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Flower Essences and Other Natural Remedies: What are the Differences?

Flower Essences belong to a wider family of natural remedies, and we’re often asked what the differences are between flower essences and other complementary remedies. If you’re new to the Bach Flower Remedies or to the many other flower essences that are available, and you’re unsure of how they differ from homeopathy, herbal remedies and essential oils, you can find out more here.

At first glance, natural remedies can all seem quite similar, however, each have their own unique focus and purpose, and their own ways of working and reasons to use. In this article we’ll look at how flower essences work and the differences between them and the other forms of complementary products you might have in your wellbeing tool kit!

What are Flower Essences?

Each flower ( or crystal and mineral ) around us in nature carries its own unique vibrational frequency, an energetic signature that speaks quietly to us. A flower essence carries this subtle natural energy in liquid form, and it is this ‘active’ ingredient that supports us to create greater inner balance, harmony, and wellbeing in our daily lives.

How Do Flower Essences Work? Flower essences carry a particularly high vibrational frequency. Energetically our bodies are we are made up of vibrating energies, and so we respond very quickly to the positive vibrational frequencies contained within a flower essence. Taking an essence is rather like a tuning fork striking a particular note that then invites all parts of your subtle energy system into harmony with that uplifting positive vibration. As this happens it allows you to connect more deeply with yourself and helps you to bring greater harmony to your everyday thoughts and feelings. It also helps you to gently unlock and transform deeply held emotions, core beliefs, and energetic blockages within your subtle energy bodies.

The Importance of Vibrational Frequency... Flowers and crystals hold a high vibrational frequency because they are deeply connected with nature, with Mother Earth, and with higher frequencies of consciousness. A higher-vibrating energy naturally helps to lift and release lower-vibrating energies. So when you use a flower essence, it gently raises your own vibrational frequency, helping you release the lower-vibration patterns you may be carrying; such as fear, anger, grief, or limiting beliefs around self-worth. In this way, flower essences support deeper connection with yourself on all levels and help open you more fully to source and spirit. Your vibrational frequency will change as a result of taking essences. As the consciousness that’s held within the essence flows into your energetic system, it will retune and realign any areas of imbalance so that you can remember consciously that you are a spiritual being having a human experience.

The History of Flower Essences... Flower essences, as we know them today, were first developed by Dr Edward Bach in the 1930s. His 38 Bach Flower Remedies were created from the flowers he found in the English countryside and were inspired by his dedication to helping people find greater balance and harmony in mind, body, and spirit. Since Dr. Bach’s time, flower essences have grown significantly in both popularity and variety, with many new essences now available around the world.

What’s the difference between flower essences and homeopathy?

Flower essences and homeopathy are both forms of vibrational medicine, and while they may appear similar at first glance, and are sometimes confused for each other, Bach Flower Remedies and flower essences are quite different to homeopathy, not least in their production, philosophy and application.

Homeopathy is based on the “like cures like” principle and can be used to treat physical symptoms as well as a more holistic whole mind & body approach, while Flower essences carry a very high vibrational frequency and help balance emotions, thought patterns, your bodies subtle energy systems and support for your personal & spiritual growth.

In practical terms the differences between the two make them a really good complement for each other and they work very well side by side. Flower essences help to balance you primarily from an energetic perspective, aligning your vibrational frequency more with your higher aspects. They help you allow energy to flow through your subtle energy systems, releasing old stuck thoughts, feelings, emotions and subtle energies, and balancing yourself energetically as a whole being. Homeopathy starts more at the other end of the spectrum and targets your bodies responses to any imbalances that it carries, prompting your body to re-balance and therefore allow more higher frequency energy in.

The Origins of Homeopathy and Flower Essences

Homeopathy was created by Samuel Hahnemann in the late 1790s and he published his foundational text about homeopathy, ‘The Organon of the Healing Art’, in 1810. Homeopathy is based on the principle of ‘like treats like’; that a substance that causes certain symptoms can also help to alleviate those symptoms.

Earlier in his career Dr Bach, the father of modern flower essences, worked with vaccine therapy and later with homeopathic remedies, but his research took him in a quite different direction when he created his 38 flower remedies. Rather than working by the homeopathic principle of the ‘Law of Similars’, where the remedies are selected to produce the symptoms that match the condition of the patient, flower essences use the positive subtle energy of a flower to bring inner balance and harmony.

On the difference between homeopathy and his new flower remedies, Bach said: “Here we come to the understanding that we no longer fight disease with disease: no longer oppose illness with the products of illness: no longer attempt to drive out maladies with such substances that can cause them: but, on the contrary, to bring down the opposing virtue which will eliminate the fault.” ( from ‘Ye Suffer from Yourselves’, a lecture he gave in 1931).

Made in Very Different Ways

The two are also made in a very different way. A Flower essence is typically made using the sun potentisation method, which uses the energy of the sun to extract the subtle energies of a flower into water. This is achieved by placing pure water in a thin glass bowl and floating the flowers on the surface of the water and leaving it outside in full morning sunshine for three hours. It is the power of the sun that helps to imprint the energy or vibrational frequency of the flower into the water.

A homeopathic remedy can be made from various substances (plants, minerals, animal materials, disease materials etc), and these are repeatedly diluted and succussed in water and alcohol. The number of repetitions gives you the ‘potency’ of the remedy (i.e. a remedy at ‘6c’ will have been diluted 1 part in 100 then succussed six times over ). It is the succussion process that imprints the liquid with the vibrational frequency of the material. The end preparation is then added to pillules or small lactose tablets. With homeopathy, lower potency remedies work more physically, while In terms of vibrational frequency, it is often considered that it is the much higher homeopathic potencies that come closest to the effects of a flower essence.

Flower Essences vs Homeopathy

• A flower essence brings greater inner balance, harmony & wellbeing by using the positive vibrational frequency of a flower to release lower vibrational energies. A homeopathic remedy uses a vibrational frequency based on “like cures like”, mirroring the symptoms to bring balance to the body & mind.
• Flower essences help us with our out of balance emotions, thoughts and feelings, blocked energy in our subtle bodies and they also help to strengthen our spiritual connection. Homeopathy is used to help with a range of common conditions, such as asthma, ear infections, hay fever and other allergies and higher potencies are used for conditions such as depression, stress and anxiety.
• Flower essences are made from the energetic imprint of flowers, while a homeopathic remedy is made from various substances (plants, minerals, animal materials) that are diluted and succussed.
• A flower essence works at an energetic level and doesn’t have physical side effects, so is simple and safe to self prescribe and has no contra-indications. Especially with higher potencies of homeopathy, it is best to use these under professional guidance.

When to use each: use a flower essence to help you to balance how you’re thinking and feeling, to work with your emotions and to balance your bodies subtle energy systems. For example you might use Mimulus from the Bach Remedies to help with known fears and worries, Hyssop flower essence to help with feelings of guilt and Snowdrop flower essence to help with the pain of bereavement, separation, sadness and loss. You can use lower potency homeopathic remedies to help and support physical problems in your body, for example Arnica for shock or trauma or Nux Vomica to help with indigestion and bloating. Higher homeopathic potencies come a little closer to the effects of flower essences, and can support your emotional and mental wellbeing.

Expert Tip: the Bach Flower Remedies are particularly good for balancing how you're thinking and feeling in the moment, and this supports and helps the deeper acting flower & crystal essences and homeopathic remedies to work better and more effectively.

The Difference Between Flower Essences and Herbal Remedies

Like flower essences, herbal remedies are plant based and are very nature connected. They contain the higher vibrational frequencies that a plant will carry, making them a bit different from homeopathy and its use of disease based material or the 'like for like' principle.

In the U.K. the NHS defines herbal remedies in the following way: “Herbal medicines are those with active ingredients made from plant parts, such as leaves, roots or flowers.” The key here is that when you use a herbal remedy it is the physical ‘medicinal’ properties of a plants leaves, roots or flowers that you are benefiting from. These physical or biochemical ingredients interact with your body in a different way physically and energetically to a flower essence.

A herbal remedy will act much more directly on the physical body. The qualities of the plant from which it is made help to work with the body at a deep level, especially when taking the kind of herbal remedies that a herbal practitioner will use in their practice. When you use a flower essence you are working at a purely energetic level as there are no physical parts of the plant used, just the positive vibrational frequency of the flower.

A key difference here is that herbal remedies work more from the body outwards, while with a flower essence you are using the energy of the flower - the highest vibrational part of a plant - and you're working much more from spirit inwards.

Again the differences between the two make them a really good complement for each other and they work very well side by side.

Flower Essences vs Herbal Remedies

• A flower essence works on the emotional and energetic level, using the subtle vibrational frequencies of a flower. A herbal remedy works more on the physical or biochemical level, and uses the physical ‘medicinal’ properties of a plants leaves, roots or flowers.
• A flower essence will help to support your emotional wellbeing ( working with fears, grief, confidence etc ) and helps you to connect more deeply at a spiritual level. Herbal remedies work more to support you at a physical level and are good for issues such as digestion, immunity and sleep, among many others.
• Flower essences are usually prepared by the sun method, which helps to capture the energetic or vibrational frequency of the flower it’s being made from. No part of the flower is included in the final preparation, just its energy signature. This is one of the reasons that flower essences are also known as vibrational essences. By contrast a herbal remedies active ingredients are the plant material that it’s made from and it’s active chemical compounds.
• A flower essence works at an energetic level and doesn’t have physical side effects. With herbal remedies you need to be much more aware of dosage and potential physical side effects.

When to use each: use a flower essence when you want to work at subtle energetic level with your thoughts, feelings, emotions and your bodies subtle energy systems. So for example you might use Bleeding Heart flower essence for heartbreak, bereavement, loss and to open your heart chakra, Loosestrife flower essence for grounding and focus, or Cosmos flower essence to help you to express yourself clearly and to speak from the heart. Use a herbal remedy when you want to work at a more physical level with your body and the way that it works, or to support your general wellbeing. So for example you might use Valerian root or Chamomile to help you sleep, or Black Cohosh, Red Clover, Flaxseed or Ginseng for working with menopause symptoms.

The Difference Between Flower Essences and Essential Oils

Both flower essences and essential oils are derived from plants. In Aromatherapy it is the use of the natural, aromatic plant extracts, known as essential oils, that support physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing. These oils are extracted from flowers, leaves, roots, or resins and contain the volatile compounds that give each plant its distinctive scent.

The use of essential oils goes back to ancient civilizations, with Egyptians, Greeks, and Chinese using them for medicine, cosmetics, and spiritual practices. The term aromatherapy was coined in 1935 by René-Maurice Gattefossé, who conducted many experiments on the use of essential oils.

Flower essences and essential oils work in different ways. When you inhale an essential oil, tiny scent molecules travel through the nose to the olfactory receptors, which are directly connected to the limbic system, the part of the brain that governs emotions, memory, and mood. When you dilute an essential oil and apply it to the skin (for example, in massage or baths), their molecules are absorbed into the bloodstream through hair follicles and skin pores.

As with herbal remedies, essential oils are a more physical process than flower essences, because you're using the physical concentrated plant extracts. That is not to say that essential oils don’t also carry a subtle energetic vibration that interacts with our own energy field. In fact essential oils work more into your bodies subtle energy systems than a herbal remedy might do, but in a different way to using a flower essence.

When you use a flower essence you are working very much with the energetic signature of a flower and this subtle energy talks very directly to your bodies subtle energy systems and to your thoughts, emotions and old belief patterns. The subtle energy of a flower essence floods your energy system with a positive vibrational frequency which works its way through your bodies subtle energy systems, releasing. Again flower essences and essential oils are a good complement for each other and will support each other in helping you to re-balance at all levels.

Flower Essences vs Essential Oils

• Flower essence work on the emotional and vibrational level, while essential oils work more on the physical and sensory level through scent and absorption.
• Flower essences are made from the energetic imprint of flowers held in water, while essential oils are made from concentrated plant extracts distilled from flowers, leaves, or resins.
• You can take a flower essence internally or use externally as a spray. Essential oils are used topically, inhaled, or diffused to influence mood or wellbeing.
• A flower essence contains no scent or chemical compounds, other than those in which it is preserved ( typically brandy or vegetable glycerine ). Essential oils are a very distinct aroma and have measurable constituents.
• Flower essences support inner emotional transformation from the inside out, while essential oils also work energetically but work more physically than flower essences do.

When to use each: use a flower essence when you want to work deeply with how you're thinking and feeling and want to move out of an old energetic space and into a new one. So for example you might use Peace Rose Flower Essence to help to release old fears out of your heart chakra, Lotus Flower Essence to release buried emotions and connect more deeply at a spiritual level, or Valerian Flower Essence to help you to be fully grounded and present in the now. Use an essential oil when you want emotional support or to relax your physical body in some way. Popular essential oils include: Lavender for relaxation, Tea Tree for its antiseptic properties, Peppermint for energy and digestion, and Eucalyptus for respiratory support.

Using Flower Essences and Other Natural Remedies