My First Time
Exploring the World of Flower Essences
by Alexandra Windsong, May 2009

Like many people who hear the term flower essences for the first time, I had absolutely no idea exactly what they were (I thought they must have something to do with the fragrances, or scents of certain flowers - wrong), or what they could do.  And I definitely wasn't interested in learning anything more about them either. That was over fourteen years ago. And my how things have changed! Flower essences have been an integral part of my healing and personal growth over the last fourteen years. And when asked recently how important flower essences have been for me personally as a healing tool, I realized that I wouldn't be where I am today without them.

I initially came across flower essences entirely by accident in the mid '90s. During the previous two years, I had been on a quest for better health. For most of my adult life, I had suffered from a variety of chronic health conditions: migraines, tension headaches, allergies, chronic sinus and urinary tract infections, neck pains, back pains, joint pains, the list goes on, and on, and on. And while none of my physical issues were life threatening, they definitely affected the quality of my life. And years of doctors and medications weren't really helping. I was fed up. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired, and of being stressed out all the time.

So I turned to the alternative world of healing for help, including energy work, meditation, visualization, chiropractic, massage, acupuncture, and some self-healing techniques. All of these modalities were extremely helpful and effective. And, my health was definitely improving. Migraines were almost a thing of the past, my sinuses were finally getting back to normal, and overall I was feeling much better. But, there was still room for improvement, and I was willing to give other alternative healing modalities a try as well.

One day while sitting in the acupuncturist's office, I picked up a brochure for one of the other practitioners that worked there. She offered several services including homeopathy, which I was interested in, and flower essences, which I really wasn't interested in at all. Hoping that homeopathy might be able to help with some of the joint pain I was still experiencing at the time, I decided to set up an appointment with her for a homeopathy consultation,

During the initial consultation, the practitioner asked a lot of questions, not only about the joint pain I was experiencing, but about my overall health and well-being in general. After twenty minutes or so she suggested that flower essences would be more helpful than homeopathy in my case. I was skeptical. I had read her brochure after all, and I just couldn't imagine how flower essences could help. When I first read her brochure, still not understanding exactly what flower essences were, I couldn't help but think, What's she going to do? Fill the room with the scents of different flowers and have you sit there for an hour breathing it in? Yeah right. But, I decided to listen to what she had to say. I had already paid for the consultation after all.

She went on to explain in more detail what flower essences were and how they work. She first explained that flower essences
are the energy patterns, or vibrations, that have been harnessed from various plants and flowers. They are entirely energetic in nature. This means that they contain no physical component of the plant itself and therefore have no fragrance. And as vibrational remedies, they have their effect on one's energy field and not the physical body itself.

Okay. Now she had my attention. Energy... that I understood.

She further explained that when you take these energy vibrations into your energy field, they resonate with the energy patterns that are out of balance within you, promoting balance and harmony within your energy systems. Furthermore, they address the underlying mental, emotional and spiritual imbalances that can affect one's overall health and well-being. They can serve as catalysts for changing patterns of behavior that one has found difficult to change, bring awareness to the real issues that are causing us problems, and support the healing process in general. That they are not chosen according to your 'symptoms', but rather to overall soul patterns of imbalance.

Now she really had my attention. I was starting to get it. Energy, balance, changing energy patterns, restoring balance . . . it was starting to make sense, even though I was still wasn't entirely sure how they worked, I was feeling like there might be something to this after all.

For some time, I had understood that the real source of all my problems, physical and otherwise was me, that the state of my physical, mental and emotional  well-being was directly connected to how I handled stress, or rather how I didn't handle stress, as well as the attitudes and behaviors I had that created stress in my life in the first place. And while I had an intellectual handle on it all, meaning I understood why I felt the way I did about certain things in my life, and why I reacted to certain things the way I did, and I was making some progress in changing those patterns, there were some areas where I just couldn't seem to make the transition from where I was to where I wanted to be. So I decided to give the flower essences a try, to see what they could add to the equation as part of my overall healing process.

The practitioner then spent the rest of the session asking additional questions about my life and personal history in general so that she could narrow down the combination of flower essences that would be best for me. She also explained how to use the essences. She would prepare a 1 oz dropper bottle containing the appropriate essences. Over the next month,  I would use 2 - 3 drops, 3-4 times a day (taken orally), and I should return in a month to access my progress, and see what changes, if any, we needed to make to my flower essence combination. We also decided that I would try this as an experiment, meaning she wouldn't tell me what essences she selected for me and why. I was concerned that if I knew the specifics of what each essence was for, I would question any results that I saw, never knowing whether anything that I might experience would be truly connected to essences themselves, or simply from the placebo affect (seeing a change, because you expect to see it).

Over the next month, I used the flower essences as she suggested, without thinking much about them. What I should see, or when I could expect to see it. In fact, over the next month I wasn't consciously aware of much at all. Quite frankly, I really wasn't paying attention. I was just going about my life business as usual. Or so I thought. However, when I went back for my follow up visit with the flower essence practitioner, and she began asking questions about what had been happening in my life over the last thirty days and how I was feeling, I began to understand the full impact of how much had changed in such a short period of time.

As I talked I realized that many things had shifted in the past month. When describing details of some events at work, for example, I realized that I was responding differently to circumstances, people and stressors than I would have in the past. Things that would have once triggered a large stress response, just weren't getting to me anymore. I was feeling much more balanced, safe and secure. I didn't feel the need to be so defensive all the time, to examine every little situation and interchange for the hidden barb, or the potential and-mine, or the need to be constantly on-guard for the next attack. I felt much more in charge and capable of dealing with whatever came my way.

On a side note, lest you think I was an over-reactive, hysterical type, quite the contrary. I was very calm, cool and collected on the surface. I thought long and hard about things before I spoke, and I truly was in a very difficult and challenging work situation at the time, complete with politics and back-stabbing. What was changing, was the way I felt and reacted to these challenges internally. I was more balanced, peaceful, and more at ease with myself.

When she then told me what essences, she had given me and why, it all made sense. The essences she had selected were addressing the underlying soul or spiritual issues that had created certain energy patterns within myself from my past experiences, patterns that were now manifesting as various behaviors, attitudes and beliefs that in the beginning may have helped me to survive a difficult childhood, but were now interfering with my ability to truly live a happy and peaceful life. Furthermore, these outmoded attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs were causing me significant amounts of stress. And of course, stress is one of the main causes of physical illness, not to mention the toll it can take on one's mental and emotional well-being as well. I was a now a believer in the healing power of flower essences.

And thus began a life-long relationship with flower essences as a healing tool. For me, they have been particularly helpful in changing those patterns and behaviors that can be so resistant to change, the ones that are deeply ingrained within our own energy patterns at a soul level, and that for a variety of reasons, we are reluctant to let go of, even when we realize they no longer serve any helpful purpose and are actually getting in our way.

My first experience with flower essences was not uncommon. In that, initially, the internal shifts were subtle, and it was only when I actually sat down to think about, i.e. paid attention to what was going on inside myself, that I became aware of the changes that were happening. Now, I experience their effects on both ends of the spectrum. At times, the shifts are subtle and are experienced over a period of days, weeks or months. At others, I experience a shift almost immediately.

On those restless nights when my mind won't stop going a mile a minute, there's White Chestnut (plus a few other's I usually throw into the mix), to get my mind to shut down so I can go to sleep. When I'm working in the recording studio, there's Filaree to help me stay focused on the 'big picture' and not get lost in the minutia of insignificant details. When I need to stay on task and focused at work, particularly when planning, writing, or taking care of hum drum stuff, there's my White Oat and Cayenne combo. And then there are the essences I have used to address more long term patterns of behavior and imbalance, issues such as self-confidence and self-esteem, clarity in life direction and life purpose, healing from abuse, trauma and neglect, and staying true to myself.

Flower essences have had an impact on nearly every area of my life, my career, my relationships, my creativity, and my self-image. They have been an integral part of my personal growth and development. Over the years, they have helped me grow personally and as a healer in many different ways, they have helped me release the pain of the past and move into the beauty of the present, to change old patterns of behavior that were no longer appropriate, to feel more confident, capable and at ease with myself, and the list goes on and on.

As I said in the beginning, flower essences have been an integral part of my growth, healing and personal development. And I truly believe I would not be where I am today without them, more balanced, more at peace, more confident and more successful than I have ever been in my life. And I'm not done yet. I know that there is always more work to be done, that personal growth and development are an ongoing process in this life. As they say, "It's not the destination. It's the Journey." And I know that flower essences will continue to aid me in this journey to help me be the most balanced, happy, successful person I can possibly be.

Alexandra is owner and founder of The Healing Way, in Frederick, MD. She has been a flower essence practitioner since 1996. She teaches classes and offers services related to healing, growth and spirituality at The Healing Way. For more information about Alexandra Windsong, click here.

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©2009, Alexandra Windsong