Aspen - Bach Flower Remedies Aspen - Bach Flower Remedies

Clearing Unknown Fears... Last month we focused on Agrimony from the Bach Flower Remedies range, and this month its the turn of Aspen. The beautiful energies of the Aspen remedy help us to feel unafraid of the unknown, and it is one of those remedies that so many people find helpful.

Aspen - Bach Flower Remedies

For unknown fears, vague fears and apprehension, perhaps unable to express fears of spirit/psychic/ strange places, etc. Apprehensive of coming events. Shakiness or fluttering tummy. Very useful for children with fears of dark, also agoraphobia. Aspen brings relief from these uneasy feelings.

Dr Bach's description of Aspen:-

"Vague unknown fears, for which there can be given no explanation, no reason. Yet the patient may be terrified of something terrible going to happen, he knows not what. These vague unexplainable fears may haunt by night or day. Sufferers often are afraid to tell their trouble to others."
From the Twelve Healers & Other Remedies - By Dr Edward Bach ( 1936 edition )

Dr Bach placed Aspen in the Fear Group

How To Use:- To do this you can put 2 drops of each remedy required into a clean glass dropper bottle containing up to 30ml of spring or spa water, adding a teaspoon full of brandy or cider vinegar as a preservative. You can also put 4 drops into a glass of water and sip. We would recommend a dosage of 8 x a day for chronic states and every 30-60 minutes for acute states, reverting to the normal dosage when more balance has returned.
More Information Here - Using Bach Flower Remedies

Working with Fear
If you would like something more deeper acting as a complement, you could also try an Inner Calm Combination or a Pink Rose Essence - this helps to clear and release blocked fears.

What do you think? If you have any experiences of using the Aspen remedy, or any thoughts or ideas that you would like to share in relation to it, please leave us a comment!

Crystal Herbs Bach Flower Remedies

Agrimony - Bach Flower Remedies Agrimony - Bach Flower Remedies

Without doubt the Bach Flower Remedies are still the most popular and well known flower essences around the world. From their beginnings in the 1930's to their popularity now, the Bach Flower Remedies have an understandably enduring appeal. The 38 remedies are named after Dr Edward Bach, who discovered them in the 1930's, and are simple, natural and gentle acting remedies. Over the next few months we'll take a look at each the 38 Bach Flower Remedies starting with the Agrimony remedy which is the first of the 38 Bach Flower Remedies.

Agrimony
Agrimony Bach Flower Remedy
For those putting on a brave face when inwardly in turmoil and worried. Bottling things up, sometimes exploding in anger, unable to express their feelings when necessary, liking to keep the peace, at much cost to themselves. They may be restless at night, or suffer throat problems. Brings peace and an ability to communicate happily.

Dr Bach described his Agrimony Flower Remedy as:-
"The jovial, cheerful, humorous people who love peace and are distressed by argument or quarrel, to avoid which they will agree to give up much. Though generally they have troubles and are tormented and restless and worried in mind or in body, they hide their cares behind their humour and jesting and are considered very good friends to know. They often take alcohol or drugs in excess, to stimulate themselves and help themselves bear their trials with cheerfulness."
The Twelve Healers & Other Remedies - By Dr Edward Bach ( 1936 edition )
Agrimony is in Dr Bach's - Oversensitive to Influences and Ideas Group
The Latin Name for Agrimony is:- Agrimonia eupatoria

How To Use Agrimony:- You can put 2 drops into a clean glass dropper bottle containing up to 30ml of spring or spa water, adding a teaspoon full of brandy or cider vinegar as a preservative. You can also put 4 drops into a glass of water and sip. We would recommend a dosage of 8 x a day for chronic states and every 30-60 minutes for acute states, reverting to the normal dosage when more balance has returned.
More Information Here - Using Bach Flower Remedies

More on Self Expression
If you would like something more deep acting as a complement, you could also try a Throat Chakra Combination - this helps to clear and release blocked emotions around expressing yourself, your creativity and emotional needs openly and honestly.

Crystal Herbs Bach Flower Remedies

Making Change - The Beginning of the New Year Making Change - The Beginning of the New Year

The beginning of the new year is traditionally a time when we try and break with the past and create something new or something slightly different for the coming year. Or, put it another way it is the time when many of us make our New Years Resolutions!
The break in routine that the Christmas period provides can be a good time for reflection, a time where we look at our lives and see how it is that we might like to change or develop them. This part always seems to me like the easy part, the difficultly normally comes along when you run into the challenge of actually making the changes. This of course means facing or dealing with the issues - the thought patterns or emotions - that need releasing in order that we can make the changes we want in our lives.
An Essence which is often useful to help with the process of change is the "Making Change" combination. This combination will help you to find the courage and strength to make new beginnings.

On to 2007
One of the themes that seems strong at the start of this year is the need to balance our inner masculine and inner feminine energies. Most of us err more towards one side or the other. For example too much masculine energy can lead to difficulties in life with authority /father figures or being controlling or finding it difficult to listen to our intuition . A fear of using our own masculine energy will sometimes lead us to identify with the weak and vulnerable parts of ourselves, and to project the 'rejected' aspects outside onto those around us.
Those with an imbalance of feminine energy can often be sensitive individuals -– both male & female - who have a good intuition but need to develop their mental skills and '‘doing'’ energy, in order to manifest their creativity in the world.
Ideally there should be a perfect balance of the two energies and this allows us to use the qualtities of each energy to help to create what it is that we want in our lives.
Two essences that help with this re-balancing are the:-
Balancing Masculine combination - for when you have an imbalance of masculine energy
Balancing Feminine combination - for when you have imbalance of feminine energy.

Both of these two essences are focused on releasing the patterns that prevent us from having a harmony of masculine and feminine energy within.

I wish you all the very best for the new year and as ever, if you need any help or advice, please do contact us here at Crystal Herbs!

Sam Cremnitz

Moving Forward with Confidence Moving Forward with Confidence

As we are getting to the time in the U.K. when the summer is drawing to an end and peoples energy becomes more focused on new beginnings and fresh challenges, I thought that it would be worth looking at the issue of Confidence.

Confidence in ourselves is part of what allows us to use and ground our creative and ‘doing’ energy, and to move forward in our lives with greater inner strength.
Life challenges of all sorts can offer us the chance to see what our defence mechanisms are and what issues we may have around self confidence that need addressing. How do you react to a life challenge or change? Some people might hang back a little and watch others go first, some make a lot of noise and exude bravado to cover a lack of inner confidence, while others might be there in body only, not feeling confident or safe enough to be there emotionally. There are lots of different reactions.

Looking within ourselves at the thoughts, feelings and emotions that underlie these defence mechanisms or reactions can often help us to face our challenges in a more balanced fashion. Allow yourself a safe and quiet space to feel how it is that you really feel within! It can be very liberating, and really free you up to move forward in a much stronger way.

“Real self confidence comes from within and comes from a centred place in your Heart.”

If you would like some help, the Confidence combination is a powerful essence which helps to release the underlying issues related to a lack of self confidence, allowing you to move along your path with greater inner confidence. Another essence that is often useful in this situation is the Inner Calm combination which helps to release and transmute fears.
You can find both these essences in the Combinations For Self Treatment range

From the Bach Flower Remedies, you might also find the Mimulus and Larch useful.
Bach Flower Remedies

Being Present Being Present

Being grounded and in the now

Grounding is an important issue for many people to work with. Being grounded means being ‘in the now’; focusing our energy, thoughts and feelings in the present moment. As we do this it gives us a connection to and sense of safety on Mother Earth together with the physical vibrancy of actually being in our bodies. In this state we are at our most able to create and manifest what it is that we want in our lives.

So what is it that stops us from being grounded? The only thing that really stops us from being fully grounded in the now is the thought or feeling that we don’t want to be here, or that it is not safe at some level to be grounded here. These conscious or unconscious thoughts or feelings might have their origins in the experiences that we have had in this lifetime, or those that echo from previous life times, but each time they get triggered it can make it difficult for us to want to focus and ground our energy here in the moment. Being with the issue in the moment really means at some level facing some of the emotional pain and trauma that we keep so well buried. However, all these old patterns, whether relating to difficult childhood memories, guilt, fear, emotional trauma or past life echos, need to be worked with and gently released so that we can be more fully into our own energy.

When you feel yourself becoming ungrounded, try simply sitting with how you feel in the moment and how you feel about being there in the moment, and let yourself connect with any thought patterns, beliefs or feelings that are present. Over a period of time this will often help you to get a slightly deeper understanding about the patterns that you carry about being grounded. As you work with the patterns and begin to release them it allows you to strengthen your sense of grounding and ability to be grounded in the moment.

The Being Present Combination helps to work with the process of becoming more grounded. It can help to gently bring into awareness the issues that need working with and to help them to release, allowing you to feel more grounded and here in the present.

The Being Present Combination is one of the Combinations For Self Treatment and contains four Flower, Gem & Crystal Essences – Dandelion, Loosestrife, Sweet Pea, Dark Opal & Idocrase

You might also find a Base Chakra Combination helpful, or Clematis from the Bach Flower Remedies

You can find more on the Being Present Combination here

Inner Calm Inner Calm

Inner Calm
working with fear & anxiety

We all feel afraid sometimes. Fear is perhaps one of the biggest issues that we have to face in life as it underlies all of the other patterns that we carry and affects the way that we react to life.
There are many issues that might help us to experience our fear; the state of our planet environmentally or politically, the feeling of not having enough, feeling vulnerable, separate or alone, not feeling good enough, or having to open up to others. We each have our own personal list. As we experience our fear, we might feel; a conscious fear or panic, an underlying uneasiness, or a rush of emotions of which fear is the underlying cause. When our fear is triggered more often than not we will react to it from a space of fear, this rarely results in a resolution of the fear, and often only helps to perpetuate it.
We all carry fear to some degree and fear is the energy that ultimately keeps us separate from ourselves – it is the absence of Love. As we begin to clear away and release our old fears, so we begin to allow ourselves to experience more love and this allows us to react with love instead of fear, thus allowing ourselves to resolve and transcend fearful situations.
Inner Calm is a powerful and deep acting combination essence to help to release and transmute fear and anxiety. Its particular focus is on helping to release and transmute deeply held conscious and unconscious fears, as well as buried childhood and karmic fears. As we become more aware of our fear, so we can begin to break the fear based habits or patterns that we carry, and allow ourselves to begin to react with love rather than fear. Reacting with love helps us to move beyond the previous limitations of our fear.
Inner Calm is one of the Combinations For Self Treatment and contains four Flower, Gem & Crystal Essences - Garlic, Fig, Aventurine, & St. John's Wort*.
You can find more on the Inner Calm Combination here
* The St Johns Wort in this combination is a Flower Essence, and its properties and energetic qualities are very different to the herbal St Johns Wort preparation.