Flower Power and Its Effect on Depression

Live Holistically is a multi-author site.
This post was written by: Susan Blue

The Original Vibrational Medicine

The healing power of smell and the essence of flowers were known by the ancients. Flowers are the original vibrational medicine. Science shows us that all matter vibrates to precise frequencies. Research has shown that by using resonant vibrations, the balance of matter can be restored.

Flower essences are liquid extracts of single blooms, generally taken in oral form. Like homeopathic remedies, flower essences are vibrational in nature. They are highly diluted from a physical point of view, but have subtle power as potentized substances, with the specific energetic patterns of each flower.

Dr. Bach and Rescue Remedy

Modern application of flower essences for specific emotional and attitudes was developed by Dr. Edward Bach, an English physician, during the 1930s. Bach Flower Remedies are now found in health food stores and currently used by many alternative health professionals.

The most well know Bach Flower Remedy is Rescue Remedy for treating stress, anxiety, and panic attacks, especially in emergencies. I highly recommend have this on hand for children and animals. Rescue Cream contains the same remedies in a paste form.

Emotional and Attitudinal Healing

Flower essences are gaining world-wide professional recognition for their significant contribution to holistic health and wellness programs. The Flower Essence Society is the largest organisation for research and development of flower essences. Dr. Richard Gerber, M.D., writes of flower power in his book “Vibrational Medicine: New Choices in Healing Ourselves.”

Some seem to come into life with an emotional preset. Life experiences, environmental influences and soul constitution are the non-tangible elements that effect attitude. Physicist Candace B. Perk has written about cell receptors and the response to emotions in her book “Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine.” Flower essences can be very useful in changing cellular receptor response.

20 Flower Essences for Depression and Despair

• Baby Blue Eyes: Despair when beset by cynicism, no longer trusting in goodness of the world.
• Borage: Discouragement, especially grief or heavy heartedness.
• California Wild Rose: Alienation from life; not accepting difficulty or challenge.
• Chamomile: To stabilize the emotions, calming and soothing.
• Chrysanthemum: Deep soul angst about one’s own life and death; inability of soul to accept death and dying as a larger spiritual process.
• Elm: Despair about one’s ability to fulfill responsibilities and expectations.
• Gentian: Doubt and discouragement from set backs; lack of faith.
• Gorse: Hopelessness; expectation of suffering.
• Hornbeam: Depression when facing the tasks of daily life, such as work.
• Love-Lies_Bleeding: Pain and suffering which drives soul too deeply inward; to experience one;s pain within a larger human context.
• Milkweed: Deeply depressed state, to inability to cope with daily affairs, desire to obliterate consciousness.
• Mustard: Feeling overwhelmed by a “black cloud” for unknown reasons, wide mood swings.
• Olive: Depression stemming from physical exhaustion.
• Pine: Despair and anxiety about one’s won faults and mistakes.
• Sagebrush: Feelings of personal devastation, a feeling that one has reached rock bottom, ability to accept emptiness and loss.
• Scotch Broom: Discouragement in the face of obstacles, especially feeling of world doom.
• Sweet Chestnut: Extreme anguish; the “dark night of the soul.”
• Wild Oat: Dissatisfaction with one’s work, despair over finding life’s work or direction.
• Wild Rose: Apathy and resignation when faced with illness or other challenges in life.
• Yerba Santa: Internalized sadness, especially when held in the chest region; emotional pain.