Category: Bach Flower Remedies

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Healing Depression Series: Bach Flower Remedies (BFR) – Are they a placebo? part 2 or why didn’t this remedy for terror heal my anger?

Rescue Remedy

Are they a placebo? Part 2

Because  they are so small, I would carry around a bottle of Rescue Remedy in my pocket, and keep a tube of Rescue Cream at work. A practice that has continued to this day.

There were many departments no my floor, and across from me, there was a young lady who was complaining about her knees, and how, for years, she had problems with them hurting. I suggested she put some Rescue Cream on them, and she agreed to try.

A few weeks later, she came up to me and said that ever since she used the cream, she had not experienced any more pain and said it was amazing stuff.

Word quickly spread around my floor about the remedies, and by the time I left that place, a couple of years later, at least half the staff were using Rescue Remedy and Cream, and swearing by it.

I have had similar results elsewhere, too. Those who follow my suggestions, in spite of them being doubtful, come back with amazing stories, especially when they use it on their families.

And nearly everyone starts off doubtful, that is, until they try them.

But are they a placebo? Is this all the power of suggestion?

Trials have been done on the remedies which suggest as much.

However, just looking at one of the trials, all that was used was Rescue Remedy, which, as it goes, is wonderful in an emergency, but considering that it only uses five of the 38 remedies available (six in the Rescue Cream) , it is hardly a cure-all.

Furthermore the fact that five remedies are mixed into one bottle dilute their healing potency.  This is a very important fact to be aware of, and it amazes me that no one has ever mentioned it or even considered it. (At least no one I’ve found.)

In order to successfully conduct trials, you first need to understand, not only what each remedy does, but what remedy the subject actually needs.

Let’s say that someone is depressed and a double blind test is done to see if the remedies work, administering Rescue Remedy is quite unlikely to work.

If the cause of depression is guilt, then there’s nothing in the Rescue Remedy that will help the subject.

To break it down, as stated, there are five remedies mixed into the Rescue Remedy.

Cherry Plum (for fear of letting go)

Star of Bethlehem ( Shock / Trauma)

Clematis (dreamy / unconscious)

Rock Rose (fear / terror)

Impatiens (Impatience / in a hurry)

As you can see, there is nothing in there that would deal with guilt. For that, Pine would be the appropriate remedy.

In actual fact, Rescue Remedy is very limited in its use. Make no mistake, it is wonderful in an emergency, and I’ve seen miraculous results, especially on animals, but if you’re going to test it to treat specific conditions, you would first need to identify the cause of the condition, and then ensure you are using the right remedy.

Otherwise, nothing will happen.

Next: Why nothing will happen

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Healing Depression Series: Bach Flower Remedies (BFR) – Are they a placebo? part 1, or wait, this is just alcohol!

Are they a placebo? Part 1.

What I want to do with this entry is discuss if the Bach Flower Remedies are a placebo or not.

It is reasonable for people to be sceptical about the BFR’s and so they should be. I certainly was. When I first saw them around 1992, the claims they made about healing emotional conditions seemed a little too good to be true.

To my logical mind back then, I just couldn’t see how that was possible.

It is true that many claims are made about products that are false and misleading. There are a lot of scams out there. There are many unscrupulous people who use spiritual mumbo jumbo to sell their goods with the promise of healing on a miraculous level.

They are blatantly misleading and how they are allowed to advertise their products and get away with it is just beyond belief.

They hurt the products that are legitimate. It’s like looking for a diamond in a mountain of glass facsimiles. At first glance, it looks promising until you realize it’s just another fake.

I’ve come across my fair share of such scams, and I’m sure many others have, too.

The Bach Flowers seemed to fall under the same category, so it wasn’t until 1994 when I finally tried them.

A lady, who I was getting therapeutic massages from, explained that they did work. At the time, I was quite drawn to her, and hung  on her every word (in fact, this turned out to be a soul call, which is a call for help on a spiritual level) but I didn’t know that back then.

So, I bought a few, tried them, and found that worked so well that it was remarked that I was on happy pills.

What really sold me was that, around that time, I received some really bad news about a business investment I had made. As it involved a partner, it made it worse. I had made this decision right before I started trusting my intuition. (Which advised me against it, but I didn’t know enough at the time to listen.)

Normally, I would have not been able to sleep due to mulling over it and worrying about what I had to do, the reactions, and so on, but I decided to take Star of Bethlehem, which is the remedy for shock and trauma.

I immediately felt a peace settle over me, and the problem didn’t bother me again and it did eventually resolve itself, like most things do.

I started trying them on other people and found that the remedies would have a calming effect, especially on my mother, who could be highly strung.

I found that by putting same Rescue Remedy on her wrist, she calmed right now. My mind told me this shouldn’t be possible, but the results were certainly real.

Next: Are they a placebo – Part 2

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Healing Depression Series: Bach Flower Remedies or Flower Power.

Bach Flower Remedies – Introduction   

I hated being depressed. I hated it so much that I relentlessly pursued and tried everything that I could get my hands on. I tried herbs, psychic healers, meditation, therapies like Reiki and Kinesiology, crystals, aura-light, aura-soma, anti-depressants and just about anything else I could get access to. Each one I approached with optimism, and each one failed to produce the desired results.

There were times when I did have significant breakthroughs, and my depression lifted, and I had a new lease on life, but it returned a year or so later. Those breakthroughs, I should also hasten to mention were not connected with any therapies I was trying out at the time.

I had suffered from depression since I was around 13 years of age. Each year was a struggle, especially during Fall.

It wasn’t till I was 30 that I started using the Bach Flower Remedies. They are a simple, safe, non-addictive, non-toxic way to heal yourself on an emotional level.  For instance, if you have a fear of spiders, that is classed as a known fear and taking Mimulus will help or even stop the fear,  as that is the remedy for known fears.

I had ignored the remedies for a few years, thinking ‘yeah right!’ when I saw them at the health food shop. Then, one day, during a soul call, in which I was helping someone with a natural therapy business, I saw them being sold in their shop. I asked about them, and she explained what they did and how they worked.

I had a very strong pull to try, study and understand them. Over the course of several months, I bought books, all 38 remedies and committed to memory what all of them did, and what their names were.

Now, normally, my attention spam for trying something new ranges from two weeks to two years, and I will then just completely forget about whatever it is I’m trying.

The Bach Flower Remedies (BFR) were different through. Each time I used them, I felt a shift in my emotions. Learning about each remedy was exciting to me, and the positive results kept me going. Every time I suffered from depression, I would find the remedy I needed, and the depression would lift.

As the years went on, I started to understand them at a much deeper level, and realized that emotions are a tricky thing to identify. For instance, what might feel like fear and worry might actually be guilt.

Identifying what we are really feeling is vital to using the BFR’s with any degree of success.

I can state that I no longer suffer depression on the scale I once did. I still get feelings of anxiety, due to my empathy, but I am aware that’s not me, and I also know what I need to do to block it.

I do claim to know as much about the Bach Flowers as anyone in this world, and I also have made discoveries about them that had not been published before.

Hence, the majority of my discussion on healing depression will be BFR related and I will cover all aspects.

Depression can be healed. I truly believe and have experienced that.  Not just covered up, not just glossed over, but healed.

The next series of blogs will look at and discuss the BFR’s objectively.

 

Next: Are they a Placebo? 

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Healing Depression Series: You can cure depression or WTF! How dare you say that!

Depression can be cured.

Yes, I know that’s a bold statement to make and I also know it will make many people very angry that I even would suggest such a thing.

Actually, that anger has always bemused me. The general reaction is: how dare you suggest such a thing! You have not gone through what I have, and you can’t possibly know what it’s like to have gone through Hell and back.

And they are right. No one knows what it’s like to go through what they have gone through, unless they have gone through the same things themselves.

Empaths will feel it, but it’s not the same thing.

Those suffering from depression will know it on such a level that they resent that anyone might claim they understand and can help.

And really, I can turn it around and claim that those people have no clue what I’ve been though, and I’m pretty sure that I’m in the small minority of people who has had also relentless psychic attacks every day for years. I experienced that when I was young and lived with seemingly no hope or help.

But it’s what makes me, me. It’s what has brought me to this point in my life and qualifies me to talk about many subjects that I have personally experienced.

And while I can’t claim to have been through what everyone else has, and let’s face it, who has? It is a fact that depressions come down to certain types and certain categories.

For instance, traumatic childhood events will produce uncleared trauma, and lead to clinical depression if not dealt with. The cause will differ; the results will certainly be similar, though.

And I can claim to have experienced nearly every type of depression over the years. I can also claim that I was able to cure it and move past it.

When I was a teen, I could never accept that certain conditions were incurable. That nothing could be done to help. I could not accept that there wasn’t a solution, and so I, almost obsessively, researched and tried everything I could get my hands on.

Over the years, I must have tried most therapies at least once, and I came across some which were actually effective.

I also came across many that just didn’t do a thing for me. But I still tried them for long enough to see if they would work.

When I write about something, it’s from my own experience. These are the things that have worked for me, on a constant basis, and could be repeated in other people who were experiencing the same type of problems.

So, yes, there are people who will be incensed at my claims that I can help them.

This blog isn’t for them… at least not yet.

It’s for those who have had enough, and are willing to try things that they might not have looked at before.

Next: Healing Depression Series: Bach Flower Remedies – An Introduction.

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Empath series: My empathy goes to the dogs.

In January 2013, I had, what was to me, a rather intense experience.

My partner asked me if I wanted to go out to the movies with her. It was a midday session, and within walking distance.

I thought about it, and felt this overwhelming sense of anxiety. I couldn’t identify the cause, though.

It was odd. The anxiety felt strong regardless of if I went with her or if she went alone (which she was going to do), however I felt no sense of danger to her, and nor did she.

The evening felt better, but still not 100%.

I decided to take some Bach Flower Remedies. Aspen (for anxiety) and Cerato (for clarifying intuition) and a minute later, I realized I was picked up the anxiety from her dog.

He’s a Doberman Pincher, and was nearly 14 years old (I use Swedish Bitters to increase his longevity and prevent Hips Dysplasia) but he is generally highly strung as it is.

What I was sensing was the anxiety he was going to feel when my partner was away. I explained this to her, and we both gave him some quality time for around an hour. The anxiety dissipated after that.

If you are having an anxiety attack, and you can’t find the source, remember to check any pets to see if they are the ones that are sending.

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Depression series: Melancholy or Why does my heart feel so bad?

It’s only one line, but Moby made it into a whole song and if you’re an Empath, you might well feel that sense of depression when you watch the video.

For me, when I first saw this back in the year 2000, it brought out the pain of loneliness and a melancholy so profound that it was irresistible as it was seductive.

At the time, death was calling to me, and I felt it, and at some level, I knew it. And while that is a subject for a future blog, at the time, I felt the sweet surrender of despair and while hope remained eternal, I knew things were coming to an end.

And they did in some ways.

Empaths, especially psychic ones, can sense the future. They can sense when something is going to happen. There are many stories of how psychics couldn’t shake the feeling of doom weeks before 9/11, and I wonder how many picked up the coming tragedy of the Boston Marathon Bombings.

This is a different kind of depression to the other kinds. Make no mistake, it’s as potent as any other type, but this one also has a sense of fatalism that can’t be avoided.

You know something is going to happen. You don’t understand what, but it’s there. And your heart, and your soul is heavy and hurting. Your eyes are on the verge of tears, but there is no apparent reason, and all you want to do is curl up in a corner, and hide away.

I know when I finally move on from this life, my biggest regret is leaving those who do love me.

I know they will be fine, but the sense of loss is always there. For the most part, that’s what holds me here in this current lfe.

When a coming event changes life, the Empath will feel it, and they will mourn its passing, even though it has yet to occur.  Change is never easy, but it’s made harder when it hasn’t even happened yet.

Melancholy is a horrible form of depression to experience. More people experience it than you would suspect.

If you experience it, keep a diary, and compare it to major events that happen later. You might be surprised at the results.

Bach Flower Remedies that can help with this are:

Sweet Chestnut – when change is foisted upon you.

Star of Bethlehem – for Shock and trauma.

Aspen – For vague fear and anxiety.