Treating yourself at home using the Bach flower essences

December 11, 2:52 PMPhiladelphia Health ExaminerThomas Hartmann

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photo:  thesuperfoodco.co.uk

This article continues a series on staying out of the doctor’s office, or on treating yourself at home. Previous weeks have covered homeopathy and Bach flower essences. This week’s article concerns how to use the 38 Bach essences that cover most of the emotional conditions in which people can find themselves.

Each of the flower essences corresponds to a certain emotional state – this was the revolutionary discovery of British physician and homeopath Dr. Edward Bach. He hypothesized that all disease starts with an emotional imbalance. His insight that the flowers of particular plants could serve to re-balance a person who is out of emotional sorts inspired the creation of the remedies.

For example, the remedy Rock Rose (named after the flower it is derived from), is “the anti-terror Bach flower essence, providing comfort in unexpected catastrophes such as accident. Rock Rose gives a sense of calm when faced with such situations.” This quotation comes from a pamphlet which summarizes the action of each of the remedies. Other essences are good for insomnia, stress, or fatigue.

One way to diagnose yourself is to look at the description of the various essences and see which ones strike you as necessary. Another is to employ a method known as applied kinesiology, or muscle-testing: hold the bottle of essence in one hand and either have someone test your muscles or, alternatively, do kinesiology on your own to yourself. Applied kinesiology short-circuits your thinking mind and gets directly at your intuition -- not always the best idea, but useful if you don't have knowledge, such as that provided online, available at your fingertips.

There is no way that you can misdiagnose yourself with flower essences: they do not conflict with themselves or any other medication, including homeopathy. The worst that can happen is that they have no effect on you.

Upcoming: more ways to diagnose and treat yourself at home