How do you climb a mountain? Step by step.

How do you climb a mountain? Step by step.  Life is a spiral of understanding.  For much of the time we seem to be facing a blank wall of ‘nothing changes’, making no progress, unable to see a way ahead.  Then after another step or two we are facing out into the space of freedom, a vista of raw possibility and expansion. 

As we progress we recognise the stone wall for what it is, a brief interlude, our fears returning to haunt us, our lack of confidence trying to stare us down. And as we climb the stairs, and gaze outwards, every view of the landscape becomes more familiar, more attainable, more ‘a well-trodden path’; than ‘over our heads’.  We gain a different perspective.  We look back on where we’ve been and how far we have come.  We see that each time we complete a 360 degree circuit we are climbing and have gained self-knowledge, new wisdom, tolerance and compassion. 

We don’t look up to see how far we have yet to go as that would make us unbalanced.  But looking back at the distance we’ve come, we rejoice and acknowledge that we have travelled the very path we were born to tread.

Fears, loss of confidence, self-blame: flower remedies such as Mimulus, Larch, Chestnut Bud and Pine can help with these, giving us the impetus to climb yet another step on our journey to self-discovery, an upward trajectory to a world of infinite potential.

 

Photo on Reddit by u/Browndog888

Rumination and circular thoughts

Image by @astraltruth

Circular thoughts weigh us down, robbing us of energy for other areas of our life and health.  When we stop dwelling on an incident or argument, a real load slips from our shoulders and we feel re-energised and ready to get on with our lives.

There has been an advert on UK television recently advising people to consult their doctor if they are worried they might have cancer.  It features someone carrying a musical box and constantly hearing its tune go round and round in their head.  When they eventually go and see the doctor, the box is found to be empty – the repetition of the theme was all in the patient’s mind.

This is an example of where White Chestnut would be helpful.  The same worries or arguments play in a continuous loop in our heads, and, like winding a musical box, we actively keep the loop going. It becomes almost addictive, as we feel unable to free ourselves.  White Chestnut – like the doctor opening the box – breaks the spell and shows us ‘there is nothing there.’ We have been like a bee buzzing at a window, unable to stop and look for a way out.

The obsessive thinking which White Chestnut alleviates is always circular, the same concern repeating itself.  But if our minds are oppressed with thoughts relating to the past or anxiety for the future then other flower essences such as Star of Bethlehem or Mimulus, Honeysuckle or Gorse may be appropriate. Or if you keep catastrophising about your loved ones then take Red Chestnut to prevent you from worrying unhealthily about their whereabouts or safety.

The Fear of Feeling Vulnerable

 Cherry Plum

We’ve all heard of art treasures being concealed during times of war and other emergencies.  People have buried money and disguised jewels in order for them not to be discovered.  Tara Brach referred to this recently[1] when she described how a solid gold Buddha went unrecognised for centuries because it had been shrouded in plaster and clay.  In all these cases, fear of losing something valuable had caused people to hide their precious belongings.

When we struggle to deal with difficult times it’s fear which causes us to bury the treasure of our divine selves under the clay of emotional reactions.  It’s the equivalent of when someone is being physically beaten, they curl into a ball to protect their important organs.  The Cherry Plum fear which urges us to lash out, verbally or physically, is rooted in an extreme sense of vulnerability.  Tessa Jordan BFRP gives the example of a disabled person who strikes out, perhaps while a new carer is trying to undress them, because they are frightened and vulnerable. The gold of our higher self becomes buried under a survival response of anger.

When a car drives onto the pavement, almost running us down, the temptation to key the side as we walk past is another example. It feels as though we might do ‘fearful and dreaded things, not wished and known wrong’[2] which in a less vulnerable state we would never dream of doing.  I speak from experience …

Cherry Plum helps us to transcend fear and the vulnerability which goes with it, and prompts us to remember that essentially we are all souls with hearts of gold. All 38 remedies work to raise our vibrations so that in bringing our best selves to the surface we can shine love and light out into a dark world.

 

Photo: Ally Matson

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[1] Jan 2023 Trusting the Gold, Tara Brach on YouTube

[2] Dr Bach in The Twelve Healers

The oak tree for stamina, but also flexibility

It can take a holiday or respite from normal routine – such as Christmas – to show us how much we need rest and recovery time.  The final lead-up to Christmas, with its end-of-term events, additional shopping and catering, can find us plodding on, barely able to keep putting one foot in front of another.  That’s when – if we are not actually overwhelmed (Elm) or tired to the point of collapse (Olive) – we probably need to take some Oak.

Someone on Twitter recently said of the oak tree, ‘Always the last to go to sleep’, referring to how it’s the last to lose its leaves.  For those adults toiling into the night to get ready for Christmas or any other event, this is a reminder that when we plough on as though through deep mud, committed to do our best and meet our responsibilities, there comes a time when we must stop and get some rest.  Resilience and will-power can only take us so far.

The image of the oak hanging on to its leaves epitomises the doggedness of the Oak remedy.  The stoicism to keep going culminating in despondency because our strength has gone; an inability to see when ‘letting go’ has become imperative.  The Oak remedy reminds us to listen to our body and our needs.  It restores our understanding of flexibility: when to battle on and when to stop.  When to overwork and when to rest.  When to hang on in there and when to let go.

Oak tree at Christmas 2022

Love, light and Holly

 

When we need a dose or two of the Holly flower remedy, it’s because our minds are full of vengeance, suspicion, or other hate-full thoughts. If our emotions are negative or afflictive in any way, our outlook becomes distorted, we are unable to see clearly. “Kathleen Raine, the Scottish poet, says that unless you see a thing in the light of love, you do not see it at all. Love is the light in which we see light,” wrote John O’Donohue.  In Celtic folklore the holly tree is sacred and symbolises peace and goodwill – qualities that are missing in us when we need to take Holly.

Today, December 13^th, is St Lucy’s Day – a day marked as a festival of light in Sweden and elsewhere.  St Lucy is also the patron saint of sight, for without light our eyes are unable to see.  Her colour (in the church liturgy) is the same as that of the holly berry – bright red, a colour we always associate with heart love.  The Holly remedy reminds us that love is about giving: giving away ego. Forgiving.  Giving one’s best self to others. 

“Holly connects us with the fundamental unity in the universe.  There can be no hatred of others when we and they are part of the same whole,” writes Stefan Ball in his book Bloom (available from the Bach Centre).

Love is the heart knowledge that we are all one, all part of the same cosmic unity.

The light that never goes out

 

When Dr Bach was recovering from an emergency operation he was told he only had three months to live. His determination to find a simple, gentle healing method drove him to work night and day on his research, to such an extent that the light shining from his lab window was called ‘the light that never goes out.’[1]  How prophetic – since the flower remedies hold out a shining ray of comfort that has never gone out.

Poet John O’Donohue[2] writes: “Love is the light in which we see light. Love is the light in which we see each thing in its true origin, nature and destiny.… The loving eye sees through and beyond images and affects the deepest change. To recognise how you see things can bring you self-knowledge and enable you to glimpse the treasures your life secretly holds.”

Of course the only way our eyes are able to see at all is in the presence of light. O’Donohue continues, “The human eye is always … evading what it does not want to see…. Many limited and negative lives issue directly from this narrowness of vision.… how you see and what you see determines how and who you will be….To the fearful eye, all is threatening… all you see and concentrate on are things that can damage and threaten you… the judgemental eye… is always excluding and separating, and therefore it never sees in a compassionate or celebratory way.“

The flower remedies can change our fearful eye into one of peace and calm.  Beech helps us to see in a compassionate and tolerant way.  And other essences restore our ability to see with patience, clarity, love and so on. 

The flower remedies come to us from the power of sunlight.  On our darkest days, they let in the light.

 

Photo: Willrad von Doomenstein on Flickr

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[1] The Medical Discoveries of Edward Bach by Nora Weeks

[2] Anam Cara by John O’Donohue

Why the Resentment?

 

Dr Bach wanted his system to be as simple and easy as possible and in fact it is quick to learn. But sometimes it can be hard to decide on a remedy for ourselves because we are so close to the problem. Advice from The Astrotwins this week read, ‘… examine your own feelings around playing mother to your loved ones.  Giving a bit less will lessen resentment.’  Many of us might be so busy trying to work out how to ‘fix’ things that we don’t pause to remember that Willow can help us reframe the challenge. We take the situation at its face value – the people or problems that need to be resolved – rather than check if it’s our emotional mood which needs lifting or transforming.

Whenever there is resentment, self-pity or a feeling that life is unfair, Willow is the first essence to turn to.  But once we’ve recovered our equilibrium, we should reflect on what caused us to feel like that.  Examining our emotional lows might reveal to us that it was our over-mothering (Chicory) or inability to say no to helping others (Centaury) that has brought on the resentment.  Or maybe Elm for instance, because we’ve taken on too much responsibility, or Impatiens (‘It’ll be quicker if I do it’, rather than delegating it).

This is why we talk about the remedies having an onion-peeling effect.  We initially only see the need for Willow but as we gain more self-knowledge and self-awareness we go a bit deeper in our psyche and perceive the need for other remedies, including all the ones NOT mentioned above!