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.