In my last post I talked about the healing power of spending time in nature. In this post I want to take that a step further and specifically look at the healing power of flowers. I have developed a deep respect for their amazing healing potential.

As a psychotherapist I deal a lot with people struggling with various degrees of anxiety and depression. It is epidemic. One has only to look at the staggering number of antidepressant and antianxiety medications being taken in this country, despite the side effects and dark side of these medications. It’s not to say that there is not a time and a place for them, but there are also many natural options as well. Flowers are one of them.

Dr. Edward Bach, a physician and homeopath spent his life searching for the purest forms of healing. In the early 1900’s he developed the Bach Flower Essences. Prepared from flowers their purpose is to achieve a balance between the mind, body and spirit, gently correcting the emotional upsets and conflicts that underlie psychological dis-ease, as well as, physical disease.

Flowers, as is all of nature, are infused with spirit. Just look at flowers… they often appear luminescent… filled with light and energy which they are. Each flower’s unique vibration addresses an energetic or spiritual imbalance that needs to be corrected so that we can become more balanced and aligned in our mind, body and spirit thereby creating vibrant health and well-being.

As someone who’s had my own challenges with anxiety and depression and wanting a natural approach to healing rather than medication, I decided to explore the Bach flower remedies. That’s when I became a believer as I experienced their healing power. I was able to resolve incidents of depressed mood, unwarranted feelings of guilt, anxiety and worry, even at one point the feeling of hopelessness that was transformed into the re-emergence of hope.

I see the increased use of flowers and herbs as part of the new medical paradigm in this country in which energy medicine plays a much larger role. Flower remedies are low cost also making them an answer to the rising costs of health care. And they have no side effects. Eastern medicine, both Chinese and Ayurvedic, have always relied on herbs for healing, as have the shamans of all indigenous cultures. It’s time that all of us become aware of this tremendous healing option.

One final note… if you have watched the blooming of flowers, you see the unfoldment process they model for us. They start a tightly enclosed bud and then begin to unfold and open to light and life, revealing their unique beauty and fragrance for all to see and smell and offering their nectar so other creatures can be nourished. It seems this is what we are meant to do as well… to become the unique, beautiful, and whole humans we were created to be and to give our gifts in service to the world.

Since it’s the middle of summer as I write this and flowers abound, perhaps you will see them in a new light.