Writer and singer Victoria Aitken tries flower remedies instead of a psychotherapist – but learns not to overdo the Rescue Remedy.

How I Rediscovered Bach Flower Remedies

Last week I had a nasty fall in a hotel bathroom. I was badly cut and covered in bruises. I went off to A and E in Chelsea, London, where they brilliantly stitched me up, but an hour after leaving A and E I was covered in painful bruises. A nearby pharmacist advised me to take Arnica tablets but sadly this didn’t help.

While lying in bed, I remembered something my mother told me about Bach flower remedies and their healing properties. I googled and saw that Tessa Jordan’s class – www.tessajordan.co.uk was by chance starting the next day.
Tessa’s a clear, very good educational speaker and her class stimulated two memories of growing up in Sandwich Bay, Kent.

My Childhood Connection to Wild Flowers

My father, Jonathan Aitken, as a school boy used to collect wild flowers and would take us on country walks. From these and my mother’s knowledge of herbs, I gained a simple knowledge of plants’ healing properties.

While living in London I also used to visit the Chelsea Physic garden www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk

Too Much Of A Good Thing

Due to various other traumas recently, I was also taking the Bach rescue mix too often.

Most of us don’t need rescuing all the time, and I realised I was relying too much on the rescue mix.

Having taken Bach flower remedies as a child, I wanted to understand much more about each flower.

A Personalised Mix Is Key

Having a personal mix is key as “remedies the customer needs might not be in the rescue mix” and a personal blend will help us on an individual level” I was told.

In addition, I was recently in Basel, Switzerland, and went to the Pharmacy Museum, where in one display cabinet it explained how the characteristics of the plants helped doctors to figure out what diseases they would be a good remedy for.

Unknown to me this was one of the amazing segments of the class: learning that the characteristics of some flowers are the cure for that issue – coming from the Doctrine of Signatures.

For example: Heather tries to trip you up and keep you there, desperate to keep your attention in any way possible. Bach flower Heather is a remedy for somebody who is empty and lonely inside, so empty, in fact, that you could fall into them.

Learning about the actual plants with Tessa’s amazing photos helped me reconnect to flowers and nature.

Another reason I took the Bach flowers remedies course was because I found it almost impossible to get a face-to-face meeting with a psychotherapist for help with various traumas.

These included the recent incident of having stiches on my nose due to the shower slip.

Other people might also have this issue due to therapists’ long waiting lists and might not have the time due to their busy schedules – whereas everything about Dr Bach’s philosophy is easy.

It is easy to carry the drops in your handbag and take a dose as often as you need to.

Dr Bach’s Philosophy

It’s incredible to me that flowers can help balance emotional issues – Dr Bach’s philosophy seems precise.

He believed that behind every physical disease there lies an emotional imbalance – because what is happening emotionally affects us physically, as well as vice-versa.

Dr Bach cannot be brushed aside as some quack, because he was a qualified doctor and also a well-known bacteriologist in the early twentieth century.

He could see the body being affected by disturbed states of mind and he tried out his new remedies on his patients in his doctor’s surgery.

The Bach Rescue Remedy is well known but it is also important to consult a practitioner as sometimes we might not be able to understand our emotions.

When we have trouble sleeping, we need to ask ourselves ‘why?’ ‘what is happening for me?’ ‘what feeling is behind this problem?’

A Bach practitioner can help us to understand the emotional root of the problem– and a personal mix of remedies can help each individual achieve balance.

Each remedy has a very specific emotional indication. For those interested I would highly recommend reading the official books which can be downloaded from: www.bachcentre.com

Enjoy your learning journey through whichever remedies you need, whether Rock Rose, Wild Oat, Olive, Honeysuckle and so on.

Want to Learn More?

A visit to the Bach Centre where most of the remedy flowers grow in the garden would be a huge educational and worthwhile experience.

An interesting additional thing I learned on the course, is this. As it may be difficult to identify a baby’s feelings then when they are tiny, they will usually need the same remedies as their mother.

So if the mother is taking the remedies she needs and breastfeeding, the baby will also receive the effect of the emotional support.

I recommend Tessa Jordan’s classes for a new take on Bach Remedies.