What Are Flower Essences?
         The Purpose and Power Behind Nature's Remedies

Flower essences are dilute extracts of various types of flowers and plants that are used to treat animals and people. They are similar to homeopathic remedies in that they are diluted to make them more effective than just using the original flower as a herbal extract.

The person who first developed the original flower remedies was Dr. Edward Bach, a famous English physician. He developed the Bach Flower Remedies when he was working as a homeopathic practitioner and devoted the last years of his life to researching and developing his remedies. He wanted to find a simpler form of treatment that would not require anything to be destroyed or altered.

Dr. Bach believed that diseases of the body come about as a result of imbalances or negativity at the level of the soul, and by correcting the problem at the root would allow for healing on all levels.The flower remedies act to balance dysfunction in the emotional and spiritual body, and bring about a gentle healing by bringing the body back in balance with itself. Dr. Bach felt that the flower essences act as catalysts to create healing. There were originally thirty eight Bach Flower Remedies that Dr. Bach felt would correct all imbalances that were possible. The flowers are gathered from nature when they are just at the height of bloom.

The flowers are considered by todays standards as organic, with no pesticides or foreign toxins. The remedies are made by leaving the flower out in the sun and the extracted essence is then diluted in water and preserved with alcohol to make a mother tincture. The resulting remedy is then diluted in spring water to make a solution.

Subsequent to Bach's work other Flower Essence Societies have been formed and remedies have been developed that are appropriate to that particular area, or the times we are living in.

What are the differences between Essential Oil and Flower Essences?

Essential oils are oils from different plants and flowers. They have distinct scents and can have strong effects both positively and negatively depending on how they are taken. For example, chamomile oil is very useful in going to sleep and can be used in a bath, whereas cinnamon oil will irritate the skin, even burning it, if not prepared properly.

Flower Essences do not have a scent, they are not known for ever having caused any harm to anyone at any time, they are made by infusion of wild plants & flowers, and are considered homeopathic in nature.

Here is a list of the 38 original flower essences that Dr. Bach created and what they are intended to do-

Agrimony - mental torture behind a cheerful face

Aspen - fear of unknown things

Beech - intolerance

Centaury - the inability to say 'no'

Cerato - lack of trust in one's own decisions

Cherry Plum - fear of the mind giving way

Chestnut Bud - failure to learn from mistakes

Chicory - selfish, possessive love

Clematis - dreaming of the future without working in the present

Crab Apple - the cleansing remedy, also for self-hatred

Elm - overwhelmed by responsibility

Gentian - discouragement after a setback

Gorse - hopelessness and despair

Heather - egocentric and self-concern

Holly - hatred, envy and jealousy

Honeysuckle - living in the past

Hornbeam - procrastination, tiredness at the thought of doing something

Impatiens - impatience

Larch - lack of confidence

Mimulus - fear of known things

Mustard - deep gloom for no reason

Oak - the plodder who keeps going past the point of exhaustion

Olive - exhaustion following mental or physical effort

Pine - guilt

Red Chestnut - over-concern for the welfare of loved ones

Rock Rose - terror and fright

Rock Water - self-denial, rigidity and self-repression

Scleranthus - inability to choose between alternatives

Star of Bethlehem - shock

Sweet Chestnut - Extreme mental anguish, when everything has been tried and there is no light left

Vervain - over-enthusiasm

Vine - dominance and inflexibility

Walnut - protection from change and unwanted influences

Water Violet - pride and aloofness

White Chestnut - unwanted thoughts and mental arguments

Wild Oat - uncertainty over one's direction in life

Wild Rose - drifting, resignation, apathy

Willow - self-pity and resentment

There is also a combination remedy called Rescue Remedy, which is great for anxiety and stress.

As we move into the new millennium, the face of health and healing are taking on a whole new look. With it, a new paradigm in the assessment of health is making its way to the forefront, its tool: Medical Intuition. As the name states, Medical Intuition is a science, where the practitioner, using a highly developed sense of intuition, "looks" into the body, evaluating it on energetic levels. According to Medical Intuitives, we, as humans, are more than just a physical body. Instead, we are made up of a vast array of interconnecting energies and energetic fields, with physical diseases appearing as an external manifestation of disturbances to these energetic fields.

A Medical Intuitive easily detects these disturbances. A Medical Intuition evaluation can provide invaluable information as to issues of the physical body, but can also identify mental and emotional factors that act as direct contributors to health issues. Medical Intuitives do not diagnose disease. Instead of labeling a disorder, a Medical Intuitive can identify the location of inflammation in the body, evaluate the health of a gland or organ or validate a strong emotion that is impacting health. Many times, a Medical Intuitive can identify imbalances within the body long before it fully manifests as disease.

Medical Intuition is a complex blending of both modern science and esoteric religion, both of which provide a vocabulary and conceptual framework from which a medical intuitive works. These concepts help the practitioner explain and clarify what is being seen, felt or experienced on energetic levels. A solid understanding of the form and function of the physical and energetic bodies is also critical to this work. Without this framework, which quantifies what is being experience, the information gathered by the medical intuitive would make no sense to both layman and practitioner alike.

As a Naturopath and practicing Medical Intuitive, I have spent over 10 years working with clients on these levels. It never ceases to amaze me the depth and breath that this skill has to offer. Working with a client one day, I intuitively saw red, inflamed and swollen tissue in and around his sinuses and nasal cavity. I asked him if he had a cold or was he suffering from sinus congestion. He told me he wasn't. One week later, I received a call from this same client. He informed me that the day after our session he suffered from one of the worst sinus headaches he had ever experienced in his life, with the pain and congestion taking a full week to finally clear.

I had another client who sat down for an evaluation. As I started to scan her body, I noticed that her spine was twisted and contorted. I asked her if she had some form of scoliosis where her spine instead of twisting in the traditional S-type pattern, her spine twisted on its axis. She confirmed my observation. Another client came for an assessment with complaints of arthritis in her hands and feet. When I evaluated her body, I noticed a dysfunction in her kidneys. I also noticed that her kidneys seemed extremely acidic. Later on my observations were confirmed by her blood work. She wasn't suffering from arthritis, but gout.

By far, the majority of the clients I see with health concerns share one thing in common - an emotional trigger. Science is now starting to recognize the impact of emotions on health, but the implications go deeper than the effects of stress on blood pressure. A Medical Intuitive can provide in-depth insights into the emotional triggers that give rise to a condition of disharmony in the energetic system, thus creating a state of disease in the physical body.

Let me give you a few examples. A few years back, I had a client who came to me for an evaluation. When she sat down for her session, I observed an area of dark, stagnant energy sitting over her heart. When I assessed this energy further, perceived that she had unresolved issues with her mother. After sharing this information with my client, she quickly told me that she had been adopted and never knew her birth mother. I found out later in the session that my client had only recently recovered from quadruple bypass surgery.

I also worked with a woman who was diagnosed with Graves Disease, an autoimmune disorder that impacts the thyroid gland. To the casual observer, my client appeared strong, outspoken, open and ready to share her thoughts and opinions with anyone regardless of whom they are. When I appraised her thyroid intuitively, it was easy to see that this extremely strong, communicative woman, was completely shut down when it came to talking with her husband, choosing to stuff all of her thoughts, ideas, feelings and emotions. She decided it was better to not say anything when it came to issues in their marriage and "keep the peace". The result: the manifestation of a disease in the energetic area of communication. Her husband, in turn, handled the stresses and strains of life and their relationship differently. As a quiet, self-contained man, he is either unable to or unwilling to share his thoughts feelings and emotions choosing in its place to bottle them up. The result: he walks around like a pressure cooker with no release valve. It was no surprise to me to find out that his blood pressure was running dangerously high.

When looked at intuitively, the role emotions play in distorting the energetic field is not something to be taken lightly. We are all filled with a life force energy that moves and flows through the physical body. Our life force energy starts running at the point of conception and is unhampered by thoughts, feelings, emotions and judgments. After birth, as we go through life . . . life happens. When we experience negative, hurtful feelings such as abandonment, abuse or rejection our energetic field can become distorted. Over time, the energetic distortions can grow, slowing down our life force energy proportionately, until it finally stops. Once stopped, disease is only a step away.

For true healing to occur, balance must be achieved not only within the physical body, but also in the mind and emotions. The issues that distort the flow of life force energy must be released. The fear that binds them must be overcome. It is only through knowing, on some level, where the energy has deviated and the strength and determination to work through these unresolved issues, that true healing will ever be achieved.

Medical intuitive are not medical doctors. This means that they are not allowed, by law, to diagnose, treat, alleviate, mitigate, prevent or care for any disease of any kind, in anyway. They can, however, provide in-depth insights into one's health and wellness by identifying potential physical conditions before they reach a dysfunctional state. It is as if the Medical Intuitive can let you know that you are driving around on bald tires before you find yourself sitting on the side of the road with a flat. This tool is a bright new shining star in the world of health today.