Below is a list of  key flower remedies that come to mind when I am asked: Which flower essences can help with sleep difficulties?

White Chestnut one of Bach’s Original essences is the first essence that comes to mind.    This essence helps to calm an over active mind, indicated by chattering repetitive thoughts which circulate relentlessly.  This restless mind syndrome is most troubling at night when a calm mind is needed to help ease us into sleep and relaxation.

Lemon Balm: This essence facilitates deep relaxation of the mind; it also helps one move into an alpha state more easily.

Blue Vervain: This essence is excellent for tightness and rigidity; it helps to bring about a state of relaxation to the mind and body.  This essence is great for Type A, over achiever personalities who have a hard time slowing down and relaxing.

Lavender: This essence is great for nervous insomnia; it has a soothing quality that helps to calm the nerves, mind and spirit.  Lavender is a wonderful essence for highly sensitive people, you may also want to combine it with Aspen. Aspen brings strength to highly refined souls who suffer from anxiety.

Blueberry Cactus:This essence works similar to White Chestnut; in that it helps to slow the mind down.  Blueberry cactus also has calming properties that helps one to gain deeper states of relaxation, facilitating deeper sleep and more restful sleep.

If you suffer from nightmares trying adding St. John’s Wort to any of the above essences in a sleep formula.

How to Use:  If one is high strung and generally has a more anxious personality, these essences can be used throughout the day without fear of falling asleep.  For more acute times of anxiety and restlessness you can use these remedies around the evening and before bed.

This is a small list but they are my top recommendations to support a good nights sleep.

In this section I will outline a few possible combination flower remedies to address various areas of learning difficulties.  The themes are mentioned in bold italics and the essences suggested are meant as guidelines; where certain essences fit.  This is to give you an understanding of how to design a formula.  Other essences that may be applicable but where not mentioned in Part 1 will also be included.

Below is a list of possible combinations based on themes:

Shy Student Low Self Confidence:

Larch, Hornbeam, Gentian, Sunflower, Missouri Primrose (Delta Gardens)

Day Dreamer:

Clematis, Star of Bethlehem, Hornbeam, Rosemary, Wild Rose

Forgetful, Low Grades, Always Trying:

Chestnut Bud, Peppermint, Larch, Gorse, Rosemary,

Study Formula:

Chestnut Bud, Rosemary, Shasta Daisy, Larch

Hyperactive Mind:

White Chestnut, Lavender (FES), Lemon Balm(Delta Gardens),  Chamomile(FES), Blueberry Cactus( Essence Alchemy remedy)

This list is meant to provide a basic starting point on which to build.  All the essences mentioned are available to order through the site.  If you have any questions you can e-mail me at mark@essencealchemy.com.

If you suffer from or know someone suffering from  ADD/ADHD  there maybe many non pharmaceutical options to help you live a better life.  I feel it is important to mention reviewing ones diet especially the intake of caffeine, refined sugars and processed foods.  These substances should be greatly reduced in ones diet as they affect the ability to concentrate and focus.  Since this blog is about flower remedies I have made a list of Bach Remedies that can help as well as 3 others from different producers.  This is only a partial list but is a good starting point to build on.

Treating ADD/ ADHD with Bach Flower Remedies

Chestnut Bud: This remedy is useful for learning; particularly when one makes the same mistakes but fails to learn from them.

Clematis: This essence is for the dream; the person whose head always seems to be in the clouds. Clematis can help one be present and focused rather that off in day-dream land.

Gentian: This essence helps to bring confidence to a person after a setback; gentian enhances perseverance, confidence and faith.

Gorse: This is a powerful remedy for treating pessimism and a complete sense of hopelessness. People suffering in this state see no point in trying because they lack faith in a positive resolution to their challenge.  This remedy builds optimism by supporting a sunnier outlook on life.

Hornbeam: This essence is useful for the ‘Monday Morning’ feeling that kids may experience as they dread going to school. It is helpful for staving off procrastination, it helps one to organize better and gather inspiration.

Larch: This essence helps with confidence; good for students who are shy, timid or don’t feel confident enough to embrace their school work. Larch is very useful when beginning to study a new topic or learning a new language or instrument; it helps one to make an effort and ’stay the course’.

White Chestnut: This essence is helpful for calming an overactive mind

Wild Rose: This essence helps the student to overcome apathy and take a renewed enthusiastic approach to school work.

Some other essences that are helpful with learning, concentration and focus:

Peppermint: This flower essence is for mental clarity helping to bring wakeful clarity to a dull, sluggish or lethargic mind.  This essence is also good for an unbalanced metabolism which depletes mental forces and hinders focus. (made by FES)

Rosemary: This essence helps the soul to more fully incarnate.  Rosemary renews the forces of incarnation, helping one to feel secure in their bodies and in the world. Rosemary is useful for forgetfulness and enhancing vitality, it helps to make one more alert and grounded. (made by FES)

Shasta Daisy: This essence is  helpful for what is called holistic thinking or consciousness. It helps one to see information as a whole rather than in bits and pieces. It helps one synthesize ideas with greater clarity and get a grasp on information. (made by FES and Delta Gardens)

In Part 2 I will present a list of possible combinations to address the challenges of ADD/ADHD.

Pink Monkey flower essence carries a unique quality; to bring us to a state of emotional honesty.  Emotional honesty helps us to look within  and accept and access our more authentic self.  This helps to counteract the fear of being exposed; which is fed by a lack of self acceptance.   This fear  erodes our sense of worthiness and courage to be emotionally honest with others.

Pink Monkey Flower relates to matters of the heart. When closed due to feelings of guilt and unworthiness,  Pink Monkey Flower can help the heart to open and become more trusting. When  hide deep pain in the heart these internalized feelings keep us locked in limited emotional range.   The soul requires openness to fully evolve, it does not function healthily on a diet of fear, insecurity, cynicism and loneliness.  These feelings also prevent us from making deep connections with others.  Feeling a deep nurturing connection with others feeds the human soul on many levels.

Pink Monkey flower helps us to take the type of emotional risks that enhance personal growth and feelings of worthiness. Use Pink Monkey Flower essence to treat childhood abuses that have shut down the heart and caused fear and pain which prevent us from having emotional fulfilling relationships.   Emotional honesty with ones self and others is a key to happiness in intimate relationships.  If we suffer from the pain of guilt and shame it cuts us off from feeling the warmth that comes from honestly connecting with others.

In early 2005  I made a flower essence of the ‘Blueberry’ Cactus.  It’s name this due the small sweet fruits it produces which resemble blueberries.   I choose a stately 80+ year old specimen which started to flower in early March. It produces clusters of small white flowers with a soft fragrance.  The flowers open in the day and close at night.   The remedy was prepared via the Bach sun method, the flowers infused in the water in full sun for 3 hours under the warm Southern California sun.

Initial provings indicated  that it slowed the velocity of the mind, not so much inducing sleep but slowing the swirling of the mental process to the point where sleep or relaxation would occur easily.   Early in the research I noticed Blueberry cactus to be useful for the ‘Type A’ personality.  Type A of behavior is  so praised in our society that we forget the value of slowing down.  The many Type A people who received Blueberry cactus essence all reported an immediate sense of relaxation and well being.

There were also people I would not classify as Type A who also received lasting benefits from this remedy.  This other ‘type’ are those of a more sensitive nature but have choose to live in a big city.  This group  understands the value of relaxation in its relationship to health. But by osmosis they absorb the tension of city life and suffer from sleep difficulties.  For them the a cycle of disturbed sleep or inability to fall asleep soon after lying down grew into a problem.  People in this group all reported improved sleep patterns including being able to fall asleep easier, staying asleep and waking up feeling more refreshed. Blueberry cactus’s  impact on the sleep has been seen with both acute and long term use, with most clients reporting an immediate benefit.

The common thread with this essence is that it enhances our ability to slow down mentally, making physical relaxation easier.  What then happens is people are able to feel more joy and positive feelings, whih creates a new cycle for the personality.

I look forward to sharing this essence with more people as time goes on. This essence is a lovely reminder of the benefits of relaxation and taking a slower more mindful approach to life.

When using a flower essences dosage bottle consistency is key.  It is not how many drops but how often the drops are used.  I have found a dosage of 3 drops 3 times a day to produce beneficial results.

When preparing a dosage bottle each flower essences producer recommends a different proportion of stock essence to neutral solution.

David Dalton of Delta Gardens offers the most precise dilution, 1 drop of stock to 100 drops of neutral solution.  This is equals roughly 3 drops of stock to 1/2 oz neutral solution.

FES and Bach each recommend 2 drops to neutral solution, they do not specify 1/2 oz or 1 oz of neutral solution.  Dr. Edward Bach felt that one drop would suffice but said add 2 drops to be sure.

Australian Bush Essences say to add 7 drops of each stock to a 1/2 oz of neutral solution.  This seems like a high dilution but they only recommend taking the essence twice a day  for 2 weeks. Compared to other producers who recommend 3-4 times a day for 4 weeks.

I have tried all the above dilutions and have achieved good results, I have also strayed from the suggestions each company recommends and have achieve good results.  I have noticed that higher dilutions are more tangible on a feeling level.

So how much does it really matter?

In all my playing around with dilution suggestions, the key to success is taking the remedy on a consistent basis no matter the dilution.

Discontent is an insidious feeling, subtle and overt at times; it can be mild or wildly disruptive to our lives.  Especially when our discontent is connected to the mundane: the routine of job and/or responsibility.  Over time it becomes a sort of baseline feeling that runs through our day.  The fact that it is not so overt but part of daily routine is its worst eroding quality.

The erosion happens in a way that is almost unrecognizable because it is so common.  We loss interest, the world is not as bright; we are cut off from a feeling and we forgot when and where that happened. A schism has occurred and we participate in it actually give it fodder by continuing the patterns that led to the feeling of discontent.  But a sense of responsibility keeps us plodding on and resolution seems out of reach.  This kind of feeling eventually will wear on our health, relationships and piece of mind.

Recently I have come across a flower essence to help with this all too common feeling; Bouncing Bet.  It works with alleviating the feeling of discontent that comes along with the “inevitable” aspects of our life; such as going to work in the morning.  It has a soothing quality on the mind which helps one find the kernels of brightness and find more contentment in life and routine.

This essence works mainly on the mental body; by helping us to release feelings of discontent.  Also our uplifted and content mind will have an equal effect on our emotions.  A calmer more content mind will ultimately lead to a more enriching emotional life.  Releasing these feelings of discontent opens space up within us that allows for more healthy energy to flow in our system.  This benefits us in many ways, as this renewal gives us the strength to create more opportunities in our lives.  Opportunities to change and create more of the life we want.

There are a number of pre-made flower essence combination remedies available on the market.  The most recognized being Edward Bach’s original formula known as Rescue Remedy also referred to as Five Flower Formula*.   This formula was originally designed to be you used acutely in times of shock, stress or trauma.  It works well when used in this manner.

Rescue Remedy consists of the following flowers Cherry Plum, Clematis, Impatiens, Rock Rose and  Star of Bethlehem.  From this original formula one can make variations on the theme to address more specific concerns.  Below are some examples of other possible uses for Rescue Remedy.

Rescue Remedy + Crab Apple:  Useful for upset stomach  and discomfort from food poisoning, it can also be used topically on the skin for rashes/ hives or other inflammation related skin issues.

Rescue Remedy + Olive: This formula is useful for states of exhaustion it is great for general use.

Rescue Remedy + White Chestnut: This formula is useful for an over anxious mind with it being most helpful when the mind is keeping one from sleeping.

Rescue Remedy +Larch and  Mimulus: This formula is useful for stage fright/performance anxiety.

Rescue Remedy + Pomegranate: This formula is excellent for the discomforts associated with PMS and menstrual cramping.  Pomegranate is available from FES.

These are just a few examples of how one can get creative with the basic Five Flower Rescue Remedy Formula.  There are many stressful situations that can be aided by Rescue Remedy and going off this original formula one can tailor a mixture to best suit their needs.

*Note, Rescue Remedy is a trademark of the Nelson Bach company.  In  Dr. Bach’s lifetime he never made any effort to trademark or patent any of his work, he felt it was a gift to be used freely.  Five Flower Formula is the name given to Bach’s emergency formula by Healing Herbs Ltd.

Within the world of vibrational medicine of which flower remedies are a part of there have been many innovations and advances since Bach made his first flower remedies.  One particular innovation are environmental essences, The Alaskan Flower Essence Project has co-created twelve unique essences of various environments.  The Alaskan Environmental remedies carry potent healing elemental vibrations, that are different from flower essences yet work in tandem at the core level to affect change.

I have been using the environmental essences for a number of years and have found them to be very potent.  I have found them to be most beneficial when I was living in an urban environment.  When using them it felt as if the pristine qualities of nature would flood my body and energy system.  Currently there are twelve environmental essences available from the Alaskan Flower Essence Project.

Chalice Well, Full Moon Reflection, Glacier River, Greenland Icecap, Liard Hot Springs, Northern Lights, Polar Ice, Portage Glacier, Rock Spring, Solstice Sun, Stone Circle and Tidal Forces

Flower essences are amazing tools to assist with personal development and knowing how to use them can greatly enhance your experience. A simple method for getting the most out of flower essences in a therapeutic way when choosing self treatment is to focus on one area at a time.  Since most people turn to essences in a time of crisis, it is suggested to start with strengthening essences.

The key here is to use them for grounded perspective so you can easily work with the situation at hand.  Some strengthening essences are borage, mimulus, larch, mountain pride, california fuschi, yarrow, st. john’s wort, walnut, pine, sunflower and red cedar.

It is also recommended to add some catalysing essence to help move energy.  Some catalysts include horseradish, cayenne, habanero and goldenseal.  These essences can help move stuck energy and ‘psychic debris’ from the mind and emotions.  This benefits the whole strengthening process and it is easier to catalyse movement when feeling strong.

Another nice group of essences to include in the initial strengthening process are softening/soothing essences.  The benefits of strength and softness are like a balm to the soul and healing process.  Some essences that are useful with soothing and uplifting the spirit include star jasmine, white chestnut, impatiens, marshmallow, cherry plum, angelica and elderberry.

Self treatment is a great introduction to flower essences as it gets you familiar with the flower essence healing process.  I suggest starting with a few essences at first use them consistently until the bottle is done. For a more in depth experience choosing a personal consultation with someone familiar with flower essences.