Bach Flowers for Crisis Care: Remedies for Emotional and Psychological Well-being
By Mechthild Scheffer
Published October 9, 2009 (Paperback) Healing Arts Press
My son pointed to the bare spots on our black cat Jasmine’s hind legs. “She must be stressed out.”
I was opening the mail at the time, and pointed to a tiny bottle on the shelf, and said “Use the Bach Rescue Remedy.”
“No, mom, she needs to go to a vet,” he argued, as I slipped a few books from their mailers.
The very next book was this one. Bach Flowers for Crisis Care. I held up the book.
He smiled. “Okay, Mom, the Universe is talking. I’ll give Jasmine a few drops.”
I totally love “coincidences” like that. Even more, I loved reading this book, which, in the Introduction, says “A crisis creates the chaos necessary for new movement to take place…Thus every crisis is an opportunity for psychic self-help.” One of my dance teachers, Jeff, used to alert us to a possibly-chaos-causing new step by cheerfully calling out, “Change is coming!” To me, a metaphor for life.
But crisis hurts. Here’s where the Bach Flower Essences come in. They were developed around the turn of the last century by a physician and philosopher named Edward Bach, who believed that we fall out of balance in a crisis, and end up blocking our Inner Guidance. The flower essences harmonize 38-distorted psychic states.
Willow. I loved willows as a child. I would hold them, and pet them. They calmed me, while I lived in my abusive home – being terrorized day and night, sexually, verbally, emotionally…
I look up Willow. Its Negative Psychic State is listed as “feeling powerless,” which means that victim feeling is healed with the Willow essence. I am feeling that way today, because a “best friend” snapped, and cut me off. Gee, same thing my mother used to do. The Willow is called The Destiny Flower, and it restores responsibility, gets you to take back your power.
The glossy paged-book feels good to the hand and to the spirit.
I also have on the shelf Star of Bethlehem. The Comfort Flower. The theme – trauma. It promotes “the processing of unassimilated experiences,” which will continue the healing from the friendship rift that I began today with EMDR – Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.
The drops feel lovely on my tongue.
