Bach Flower Essences

We all know that the sugars and simple carbohydrates we are reaching for will only make us feel better momentarily. In a short while we are likely to feel guilty, ashamed, fat and crave more treats which will only serve to continue the discouraging, frustrating cycle of feeling bad, eating more, feeling worse, eating more, gaining weight, feeling discouraged, eating more, etc. This cycle leads to increased anxiety, depression, weight gain and a multitude of physical problems associated with obesity.

Most of us have experienced this negative cycle at some point in our lives. At times many of us feel like a gerbil on a wheel, running incessantly, getting nowhere and trying more and more desperately to figure out how to stop the terrible cycle and get off. At last there is a wonderful product that can assist you perfectly in you effort to return to a balanced, healthy state of well-being. I feel this is so important that I will spend time explaining so you can begin right away to find the relief you have been wishing for.

I am referring to Bach Flower remedies. I sell only the Emotonal Eating Kit in my store and do not receive anything from telling you about all 38 of them them. They are simply amazing and something everyone should know about! Many of you have heard of these and perhaps are already making good use of these amazing flower essences. I have used them myself for many years and mentioned them in my book, The Taming of the Chew. They have been around for 150 years and people all over the globe rely on their powerful healing benefits. They are safe, easy to use and extremely effective.

To help you understand what they are, how they work and how to use them, I will give you a little history and some basic instructions. Dr. Richard Bach lived in England about 70 years ago. He was a sensitive, concerned and brilliant individual who concerned himself with finding ways to help people feel better and enjoy their lives more. He believed that to heal ourselves physically and emotionally, we must first heal our very life force, I certainly agree with Dr. Bach and have seen evidence of this in my own life as well as in the experiences of my clients as they have progressed along their own life journeys.

It is not my goal to convince you of this. As always, I urge you to take what fits for you and disregard anything that does not fit into your belief system. It is evident there is more to us than just the physical bodies we inhabit. This “other” part we reference by many names – soul, god, light, energy or higher power, for example. This is the part of us we cannot see with our eyes but that we know in our hearts does exist and keeps us connected to source energy. This ethereal body needs attending to just as our physical, visible parts do. If we are to truly heal and feel as joyful as we are meant to be, we need to correct our negative emotional patterns and transform them into positive ones. This helps us come into emotional balance and heals our soul. How do we do this?

Dr. Bach believed that before we can heal our physical bodies, we must heal our very essence, our energy. He wanted to find a natural way for people to do this and discovered the potent power of 38 different flower essences and a few blended ones made from flowers he picked from his own gardens in Mont Vernon, England. He experimented and discovered these can ease our feelings and help us move through difficult situations as we strive to obtain the utmost in mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health. These essences come in small bottles and just a couple of tiny drops in a glass of lukewarm water or placed directly under your tongue or on your skin can bring the blessed relief necessary to get back on a healthy track and off the treadmill. *

Here are a couple of examples. Have you ever had a negative thought that you just couldn’t turn off? Perhaps you had a fight with a friend and your head keeps spinning with negative thoughts and consequently you don’t feel good. If you find yourself ruminating over some real or imagined situation in your life, for example, a couple of drops of White Chestnut can help you quiet your mind and stop those repetitive thoughts. Then you can relax, come back into balance and focus on something more pleasant. If you suddenly feel sad and depressed and have no idea why, a couple of drops of the essence Mustard can lift your mood.

If you are in crisis or just having a difficult time the Bach flower blend known as Rescue Remedy can help you through. Also, Rescue Remedy can be found in a tincture, cream or convenient spray. I always carry a small spray bottle with me to use any time I feel stressed or anticipate stress will accompany an activity in which I am about to engage. If I am in a social situation and realize I feel anxious or fearful, I can squirt two sprays on my tongue and feel less nervous. (Caution: If you are using Rescue Remedy or any essence before an important job interview or an important talk with someone, be aware of the slight alcohol content. If you will be very close, you may want to use a breath mint before the event.)

A complete list of Bach Flower essences and their therapeutic effects appears on the web at http://www.bachflower.com/ but I would like to highlight two more here. First, is another blend known as Rescue Sleep. This helps quiet your mind so your body can get the proper rest so essential to your well-being. Remember, if you do not get sufficient, good quality sleep your body produces more of the hormones that increase appetite (ghrelen and cortisol) and fails to produce our satiation hormone (leptin). Rescue Sleep used alone can help with appetite control and assist you in your efforts to control your appetite and regulate your weight.

The last benefit of these wonderful essences I have highlighted is brand new and very exciting. There are a few tinctures that when combined have been found to be most effective in helping emotional overeating problems. These are Chestnut Bud (which helps you learn from your mistakes so you don't keep doing the same things, expecting different results), Cherry Plum (which alleviates the fear of being out of control and unable to stop eating once you start and Crabapple (which helps you accept, appreciate and love the body you have now). We already know that despite our best efforts to self-soothe in healthy ways we can still find ourselves seeking our own “food cure” at times. These little tinctures can curb that tendency. Instead of reaching for the nearest brownie or pizza slice you can reach for your tinctures instead. I suggest you give them a try. These are enormously helpful for most people and I hope they will become useful, effective tools for you.