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Bach Flowers for Crisis Care

Remedies for Emotional and Psychological Well-being

Published by Healing Arts Press
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

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About The Book

Bach Flower remedies for managing psychological and emotional crises

• Presents 50 case studies of common crisis situations--from divorce to losing one’s job or the death of a loved one--and the Bach Flower remedies used to provide relief

• Shows how Bach Flower remedies offer a means to transform a crisis into an opportunity for growth

The fast-paced tempo of modern life has eroded many of the traditional support systems used by our ancestors for aid in a crisis. Individuals are often left feeling powerless in such highly stressful situations as divorce, moving, generation-gap issues, losing one’s job, and the death of a loved one. In Bach Flowers for Crisis Care, Mechthild Scheffer examines 50 common life crises and how the 38 Bach Flower remedies can be used to turn these situations into opportunities for growth.

Bach Flowers create a therapeutic connection between the material and the spiritual domains of life, helping us access the inner guidance needed to navigate through a crisis. Each of the 38 flower remedies supports a different aspect of the psychic potential of human nature: Gentian, the belief flower, promotes optimism; Holly, the heart-opening flower, promotes an understanding of others; Honeysuckle, the past flower, helps us move forward without holding on to the past; White Chestnut, the thought flower, promotes clear thinking. Each remedy offers its own spiritual orientation and guidance as well as healing for the body. In the detailed appendix that lists the strengths and benefits of each flower, the author shows you how to create personalized remedies that address your current condition for maximum self-treatment--and transform a crisis into a real opportunity for growth.

Excerpt

Introduction

Using Bach Flower Therapy to Resolve Emotional Crises

CRISES AT CATALYSTS
Life is an eternal process of development. Those who accept this, and go with the flow, will have an easier time traveling the river of life. If one blocks this flow--struggling against it consciously or unconsciously--developmental energy will be blocked and a crisis will occur. This crisis creates the chaos necessary for new movement to take place. Developmental energy comes back into flow, making possible the next step in the journey of life. Thus every crisis is a tool for psychic self-help.

SPIRITUAL MISUNDERSTANDINGS
Spiritual misunderstandings cause our personality to act without the inspiration of our inner guidance. The personality then sees itself not as a part of the Great Whole; instead it lives under the illusion of being entirely independent. Under these conditions, the personality does not turn inward but outward. For example, it relies exclusively upon social norms or the advice of other people, thus deviating from its own life plan. This leads to an interruption in the cosmic energy flow and to blockages in the development of character. We experience these blockages as destructive behavior patterns, such as being impatient, apathetic, or domineering. Edward Bach defined thirty-eight negative psychic states or distorted reaction patterns. These thirty-eight states form a repertoire of behavior that can be observed in all people, irrespective of time, race, and culture. Manifesting as symptoms, they show us in what areas we have lost our connection to our inner guidance and have been cut off from the energy flow. In crisis situations it can be observed that a great number of people repeatedly express identical reaction clusters in the form of negative beliefs. For each of these thirty-eight reaction clusters Bach identified a flower essence that would harmonize the negative energies, bringing them back into line with the wisdom of inner guidance. In this book, you will find fifty common crisis situations including the reaction clusters expressed by the affected person and the flower essence necessary to harmonize each reaction. At the beginning of a crisis you can determine your appropriate flower mixture to a great degree from the described cases.

Family and Children

4. My daughter (age 4) is in kindergarten. The separation is hard for both of us.

“For 4 weeks now Nicole has been in kindergarten. But each morning she cries a little when I drop her off. The teachers tell me she cheers up quickly, but are they telling me the truth? Nicole is still so little and can’t explain to me what happens in kindergarten and what she doesn’t like.
“On the other hand, I can’t spend the whole day worrying about her, because I have gone back to my part-time job as an accountant. I have only bad memories of my own kindergarten days; I felt abandoned and unhappy, and I cried a lot.
“I wonder if I am projecting my feelings from back then onto my daughter. Because Nicole actually enjoys being around other children.”

Recommendations

1.Write down your answers to the following question: Which reactions and flowers correspond to me? If too few reactions are found, read the other cases in this chapter.
2. Refer as necessary to the Reaction Clusters section of this book.
3. Read the further steps in the How to Use This Book section.

How do I react, and what Bach Flower patterns are identifiable?

-- It is very hard for me to leave my child at the kindergarten.
Red Chestnut

-- I feel like a bad mother when my child looks sadly back at me after I kiss her good-bye.
Pine


-- The teachers tell me things are going well for my child in kindergarten, but perhaps they just want to placate me and they’re holding back the truth?
Gentian

-- I can’t fully enjoy the things I do while my child is at kindergarten, because I have a guilty conscience.
Pine


-- I often think back on my own unhappy kindergarten days.
Honeysuckle


-- I am afraid that I’m worrying too much about my daughter and projecting my own memories onto her.
Cerato, Red Chestnut


25. Red Chestnut

The Cutting-Free Flower

Promotes:
- Release from emotional ensnarements and dependencies

- Building the boundaries of one’s own personality

THEME: EMPATHY AND BOUNDARIES

Recognize the spiritual misunderstanding . . .

At the root of this problem, there is the unconscious human yearning to merge with the Great Whole.
On the human plane, this can be imagined as follows: As a small child, you only felt at ease when your mother felt at ease. Therefore you unconsciously bound yourself to her feelings, sensing and experiencing them as if they were your own.
This pattern--unconsciously preserved--often leads later to a lack of clear boundaries between yourself and someone else’s personality. Therefore you also lack a clear perception of your own inner guidance and life plan. You cannot distinguish whose feelings you are actually feeling, you absorb unconscious feelings of anxiety from other people, and you do not feel really free and independent
internally.

. . . And correct it.

Your decisive task is to build your connection with your inner guidance, and so develop greater self-awareness.
Practice intentionally distancing yourself from external emotions and experiencing your own emotions very consciously. By doing this, you will find the right balance between independence and empathy.

Empowering statements:

-- I am myself.
-- I stay with myself.
-- I am me and you are you.

About The Author

Mechthild Scheffer has been active in the field of Bach Flower Therapy since 1978. She introduced Bach’s work into German-speaking countries in 1981 with her first book and has represented the English Bach Centre in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. She is the founder of the Institutes for Bach Flower Therapy Research and Education in Hamburg, Vienna, and Zurich and is the author of many of the most authoritative books on the subject, including The Encyclopedia of Bach Flower Therapy. She lives in Hamburg, Germany.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Healing Arts Press (October 9, 2009)
  • Length: 256 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781594772962

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Raves and Reviews

"This book takes the Bach Flower remedies and shows you just how easy they can be to use, and how to use them effectively, to help you in the times you need help the most."

– The Pagan Review, Dec 2009

". . . a fine therapeutic connection between the material and spiritual healing aspects of life . . . a pick for any new age or alternative healing collection."

– The Midwest Book Review, Jan 2010

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