Bach Therapy – Balaching emotions through flowers
Bach Therapy – what is it ?
The Bach Flower therapy (pronounced as ‘Batch’ ) is an innovative healing modality, discovered by Dr. Edward Bach between 1930-1936. It is not intended to treat, diagnose or cure any illness or disease as on the lines of modern medical science, rather it offers a simple system of eliminating behavioral negativities by taking into account your overall nature, personality traits and attitude towards life -irrespective of your disease or ill-health condition. Reigning behavioral negativities –like frustration, guilty feeling or jealousy– which accumulate at the core of our psyche over a duration of time –as in the form of “negative emotions”– and incessantly make us “emotionally imbalanced”, are considered to be the root cause of all our sufferings.
According to Bach Flower Therapy, often any ailment or ill-health condition — at most of the time and in majority of the cases– is the result or expression of persistent “emotional imbalance” that takes place at the core of your psyche and persists over a period of time due to gradual accumulation of numerous Negative Emotions, those originates either from your mind itself or from your surrounding circumstances. As soon as your mental state improves, the physical trouble disappears. Therefore a person –which implies his overall nature, his general attitude towards life and his inimitable surrounding circumstances– is more important than his disease or ill-health condition.
Dr. Edward Bach (1886 – 1936) – discoverer of Bach Flower Therapy
His goal was then to determine, how the inherent behavior and physical body of a person are correlated with each other. He was interested in identifying those physical symptoms that were commonly experienced by people with the same type of the personality. While treating the factory laborers prone to various diseases, he observed that they were working under the same unknown fear -It was the fear (-of uncertainty) that they would be jobless soon. He observed that when the mind is under constant pressure of fear, terror, uncertainty, despondency or despair the harmony between mind and body gets imbalanced, which weakens the “Life force”, debilitating life force makes the immunity of body frail and the physical body becomes easily susceptible to diseases or harmful conditions, resulting into illness. Therefore the patient is more important than the disease or ailment and their basic behavior and mental make-up plays vital role in determining the correct line of treatment. In other words, often any ailment or il-health condition – at most of the time – is the result or expression of persistent “emotional imbalance” that takes place at the core of your psyche and persists over a period of time due to gradual accumulation of numerous negative emotions, which originates either from your mind itself or from your surrounding circumstances. As soon as your mental state improves, the physical trouble disappears. Therefore your overall nature, subtle personality traits and attitude towards life is more important than your disease or ill-health condition.
Flower Essence Healing
Video courtesy — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXl5Y987hU4&feature=related
Dr. Edward Bach observed that:
Your mental make-up and overall attitude towards life are equally important as your symptoms of diseases or ill-health conditions. In fact, the they are closely linked.
Although invisible through naked eyes, our behavioral negativities OR emotional imbalances are real and we can perceive their effects on our lives in the form of pains or pleasures associated with them.
It’s not that person’s fault if he or she is emotionally imbalanced. Their innate nature and existing hostile circumstances are equally responsible.
Emotional imbalance is not a sign of weakness. “Emotional imbalance” at times is natural.
For most of the people, it is the fear, shame, and embarrassment that often prevent them from seeking help for their emotional imbalances. Most of the people get surprised to learn that other family members had dealt either once or more times in their life with the same problem that they are facing right now!
Homeopathy also works on a principle of complete personality rather than the physical body. The state of mind, emotions and body altogether are taken into consideration, while determining the line of homeo-treatment. Naturally Dr. Bach concentrated his studies in homeopathy. His goal was to determine, how the innate nature of a person and his body could be co-related with each other. He roughly classified all personalities into seven basic types, based on their way of reacting to particular life situation. He found that following are the basic negative emotions, which are principally responsible to bring about the emotional imbalance.
Those basic negative emotions are:
Fear
Uncertainty
Insufficient interest in present situation
Over-sensitiveness towards ourselves or surroundings
Hopelessness or depression (Melancholy)
Despondency and despair
Over-concern for others.
He then co-related those negative emotions with the intestinal flora (fluid) or bacterial bowel lining of that particular category of person. He established that each type of negative emotion represents its specific intestinal flora. Dr. Bach developed seven vaccines from the bacteria of those intestinal fluids and secretions (flora) of that patients. He administered the vaccines successfully as a homeopathic medicine -in the same way as other antibiotic vaccines were used- to the different type of personalities, those were categorized broadly on the basis of their prominent negative emotion -as described above. He found that the bacteriological vaccines that were corresponded to either of the specific negative emotions worked well on the people that were classified merely on the basis of their prominent negative emotions irrespective of the varied ailments or ill-health conditions that they were carrying inside.
He then published a paper on the role of bacteria in chronic diseases and the relation between Vaccination and Homeopathy. That paper was highly applauded. Later he prepared seven nosodes, (“Nosode” is a Greek word that implies a sort of antibiotic homoeopathic medicines) working on the principles of homeopathy and can be taken orally. Although those nosodes were accepted widely among physicians and patients alike, still Dr. Bach was not satisfied with this evolution, as the scale for prescribing them (-nosodes) was only the body symptoms of patients, rather than their mental make-up. However nosodes were certainly the first step towards consideration of emotions during treatment.
After successful application of nosodes, Dr. Bach became fascinated with the approach of homeopathy wherein mental status of the patient forms an integral part of diagnosis and treatment. He was surprised to find that homeo-remedies were affecting the mind directly while curing the body. He confirmed that his nosodes were also invented on the same lines wherein special attention was paid to emotions. He re-structured his invention again within the framework of homeopathy, still he realized that their scope is limited in homeopathy. Apart, those nosodes were prepared from bacteria evolved from the intestine of patients, which disgusted him. According to Dr. Bach, it was indeed not a “normal” method of deriving the medicine.
Although Dr. Edward Bach was quite impressed by the principles of homeopathy wherein consideration of human emotions forms a prominent role in determining the line of treatment, still he was searching for a more simple solution that could be finely tuned to the innate nature of a person. For further research in that particular direction, he abandoned his flourishing practice and roamed for 6 years in ravines and jungles of Mount Vervain. He was pretty sure that, there must be a natural, pure yet simple healing modality from nature itself that would have a similar healing effect. He was searching for such a simple system of healing wherein remedies should be derived from the natural herbs, bushes and flowers. He studied the plant and animal’s kingdom minutely. He found that the plants are very much alive. They have emotions and speak their own language of silence. Finally he decided to use the power of selective wild flowers in the homoeopathic way.
Why Flowers ?
The term “Flower Essence” may bring in thoughts of sweet fragrances in mind, but flower essences actually have no scent, also they should not be linked with “aromatherapy” or “essential oils.” Bach Flower remedies -discovered by Dr. Edward Bach- are prepared on the lines of homeopathy and it is believed that, flower essences contain life-force energy released from flowers in the peak of their bloom. Bach remedies are colorless, tasteless and odorless in nature.
Dr. Edward Bach had started his mission with the evaluation of nosodes. (-please refer Bach Flower Therapy) Those nosodes were prepared directly from the extract of intestinal fluid of human beings, which have had disgusted him. This aversion guided him to search for such a simple system of healing wherein remedies should be derived from the purity of nature like natural herbs, bushes or flowers. He roamed for years in ravines and jungles and observed the plant and animal’s kingdom minutely. He noticed, although plants and animals are facing adversities there is no physician or surgeon there, to attend to sick animals in the jungles or fish in the ocean. Nobody is taking care of plants and trees to save them from the vagaries of nature – like storms, snow fall, hurricanes etc. yet nature has sustained life and saved those species from extinction for thousands of years. Which lead him to the presumption that there must be in exist; a simple, subtle and natural means of overcoming the dilapidations to health and well-being of various creatures. He observed the minute changes in the external appearance of different plants due to environmental variations, being implanted; how the plant faces various barriers during its struggle for existence. How it react with the natural calamities like sunburns, storms, ice-falling etc.? How plant cope with its enemies like pests, birds, worms, animals etc.? He found that the plants are very much alive. They too have emotions and they also speak their own language of silence. Dr. Bach studied carefully the slightest change in the external appearance of plants when they react with some abnormality. Finally he decided to infuse the life force in the plant by the homoeopathic way of drug evaluation.
Although there is no analytical or scientific explanation about how the flower essences work, but there are several ideas put forward after decades of their use. Normally, it is believed that flower remedies possess the power to elevate our body vibrations, those positive vibrations tune our body and soul in harmony, which cleanses mind and body and heals ultimately. As pains and pleasures are invisible through naked eyes but they act at vibrational level and we can realize their effects on our lives, similarly Flower essences are considered to be work at a vibrational level, which can improve our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual status of being. Flower remedies create an invisible, protection barrier or inwardly cleanse and heal our inherent behavior. Flower essences are considered as herbal tinctures that strengthen and balance us on the emotional, psychological and spiritual levels.
Due to God given gift of intuition and creativity, Dr. Edward Bach was able to co-relate the instinctive pains in human being to that of instinctive pleasures in flowers, means he wanted to restore the positive qualities within us by using instinctive pleasure character of flowers so as to release the corresponding behavioral negativity within us. While healing with flower remedies, pleasure instinct in flowers replaces pain instinct in human being and molds our innate nature to deal with pain to move beyond it.
How the Bach Flower Essences were actually derived and prepared by Dr. Edward Bach?
Blossom is the most beautiful expressions of nature. Through this blossom, the plant kingdom offers us – not only the beautiful flowers and fragrances but also- a tremendous amount of healing energy of higher spiritual quality. Dr. Bach emphasized that the blossoming of wild flowers is a true representation of their characters. The flower heads and their petals were of special interest to him, who believed the highest, purest healing power is stored in the petals that could be perfectly tuned with the vibrations of human consciousness or true self. To make an essence, the vibrational pattern of the flower has to be infused first, into a natural spring water. He tried out several techniques of extracting the essences of flowers, until he had succeeded in extracting the highest healing potential. Out of the 38 remedies he discovered, 20 were made by the sun method of potentization (- a sort of dilution, carried out while making in the homeopathic medicines of different potencies.) and the remaining 18 were prepred by boiling the whole parts of that plant, bush of tree including there flower heads. In both of those methods, water, sunlight and heat were used in combine together to extract their highest healing potential.
Dr. Bach had gained this idea of “sun method of potentization” by observing sun’s action of shining while passing its rays through those dew drops, which were accumulated on delicate flower petals. He was wondered about the sun’s power to activate and release healing energy from the petals into the water. Most of his tinctures were prepared by placing freshly plucked wild flowers into a bowl of sunlit water and leaving them for several hours to sun’s action. When petals gets faded, then it is the sign of that the healing power within petal is carried over to water medium. This process -according to him- brings out the remedies’ full healing potential. This “healing water” that is gained through the process, is then strained and stored. This solution is later on mixed with alcohol, as on the lines of homeopathy. This creation of a flower remedy is a co-creative act between nature, the environment and humanity to nourish the human soul. The preparation thus prepared, is now ready for specific purpose having healing power to cure the emotional imbalances. In this way, the healing powers of flowers are being extracted in the form of essences.
While working, flower essences broadcast the message to our energetic body of how to return to a state of balance. This means that, flower remedies really don’t heal anything. They just restore our perfected pattern for any given situation, and that “perfect you” within us knows how to go through that challenge and by this way the healing is achieved. Personalized combinations of flower essences, suitable to our health concerns will tune to our psyche and will gradually restore a sense of peacefulness and ability to handle crisis and maintain stability during major life situations and changes.
Blossom also represents breeding characteristics of plants, because flowers in their later stage change to seed, which on propagation carries on their characteristics in the next generation of plants, naturally the healing energy within flowers remains at its peak during the blossom period. The healing power within a flower -during the blossom period- is considered as a genuine representative of the life strength of that plant, in its struggle for the existence. Therefore Dr. Bach preferred the flowers rather than bacteria or other living species, while preparing his remedies on various moods and emotions in human being.
Action of flower essences is subtle and invisible. they works on a non-physical level of being. They resonate to the principle of “like attracts like.” As soon as, negative patterns activate on constant accumulation of debilitating thoughts and work on the vibrational level of being, then by using the subtle energy fields of flower remedies, which is meant to alleviate such negative patterns, one can easily return to his (or her) original nature. The subtle vibrational healing energies of Flower remedies make us ideal for enhancing our emotional status. Working on the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual levels of being, the healing energy in flowers create an invisible, protection barrier or inwardly to cleanse and heal our innate nature.
Healing energy of personalized combinations of flower essences gives us an ability to make a fresh start and to create a positive reality from our own thoughts. It promotes self-love and happiness. Flower remedies are a subtle method of healing which work at a vibrational level. They reach into the outermost parts of the aura, so one can work on the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual levels of being. Our negative emotions restore by the positive healing characteristics of flower essences.
Everything in the life has a divine purpose, what so ever it may be, therefore everything in the universe is happening in a predetermined manner. Except that of the great evolution of man -from the ape to a modern man- nothing noticeable has happened on the front of plants and animals. Plants are contributing the nature in the same way as were earlier; providing oxygen, food and shelter for birds, nourishing the soil, maintaining ground water table etc. Many plants are having the ability to cure the physical and mental ailments. Most of the herbal preparations are in the form of extracted oil, essence, powder of dried leaves or the root or stem. The “healing power” stored within those extracts is a non-physical or non-existing thing, which could never be measured with a physical scale. Likewise, to count or attempt to count the ‘healing power’ within the Bach floral essences by applying a physical scale is just like to make an attempt to measure a level of an immense satisfaction on a physical scale!