What if you could take magic drops to change the way you think, behave, feel about yourself, and how you interact with others and the world around you? What if all these changes were possible just by taking a few drops a day for several weeks? And what if these drops were completely natural and safe to take with any medications you may be using, at any stage of your life? It sounds pretty miraculous, right? 

In fact, this is what flower essences have been doing since the 1930s. Yet they haven’t taken off in a major way, perhaps because people don’t understand what they really or how work. Perhaps they sounds a bit too good to be true and a bit ‘woo woo’…

What are flower essences? 

They are the vibrational imprint of a specific flower held as a memory in water and preserved with alcohol (usually brandy or vodka). Yep, we know, that can sound a bit wishy washy.

However the physicists are catching up and have proved that one of the unique properties of water molecules is that they are able, and do, hold the memory of what passes through them.

We have no problem at all with knowing that the vibration of sound is held in a record or cd and that, whenever we want we can listen back to those vibrations and they can change the way we feel.

So flower essence ( or flower remedy) is the ‘song’ of a plant held in a liquid that is usually taken as drops under the tongue, or absorbed through the skin. And it can changes how we feel.

But unlike listening to a record, taking an essence can change behaviour and thought patterns that we have had for our whole lives. They can bring us back to who we truly are, they can set us on our correct path and they can  help us get through immediately challenging situations – like job interviews, exams, receiving bad news or asking someone out on a date.

How do you find out which essences you might need?

For long standing issues, it can take using the correct essence several times a day for a few weeks to shift things or, for more acute situations, taking just one or two doses is all that is needed. Drops can be taken under the tongue, added to cold drinks or your water bottle, and rubbed into the skin. 

Each flower essence has a different lesson to teach and it can be overwhelming to decide which ones you need first, or most. If you have a specific issue you want to change, like sleeplessness or anxiety, self esteem issues, worry, or having no enthusiasm, it is probably best to start by using a combination essence and, once that issue has shifted, you can start looking more deeply at where that pattern has originated and use a single flower essence to help you shift that particular pattern.

As you can imagine over the last year, the need for essences that help with emotional and psychological problems has increased tenfold. People are becoming more and more aware of how our mental wellness affects our physical wellbeing and that, for many situations, going to the doctor for a pill isn’t always the answer.

 Stress

Oak essence is incredibly useful for workaholics, for those who don’t stop and rest and therefore get exhausted, who are hard on themselves and don’t give themselves a break.

Speedwell helps us to slow right down, to sit and relax, to trust our intuition and therefore not get caught up in the drama ‘out there’.

Willow is great for people who are hard and unbending, who have become bitter through life events and aren’t willing to give new things a go, to see that there might be an easier way to do things. Long term stress can cause a hardening, a stiffening, a feeling that to change might mean that everything will fall apart. Willow helps us to know that sometimes bending is better than breaking.

Worry and Anxiety

White Chestnut helps you let go of all of those thoughts that are going round and round in your head. It somehow, quite magically, calms them down, helps you to release them so that you can either sleep or calmly get on with your day.

Borage is an incredibly useful and protective essence for these times. It helps us to be able to cope, to help us remember our courage, to feel like we’ve got this.. .which of course helps us feel less anxious.

Panic and Fear

Rock rose is very useful for any situation where you are panicking, feel like you might fall apart and are scared beyond what is reasonable for the situation you are in.

Cherry plum is incredibly calming and brings an inner sense of being strong and in control.

Flower essences expert Saskia Marjoram is the founder of Saskia’s Flower Essences