Pleasing body and soul

By now, we have probably tried every conceivable form of application, and each has its own special effect. Quarrelling groups benefit from essences that promote cooperation in the aroma lamp, chiropractors appreciate the relaxing effect of a flower on the spine, flower lovers add a few drops of essence to the contents of the spray bottle with the help of which they maintain the humidity around their treasures, a piece of bread drizzled with flower essence already helped a little lamb into the world. The possibilities are endless, as you can see.

We live in a medical culture of swallowing and injecting, health comes from chemicals pressed into pill form and needles pricked into muscle flesh - not at all from singing or dancing or other outlandish activities. Edward Bach already knew this. He was familiar with the healing power of trees and flowers and how they can be harnessed in many different ways. However, he chose the form of ingestible drops. No doubt to keep the inhibition threshold as low as possible when encountering a new healing method. At the time of the unspeakable prescription requirement for Bach flowers in Germany, I liked to send patients out into nature to visit the plants that were important to them, if the season and weather permitted. Those who knew a little about meditation were given the task of meditating, others found access easier by painting or drawing the plant, drying leaves and flowers or even taking a photograph and then placing the picture in a place that was meaningful to them. The effect is quite similar to that of a fresh bunch of flowers in a sickroom in winter: it is the prospect of improvement, of hope and new energy.

One of my favourite treatments is the full bath. It has its special advantages especially now in winter. Let’s take a little time for ourselves and give ourselves some new energy in a very pleasant way.

Here are a few flower recipes for full baths:

Sunbath

Figuratively speaking, of course. The composition of this bath is as follows:

• Touch-Me-Not Balsam
• Forsythia
• St. John’s wort
• Sunflower
• Sunflower pollen

This combination of exclusively yellow blossoms is suitable when there is a lack of light, this applies specifically to the dark season, but also when the soul lacks light, i.e.: a lack of joie de vivre.  However, light alone can have no effect if there is a lack of willingness to absorb light. For this reason, St. John’s wort and Touch-Me-Not Balsam should be added to the mixture. The first makes you trust and confide, the second relaxes you and helps you to let things come to you calmly and confidently. Forsythia is considered the light-bringer among the flowers, Sunflower pollen concentrates and conducts the energy of the Sunflower into the body and energy system.

Like all flowers, you can let the yellow ones float on water while you relax - this is similar to Bach’s method of preparation, but on a slightly larger scale.

I recommend the mixture for all states of exhaustion of a physical and emotional nature, for dejection, desolation, the feeling of not being able to go on.

For long-lasting conditions, the bath should be taken regularly for a period of time.  In order not to let the ecological conscience slip at this point, one could also try the „shower method“: a few drops of the essence mixture in a sealable 1.5g jar, as used by homeopaths for their globules, stopper on and screwed into the shower head. It lasts at least three weeks, is simple and lets you start the day with a light shower.

Heart bath

A plea for the heart, this most neglected of our organs. While we train all kinds of muscles with more or less enthusiasm - what do we actually do all the time with this most important of all muscles? We let it do its thing and only worry about it when it starts tp complain.

Seriously injured people can be resuscitated by heart massage. On the energetic level, such a thing would do us good from time to time. Perhaps the need for a physical heart massage can even be avoided if one treats one’s emotional heart to a little massage in good time.

This is the equivalent of a bath in champagne, only less sticky:

• Dog Rose
• Corn Poppy
• Quince
• Rosemary
• Walnut

The door opener to the heart is walnut, a green flower, which all have more or less effect on our heart anyway. It manages to awaken loyalty to one’s own heart (as well as to one’s own decisions). Dog rose awakens new interest in life, corn poppy warms the heart, quince and rosemary represent the yin and yang aspects respectively of a powerful, passionate, loving heart.

This is an activating, awakening bath, one that warms from within on cold days, one that brings comfort on sad days or simply gladdens the heart. Also suitable for the angry and wounded, those tormented by lovesickness, the abandoned or otherwise energetically undernourished in the heart.

Dream bath

While the previously mentioned mixtures were about activation, the last bath is one for relaxation, for pulling the plug and stretching out.

Mental and emotional tension expres themselves in body tension. If our muscles are hard and cramped, then they do so because they have received the nerve impulse from within. This mixture is supposed to influence this. Relaxing the body, calming the mind, letting the thoughts fly, dreaming - that’s what this is all about.

Eureka, exclaimed Archimedes, when he suddenly discovered the principle named after himself, while dreaming in the bath. Just an example. Surely everyone knows it, it feels like a cramp in the tongue: there, that person there, what’s their name, the name is on the tip of my tongue, uh. Nothing can be done, something blocks the message from coming through. Sometime later it pops upwhen you are busy doing something else. That means the brain did indeed receive the request, only its answer was lost in all the inner hubbub. An attempt in silence then makes it clear that the connection does exist, it was only temporarily drowned out. Who but ourselves should have done this?

• Mugwort
• St. John’s Wort
• Dandelion
• White Chestnut
• Wormwood

Dandelion and St. John’s wort centre the energy. Dandelion relieves the tension that results from what one is going through at the moment or has been going through for some time or for an eternity. The causes of the tension addressed by dandelion lie in the past. St. John’s wort, on the other hand, takes away fears of the future, brings serenity in the face of the uncertainty of what is to come, makes us courageous and carefree. White Chestnut helps to let the circling thoughts go. Wormwood makes you honest and authentic, while its sister plant Mugwort lets you dream, entrust yourself to the night, the darkness and the moonlight, and through this sensual experience come a little closer to your innermost being, your intuition and wisdom.

And what do we do with these mixtures? Quite simply, two drops of each flower in the bath and that’s it. Fortunately, it can also be done in a more refined way. The basic instructions remain valid, of course. Either from each flower or from a ready-made mixture, add 2 drops to the bath water. But there is more.

Let’s highlight two basic recipes:

Salt Bath

Put half a pound of sea salt in a sealable jar. Add up to 5 drops of an essential oil of your choice (beware of allergic reactions, if in doubt, leave it out). 

* A suggestion for sunbathing would be grapefruit oil. 

* For the heart bath lavender (rather less than more) or better - if available - lavender flowers. 

* Mugwort oil for the dream bath.

Finally, add 2 drops of the desired essences or combination. Close the jar and shake well. Add two handfuls to the bath water.

Because of the drying effect of the salt, it is worth using a good body oil, preferably with a flower additive, and that can be none other than Apple blossom. It makes the baths ‚round‘.

Cream bath

50ml cream, a tablespoon of St. John’s wort oil, possibly up to 6 drops of essential oil (see above) and 2 drops of the chosen essences or combination in a shaker, shake well and add to the bath water running in.