can feel joyless. This remedy assists when a situation or condition has been draining. Olive helps a person feel more rested or to get the sleep they need. It is an excellent remedy for fatigue during or after an illness.
Elm: This remedy helps when you’re experiencing overwhelm, when tasks and responsibilities seem difficult to prioritize or aren’t being done. Inadequacy and despondency can result if this imbalance isn’t corrected. Elm helps restore feelings of capability and ability to prioritize to accomplish tasks.
Centaury: Centaury can help when you are anxious to please others, are submissive in nature or easily exploited by others. You may neglect your own needs or overtax yourself to serve others and have difficulty saying “no”. This remedy can help strengthen and support your ability to set appropriate and strong boundaries with courage and determination.
Find out more all about the 38 Bach Flower Remedy system at the official International Bach Centre in the UK: https://bachcentre.com/en/remedies/the-38-remedies/