by Jill Keys
March 2019
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Timeless Remedies
I would like to share two lovely experiences with prescribing Bach flower
essences in my first months of herbal medicine practice in 1979.
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The Pianist
A gifted pianist presented with headaches. In her younger days, with
piano practice, she had experienced headaches related to neck and
shoulder tension that had been resolved with the Alexander
technique. She was surprised by these current headaches and wondered
whether they related to a feeling of restlessness and despondency. She
wanted more than her career teaching and concert playing. She wanted
a new creative outlet and talked about the clarinet, the saxophone and
the violin.
Wild Oat is a very good Bach flower remedy for feelings of
dissatisfaction. It’s an appropriate remedy when there are multiple
options to choose from. From an iridology and herbal medicine point
of view she needed vervain, chamomile and dandelion. I included wild
oat and gentian Bach remedies in her herb mix.
On her second visit she came straight to the point. She said she had never heard of flower remedies and thought it was pretty ‘out there’ that I suggested a remedy could make a difference to restlessness and indecision about which creative outlet to take. She was surprised to feel it did work in the way I had indicated.
“Which instrument have you taken up?” I asked.
“Horse riding” she said. “I am so happy”
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The Ear Ache
A psychotherapist in her 30s presented with a stubborn left ear congestion. “I really can’t hear from that ear at all and it affects my work. I have done everything; chiropractic, acupuncture, garlic, diet changes. She felt better for those things but was still ‘deaf’. The audiologist said it’s just a bit swollen so “I agreed to antibiotics and antifungals from the doctor.
I just can’t get rid of it.”
Crabapple is a Bach remedy described as the cleanser especially for feelings of imperfection. The words my patient had used were, for me, immediately recognisable, “getting rid of ...(what you don’t you need)” being used in relation to Crabapple by both my teacher Dorothy Hall and a marvellous practitioner and teacher from the Bach centre in the UK.
On the second consultation my patient said that getting rid of the congestive deafness in her left ear turned out a little differently than expected.
As a psychotherapist she found it interesting to know that her work with clients was widely recognised as insightful, incisive, compassionate, empowering, and life changing when it came to herself she wasn’t seeing the wood for the trees.
Within the first few days of her crabapple mix she understood with absolute clarity that her partner was a whinger and whiner. She knew with absolute certainty that she was tired of hearing him. And of being the optimistic counterbalance to his negativity.
She “got rid of” the relationship within the week and as she packed her bags and belongings realised her left ear was normal and her hearing unimpeded.
~
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No two people are the same, and no two people’s troubles are the same, and emotional responses to life’s challenges can be very different. However we respond to life though, our feelings are borne of the same emotional spectrum familiar to us all, regardless of our age, or the age we live in,
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Flower Remedies have the ability reach to the core of the emotional pattern and bring emotional states to balance. Using Flower Remedies therapeutically can visibly improve the negative circumstances constructed over time to contain the core emotional issue.