Show Notes:

In this episode, we welcome Lindsay Fauntleroy back to the podcast! Lindsay is a medicine maker, educator, acupuncturist, and author of In Our Element — a self-help guide that integrates acupuncture theory, flower essences, yoga and ancestral spirituality.

We talk about the naturally rising levels of stress and anxiety during this time of year and the corresponding elemental forces. 

Exploring the way stress and anxiety manifest in the context of the different elements, we offer our favorite flower essences for each scenario. And wow do we cover a lot! 

Join us on this whirlwind dive into the elements as a lens for Flower Essence Therapy.

Audio:

FEP60 The 5 Elements of Stress & Anxiety with Lindsay Fauntleroy

amp;nbsp; In this episode, we welcome Lindsay Fauntleroy back to the podcast! Lindsay is a medicine maker, educator, acupuncturist, and the author of In Our Element – a self-help guide that integrates acupuncture theory, flower essences, yoga and ancestral spirituality.

Video:

Flower Essences discussed during the show:

• White Chestnut – Bach
• Cerato – Bach
• Mimulus – Bach
• Aspen – Bach
• Gorse – FES
• Mountain Pride – FES
• Dandelion – FES
• St. John’s Wort – FES
• Pere David’s Maple – Flora of Asia
• Star of Bethlehem – Bach
• Vervain – Bach
• Aquamarine – Alaskan
• Aloe – FES
• Indian Pink – FES
• Rosemary – FES
• Lavender – FES
• Red Chestnut – Bach
• Pink Yarrow – FES
• Black Tourmaline – Alaskan
• Hematite – Alaskan
• Angelica – FES
• Honeysuckle – Bach
• Sagebrush – FES
• Hound’s Tongue – FES
• Star Tulip – FES
• Iris – FES

Resources:

The Spirit Seed – In Our Element Immersion

The Flower Essence Podcast – FEP49 The 5 Elements as Soul Medicine

Flower Essence Alchemy – Lindsay’s talk: The Energetics and Elements of Emotion

The Flower Essence Conference – Lindsay’s talk: Magic is Medicine: Attuning to Magical Consciousness to Support our Work with Flower Essences

Show Transcript

Rochana Felde: [00:00:40] Hey flower friends. Welcome to The Flower Essence Podcast. Today Kathleen and I have a guest with us. It’s Lindsay Fauntleroy and she has been on our podcast before, so you might recognize her name, but I’m going to read her bio just in case you’re not familiar with her and her wonderful work. Lindsay Fauntleroy is a medicine maker, educator and acupuncturist. Her book, In Our Element is a self-help guide that integrates acupuncture theory, flower essences, yoga, and ancestral spirituality. Lindsay is a certified instructor for the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine as well as a facilitator for the Flower Essence Society’s Global Practitioner Certification Program through her school, The Spirit Seed. Lindsay’s approach to soul medicine emerges from over 15 years of clinical practice, her Ph.D. studies of Indigenous and African Diasporic psychology and her commitment to community wellness. Welcome, Lindsay.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:01:55] Hi. Thank you so much for welcoming me here. I love our conversations.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:02:03] We’re really excited to have you here. When we talked about getting together and having this podcast together, we were talking about topics that are really pertinent to the season, that are pertinent to this moment, and nothing seemed to come forward more than talking about anxiety. As we head out of the late summer into the fall, that really does get stirred up and we’re going to be looking at it through the elemental lens from that aspect because you are a pro on that.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:02:40] It’s one of my favorite ways of thinking about– first of all, anxiety is such a thing in our culture, right? There’s so many places and circumstances that generate anxiety. Life in general coming out of the pandemic, just trying to figure out who we are, why we are, where we are, all the things, there’s so much anxiety that’s generated in our culture. And what I’ve found is that working through a five-element lens helps me really hone in on the particular quality of anxiety that’s showing up for a person or for myself as well as which flower essences are the most appropriate to be helpers through that anxiety. And so I’m really excited about us having a little powwow around which flower essences we use and bring in for these different types of anxiety through the lens of five-element theory.

Rochana Felde: [00:03:35] And this is going to be an exciting conversation because with you both bringing the five-element, the Chinese medicine five-element lens and I’m bringing in the Ayurvedic five-element lens, which has a lot to say about the season and the mind and how that affects us as well. So this will be really interesting to compare notes.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:04:03] Do we want to dip in with sort of a basic underpinning of this elemental shift that’s happening from the late summer into the fall, from the earth season into the metal season? Would you like to frame this conversation, Lindsay?

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:04:22] Sure. I mean, I think one really great place to start is of the five elements, water, wood, fire, earth, and metal in the East Asian philosophy and the acupuncture framework that the earth is the season of overthinking. All of the elements have an emotion associated with them and the Earth element, the translation is either overthinking or what I like to call hyper-empathy. But both of those qualities are qualities of the mind and how the mind gets preoccupied and how thoughts spin around like the earth itself. And so we’re in this season now of the late summer, which is that transition in between the fire element of summer and the metal element of the fall. And it’s this period where the Earth element is really prevalent. We see a lot of the signatures of the Earth element. And so it’s a heightened time of this Earth element overthinking. And we see that reflected in how people are often during this time of year trying to set up new routines, a new rhythm and new sleep schedules and new dietary schedules and new school schedules and planning and organizing and really just trying to get some clarity and some organization to their life. And I think all of that is reflective of the season of the Earth element.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:05:46] My practitioner and I were having this conversation about this particular season and he was telling me that that sensation of anxiety is really normal because on some level our ancestors are telling us to get the harvest in. Otherwise, you’re going to starve this winter. That energy of like, you got to get this done, you got to get this done, there’s a level of anxiety that just kind of arises at this time that helps us to complete what needs to be done from the end of the season. It’s kind of an interesting thing because obviously most of us in this point are not actually having to bring melons in out of the field, and so we don’t have that natural turnoff switch of going, “Okay, did all that. Now I can relax.” Instead, all of our work is so virtual for the most part that we don’t really have that visual reminder of like, “Okay, we actually did the thing and now we can chill out and relax.”

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:06:42] Yeah, I love that metaphor. But it feels really reminiscent of just even that idea of even though it’s not necessarily based on get the harvest in for the winter, but there is definitely that feeling of, now’s the time to reorganize and set yourself up for success in the months that follow.

Rochana Felde: [00:07:00] What’s so interesting is the five elements in Ayurveda and also in the Western thinking is earth, air, fire, water, and ether. So it’s similar, but it doesn’t totally match. And in the wheel of the year and the seasons, whether it be with Ayurveda, it’s going from the Pitta season, the fire of the summer into fall, which is air. And ether and air and ether are where the imbalances can come that play into the anxiety. So it’s so interesting that it’s actually different elements that we’re talking about, but having the same result basically, that anxiousness. The Vata is with excess air is kind of like the brain is moving too fast. It’s like there’s too much worry. It’s this, the air can just move so fast and it’s untamed in the mind. And so it’s just going– it can go round and round with circular thinking and have agitation. And then too much ether is like that ungrounded-ness, that spaciness, that just not being able to be grounded into the body. And so not only is there this seasonal time of year that’s happening with this shift from going from Pitta to Vata, the fire to the air and ether, but that also happens in our life. As we get older, as we age, when you get older, you’re going into the Vata time of life. And so this is correlating around menopause and aging. And so it also can hit that way, in that aspect and be double. And if you have the constitution of a Vata constitution in Ayurvedic doshas, then that can even be more pronounced. So these are all the things that I like to look at as the time of year. Also in just California in general, it’s like we’re going from the fire of summer and the heat of summer into this dry that we’re just at the peak of our dryness right now. And it’s of course fire season. So that anxiety about that and wildfires just adds to the whole thing. It’s really weird how it actually correlates exactly to the Ayurvedic cosmology in that sense.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:09:48] Yeah, what I love about all of these systems is that, and I think I’ve talked about it before in the conference on the elements, this idea that different cultures were looking at the same phenomenon but just maybe had a different element that they associated. But it’s essentially looking at the same phenomenon of what’s happening in the psyche right now, what’s happening in the environment right now, what’s happening in nature right now, and being able to name it and understand it through the lens of nature, whether we’re looking at the spinning of the Earth element and needing to be grounded or if we’re looking at fire transitioning to air and ether, or even if we’re looking astrologically at coming into an air astrological sign, there’s all of these different ways that it’s like the same phenomenon is being observed and just given different relationships and different names. But it’s almost like no matter how you slice it and dice it, we’re all looking at the same phenomenon of anxiety right now. So here we are, and the flower essences are like, “I can do this. I know all about anxiety. I can help you.”

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Kathleen Aspenns: [00:10:58] Yeah, it’s so important to bring in that, yay, there is actually something to do rather than just feel this very unpleasant emotion and worry about it feeling more anxiety. Not helpful. There are so many, like we were talking a little bit before we turned on the recording, how many essences there are that are listed if you’re looking for flower essences for anxiety. I tend to start in a conversation first with things like the White Chestnut which is such an important essence in the Bach line that speaks to these, what you were talking about, these circling thoughts, just the spiraling, circling that just will not stop, which is just such a wonderful essence to have around for anybody who has struggles with insomnia or struggles with their minds just zipping along without any sort of a stop button.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:11:58] Yeah. White Chestnut as one of my favorites. In the line of Elementals, it’s in I think at least four of them because it’s such a, I think, socially constitutional remedy. Our society is really programmed to overthink things and to use logic and to really just be in our heads as a place of solution instead of necessarily dropping into our heart or dropping into our body to find answers. So I feel like I’m using White Chestnut for myself all the time. I feel like I’m prescribing it to clients all the time. It’s one of those that is just, I call it the soul first aid. Everyone should have a little bit of White Chestnut somewhere in their medicine cabinet for those moments of just generalized anxiety.

And then I look at each of the five elements as having their own way that this anxiety or overthinking lives in the body. And then that will point me to some different flower essences. So I wanted to start with Water. Can we talk a little bit about the Water element and anxiety? So with each of the five elements in acupuncture theory, there’s a core emotion. And so with the Water element, that core emotion is fear. And that fear is it’s almost like you said before, the emotion is not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s a motivator for action. And so the fear of the Water element is really about, how do I make myself feel secure and how do I listen and trust? And so the anxiety that shows up with the Water element I find has this particular quality of confronting the unknown. So there’s a fear and even in some cases of paralysis, the kind of anxiety where you’re not just thinking about it, but you’re actually afraid to make any action, you’re afraid to make anything that might be a wrong decision. You feel kind of stuck in a way of a paralysis and indecision that comes from, how do I confront something that’s unknown? And I think that that’s a very particular quality of anxiety that might invite in, I like to use Cerato for that trust. And how do I trust what’s happening for myself, trust what I see, trust my ability to make a decision, to move out of that paralysis, and to take the next step? But really, that trust that is really central to a Water element type of anxiety.

Rochana Felde: [00:14:35] There’s so much to comment on with that with water in Ayurveda, it really governs the sense mind and all the senses coming in, also dealing with the emotions. So there’s a couple of ways that I look at it. But of course that fear, Mimulus is like the Bach go-to for that. But also I think the Aspen is really a nice one for this piece of it, this conversation because a lot of times the anxiety isn’t really specific, especially this kind of general anxiety that’s happening right now, just coming on from the seasons and the shift and whatever are these other forces that are coming in that we might not even be able to consciously know are happening or understand. So the Aspen is really good for that, helping with the unconscious fears or environmental fears that we’re not sure about but we know that they’re there and that we can feel them.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:15:44] Yeah, it feels like that with the Aspen it’s such a ally for the White Chestnut in that like, the White Chestnut is the thinking that we can process. We’re not processing it, but it’s at least conscious. And then the Aspen with that, I think of Aspen as the other side of the veil, right, which points to that like what’s unknown, what I can’t see, but what I just have that sense felt of. When I feel things like that, I feel it through my spine almost, which is also consistent with where the meridians of the Water element are. But that sensing of like there’s something else here and that anxiety I think is such a Water element expression.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:16:27] And when you were talking about that sense of just being paralyzed with fear, that made me think what an interesting combination the Cerato would be with Rock Rose because the Rock Rose has that quality of just becoming stone, becoming frozen, in not knowing what to do. And that feels really to me like a kidney, a water kind of a dynamic. But being able to pair that with the wisdom of the heart, of the Cerato, which brings you up into your higher centers and connection to the spirit of heaven, of the spirit of your higher self perhaps, being able to guide action, getting out of that frozen. This is really interesting to see how all these pieces come together all around this conversation about the White Chestnut which is really like you were saying, it is the type remedy of the modern era because we just spend way too much time thinking, processing data. Our spleens, our centers are just so exhausted from all of that all the time. You see it even in young people, in teenagers. They’ve spent so much time doing homework, doing mental work that they’re just exhausted. And all of us, that carb binging thing, it’s to try to support that spleen. We have that urge to eat chips and eat starchy stuff, and yet it’s not a great way to feed your spleen, but that’s kind of why you get so hungry for that stuff when you’re thinking too much.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:18:03] Thank you for that reminder and also that permission because I was just thinking the other day, I’m like, “Why whenever I’m reading, it’s almost like I just need something to munch on and crunch on?” And so thank you for bringing that forward because it’s that spleen trying to get resourced.

Should we talk about the Wood element? I’m really curious to hear which essences you would throw on the Wood element for anxiety because the Wood element, while the Water element descends Qi and brings us into that root chakra and that paralysis and that fear, the Wood element, anxiety I see coming from feeling blocked or obstructed. So it’s when the natural energy of the Wood element, which is to rise and to become and to self-actualize, gets stopped or blocked or obstructed. And so that kind of anxiety comes from feeling compromised, feeling overextended, feeling taken advantage of, or even that proverbial feeling of like this glass ceiling. Like, I’m trying to reach this height, I’m trying to be my fullest expression of myself, but there’s something getting in the way, seen or unseen. And so it causes a particular amount of frustration. But then that frustration then turns into a pattern of anxiety, worry, and even also depression because it’s like that ability to rise just kind of gives up and sinks and becomes a bit more on the hopeless spectrum. And so it feels like the texture of that kind of anxiety to me just feels a little different than the Water element anxiety. And so I often think about, for this type of anxiety, I think about some of my favorites are Gorse for seeing another way of navigating and moving through, having a new vision and restoring hope. I also think of Mountain Pride for that perseverance and that ability to be a spiritual warrior and to push through and persevere through adversity. So those are two that come up that you wouldn’t necessarily typically think of for anxiety. But if you’re looking within this framework of the Wood element and what it’s reflecting, then they become really appropriate essences.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:20:25] Yeah, this is really interesting. So I’m coming at it from thinking about like what happens when the liver energy is blocked, which is the equivalent association with the Wood element. And when it’s blocked temporarily, you get that sparky frustration, that impatience state. But when it’s blocked perpetually, when your whole life has been nothing but being stomped down and pushed down, you develop a learned helplessness, which is very much that depressive state where you just don’t even know where to start. Your life force has just been smushed out of you. In those cases, I think of Dandelion which has a natural affiliation with the liver in Western herbalism and possibly elsewhere as well. But that has that quality of reconnecting you to your bodily spirit and helping you push roots back down and then also extend upward with that vibrant green growth and that solar energy of the flower that just emerges no matter what, through whatever crack in the pavement or whatever. It has that will force and life that helps you reconnect to that part of yourself that has been smushed and depressed and deep and dark.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:21:56] I love that. And I also think of Dandelion as a little bit of a release valve too of releasing that toxic holding pattern, that toxic tension that’s  constricted in the muscles and the way we lock in with fight or flight, that hold in our muscles and then Dandelion comes in. It’s like blowing it in the wind, like when the Dandelion turns into that cloud and that puff and it’s like, whoosh, it just kind of dissipates and spreads and finds that ease that we talk about in Chinese medicine around the the liver as the free and easy wanderer that can just kind of fly and find its own way.

Rochana Felde: [00:22:35] Beautiful. I have a hard time thinking about the Wood element because that’s not my thing. And Ayurveda always looks at anxious conditions as air and ether. It doesn’t see them as the other elements, but for what you’re talking about and how you’re describing it, it seems to me there’s a couple of things that come to mind, and one of them is needing for a cleanse, something that’s very cleansing. And maybe some of the Alaskan environmental essences would be a lovely addition to that. But also St. John’s Wort kept popping into my mind as you were both talking. In addition to that, I love the Dandelion too. That seems really perfect in my mind. But the St. John’s wort, bringing just that light-filled being to help raise up those depressive kind of states, and there’s such an additional quality to it that has to do with the light and the way the light can pierce through darkness and break up stagnation. And so that kept coming into my mind. As you were both talking, the St. John’s Wort seems like a nice one for that. What do you think about that?

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:23:58] I love the image that I get is like that light in the darkness of like that light at the end of a tunnel. And so much about the Wood element is about vision. It governs the eyes, it governs our sight and our foresight and our planning. And so this idea of bringing in a flower that can help us pierce through all of the darkness and start to chart a new vision, I think about Gorse in a similar way, but definitely the St. John’s Wort brings even more of that quality of light and that astro light specifically that we see expressed in the flower.

Rochana Felde: [00:24:36] Well, and they both have that golden color and that golden energy. Bringing in the light.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:24:43] Yeah, I’m really holding that.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:24:45] The other group of essences that makes a lot of sense to me in this context of breaking up that stagnation are the Maples. They have a really good ability to– they’ve been affiliated on some level with depression because I think they have that ability to break that stagnation, to create that upward and outward movement that allows that energy to flow naturally as it ought. And it’s really interesting looking at it through the lens of the botanical family because they are part of the Sapindaceae, as are the Chestnuts. The White Chestnut, the Red Chestnut and the Chestnut Bud and Maples are in the same family. It’s pretty interesting how there’s that kind of natural wood-earth quality that comes together in those in that family.

Rochana Felde: [00:25:40] I hardly ever use Maples. It’s really interesting. And I know you have at least one, maybe more in your Flora of Asia line. Is that right?

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:25:50] Yeah, I have one. And they’ve been really calling to me in the last few years and I want to work with that family more because I think it has a lot more to offer.

Rochana Felde: [00:26:02] And for me, I’d love to work with the Bigleaf Maple that grows prolifically around here, but I really haven’t had the chance yet. But I know that it has a lot to say and it’s got quite a big energy. The leaves on it are absolutely huge, so it’ll be really interesting to compare that with the rest of that family and I didn’t really even realize it was in the Chestnut family.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:26:26] It’s so cool. It’s like the plants are talking to us all the time and they’re always saying, I mean, think about that, especially when you were bringing forward Dandelion because here I’m in the New York side of the world and there’s Dandelions everywhere, and it’s such a archetypal remedy for the city and for that hustle and bustle and for that tension and that ambition and that stress that comes with just the everyday grind and the hardness that comes that is inviting or wanting to be transformed through Dandelion which grows so prolifically here.

Rochana Felde: [00:27:04] I think it grows prolifically everywhere.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:27:07] Is it [crosstalk]?

Rochana Felde: [00:27:08] I mean, here too. And it’s probably the reason they created Roundup is probably for that weed especially, which is why I love it even more because it just persists and you can’t stop it.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:27:27] Right. Can’t stop, won’t stop.

Rochana Felde: [00:27:32] It’s got such a life force. 

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:27:36] Yeah. So that brings us to Fire. So the cycle of the elements in Chinese medicine is water, wood, fire. And Fire is anxiety is when we think about fire being out in a radial forest like fireworks. So it’s this natural ability to expand through the heart center. And so the anxiety of the Fire element shows up for me when I see someone that’s suffering from disconnection, isolation. Certainly, heartbreak shows up in this spectrum of anxiety where– well, there’s actually two expressions that I see. One is from that heartbreak side, which is more of a deficient fire, where it’s like that expansive quality of the heart feels blocked or inaccessible. And the other is when there’s just too much of that, too much fire, too much excitement, too much activity where a person actually gets a little burnt out from extending so much of their life for us. So those two sides of anxiety show up a lot at my clinic. And so the one that really works well as a mediator for both of those expressions I find is Star of Bethlehem. And I think about in Chinese medicine, we talk a lot about the Shen, which is the the light of the spirit that lives in the heart and how when we’re disassociated, when we’re disembodied, when we’re disoriented, it’s because we’re not in connection with our Shen. And so I think of Star of Bethlehem as being the flower that really brings the Shen back into the heart, it brings that reconnection with our inner compass so that we can feel grounded, so that we can feel in alignment. I relate Star of Bethlehem to what we call in the African spiritual traditions as the Ori, which is like your guiding head, your guiding post, your guiding light, and so the Star of Bethlehem being really the flower that brings you back into that alignment of spirit and heart and body so that you can walk your path on this earth.

Rochana Felde: [00:29:45] With an overabundance of fire, that’s the classic Pitta imbalance. And that can show as just being quick to anger or to react to exactly as you described in the same way with getting just an overabundance, just being too fiery and it’s just an imbalance and it can cause this overuse of the mental forces. It can cause a domineering or dominating personality. And that really speaks to me with the Vervain flower essence, the Bach Vervain. I think that’s a perfect one, but then also essences like Aquamarine to just bring that cooling, calming, watery element back into it and Aloe for also bringing in that watery nourishment and that soothing quality of Aloe especially for that overuse of the mental forces. And so that’s a couple that come to my mind for the overabundance of fire.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:31:10] Yeah. I love that Aloe. I use a lot actually because that burnout can be so real and Aloe just comes and just really soothes and nourishes and calms the fire. It calms that fire. I also was thinking Indian Pink is one that I use a lot because it’s such a fiery flower when you look at it, but it really brings that calm in the middle of the storm, which when we’re in that Fire element mode, we can be a little scattered and disoriented. And the Indian Pink just brings us right back to a cool center.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:31:51] And when we’re talking about that over-expansive of the heart center, over-expansive of the fire center, that we need to kind of come back into our center and balance that fire, I really think of the Lamiaceae family for this. We have those wonderful herbs that are such great tonics like Rosemary that really has that nerve-soothing quality, helps you come back into your center, helps you reinhabit your body. Because when we have so much fire, we sort of explode out of our bodies and we’re no longer still and quiet and present within. And the Rosemary can help remind us of like, no, no feet in the ground, back in your center, back in your belly, back in your being. And Lavender, it’s in that family. And we use it so much in many other ways. But as an essence, it’s so good for that excessive fire that’s burning out your center.

Rochana Felde: [00:33:02] It’s funny because when you say Rosemary and I never would have thought about that because my herbal training comes in. I’m like, “No, it’s too heating, it’s too stimulating. Not for Pitta.” But it actually herbally, it helps circulation. So I could see that energetically helping to move it out exactly as you’re talking, as you’re saying that. I just wouldn’t have automatically gone to that. But you’re also mentioning Lamiaceae, which is also where a lot of the nervines in herbalism come from. And the Motherwort and the Sages, the Mint families, there’s a lot of herbs that are used in that family. And what am I thinking of? Is it Wood Betony? Yeah, they’re not coming to me. But all of those are cooling in nature herbally. And so again, the herbs that are cooling are helping to calm that nervous tension. They’re helping to cool that mental heat and get it out of the head. So it all seems to work. That’s what I love about the plants.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:34:23] And I love that it’s not like a one-size-fits-all all kind of thing because it’s like there’s fire that is deficient and there’s just not enough heat and then there’s fire that it’s too much. And even as we’re talking about it, it just really is expanding– I love formula design and this is really expanding what might be possible, what I might bring in to a formula about anxiety if I’m really present to the energetics that the person has in front of me, it might lead me to different essences that again, if you look up anxiety, you might see one list of 50,000 essences and now we’re bringing in some others that might be at the energetic underpinning of what we’re seeing presented to us in the treatment room.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:35:08] It’s really intriguing the way that you design formulas. And I’m assuming,  guessing that part of your thought process is from the way that traditional formulas in Chinese or East Asian medicine are designed where they have different herbs having roles essentially, having places in the formula that guide and direct the formula. And I think of my formulas as well where I’m thinking of almost plant families, this one works in the realm of this particular organ or this particular element and balancing out some of these essences and the roles because I think a lot of us when we get started and not necessarily somebody who’s starting from your background, but a lot of people who get interested in essences, they want the essence that does the thing. In our minds, we’re always looking for that heroic essentially from a Western herbalism approach like, I want to just power that thing out. And this is coming from much more of a balanced approach where we want to support and contain and direct and hold the whole thing together rather than  blast something out of the way in order to create a vacuum for something else to come, which is not great.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:36:29] I do and I teach a formula design class where we look at the roles similar to Chinese medicine, but in my work, we call them the Mamas, the Allies, the Elders, the Heartbeat. So everyone is playing a role. And so you might start with “anxiety” as the main thing you’re working on in air quotes. But how do you build a network of support around this one thing, right? And it’s not just when you first get started with flower essences, I was guilty of it because you go through the book and all of them look wonderful. So you end up having a formula with 50 flower essences in them because you can’t really narrow it down. And these strategies help us to really say, okay, what is the actual relationship between these flowers and how is one supporting another? How is one adding something that aligns with what this flower is offering, but maybe brings us a little bit deeper? So I may be working with White Chestnut for overthinking, but now I’m also noticing that there’s a really big fear pattern here, so I’m going to bring in all of these other supports to kind of shore up that White Chestnut.

So we talked a little bit about Earth. And I wanted to just add in two of my other favorite Earth element pictures because when I think of the Earth element, I think about this idea of sympathetic resonance and the archetype of the mother and the caretaker and how we can feel each other’s feels, which I attribute to hyper empathy. So in addition to overthinking with the Earth element, sometimes we’re overthinking or overfeeling someone else’s thoughts and feelings and so, guilty, raising my hands. And so I love to bring in Red Chestnut and Pink Yarrow to create this filter around the heart that allows us to discern where our heart forces are being poured out of maybe inappropriately. So am I picking up because everybody else on the train is anxious? Now I’m feeling anxious because I’m sitting next to them and we are in a shared, energetic field, which is what the Earth element is about. But the downside of that is that we can pick up on things that really don’t belong to us. So I use Pink Yarrow as a bit of a emotional umbrella to keep out what doesn’t really belong to me without numbing my sensitivity. And then I use Red Chestnut. This is my favorite. I’m actually working with both of these flower essences right now as my daughter starts school and I find myself really preoccupied with, what is she doing? What period is she in? Is her teacher nice? Are her friends nice? And all of that is just getting in the way of me doing what I’m actually supposed to be doing during the day. And so Red Chestnut is the flower essence that I bring in for this aspect of the Earth element where we’re over-considering and over-worrying about the welfare of someone else that really already has it together or they have their supports as well.

Rochana Felde: [00:39:39] We’re big fans of Pink Yarrow. Talk about it all the time. Yeah, that’s definitely a go-to for the hyper empath or the uncontrolled empath as some people like to call it. I also love to bring in some gem essences when I use that. And Black Tourmaline is a really common one. And Black Tourmaline helps to move that out of the body. Once you have absorbed what you don’t need, what’s not yours, Black Tourmaline can help move that out and replace it with just a clear, clean energy. And Hematite is another one I just like to use as a mirror to just even have extra protection to bounce away other people’s energy.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:40:31] I love that.

Rochana Felde: [00:40:32] Do we want to move on to the next element?

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:40:35] Metal? So metal, the core, emotion is grief and it dissolves energy. It helps us, I give the example of like when you cry your eyes out and then you’re like, I need a nap because I’ve just dissipated all of my Qi and my lifeforce and metal is really that energy of going from something material to immaterial, going from substance to spirit. And so that transformation, when we let go of something that’s temporal, is the emotion of grief. And so I think of the anxiety of letting go, the anxiety that can be coupled with grief of not having enough, feeling alone or deserted. And so my favorite essence for the Metal element picture of anxiety is Angelica because it brings that source, that sense of protection, that sense of like even when something transitions to another realm, it’s still available to us as a guide and as a support. And it brings back in that realization that this is one dimension of reality, and we are in constant conversation with the invisible and the invisible world, whether that’s through ancestors, spirit guides, nature herself. Angelica opens up that sense of protection and alliance, right, that we’re not out here by ourselves, even when it feels that way.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:42:07] Yeah, the fall energy is just, for me, I really feel when the light just shifts, there’s at that moment in the year where there’s a definite change in my experience and it just feels so sad. I feel really just overtaken by grief. And for a long time I thought, what’s wrong with me? There’s nothing maybe specifically to grieve, but it really is that energy of the season. It’s that energy of watching the leaves drop. Just that wistful, I wish we still were in summer. I wish and yet we’re not. And at some level you have to open your hands and allow it to flow through and keep what needs to be kept and keep the spirit and the memories, but let the physical go. The energetic of that is such, it’s so Honeysuckle to turn your face towards the future, to turn your gaze and your heart towards the future because it is really hard to let go, especially those who’ve had disrupted bondings where it’s very hard to not keep that grip. And I’m a full-on Red Chestnut person myself. It’s so much part of my regular drift. So, yeah. But I’ve been exploring the Honeysuckle quite a bit in this last season to feel that release.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:43:48] I think of the Sagebrush with that ability to let go of what’s non-essential but to hold on to the essence of something. I think Sagebrush is a really beautiful ally during that time of releasing and letting go and not really hoarding and holding on to something that’s time has passed. I think that’s a really big lesson for the fall season. It’s like the leaf that won’t fall from the tree is actually not within the right cycle of life. And so just that ability to allow things to let go, things to leave, but like you said, with Honeysuckle, but to be able to turn to what’s coming and what’s essential as opposed to holding on to what’s time has passed.

Rochana Felde: [00:44:40] Nature shows the way the deciduous trees, the trees that lose their leaves, I mean, they are modeling for us how to let go, how to learn to let go, how to– I think that’s why we start to feel this grief. We are seeing the decay and the end cycle, the down cycle of life, and it reminds us of our own mortality. It reminds us of our own down cycle and how we will all come to that end here on this planet. It’s not something we like to talk about in this culture or think about. So even just that subtle hint of the annual plants dying, the trees, leaves getting brown and falling to the ground, they’re showing us what’s happening and we’re feeling it so much, especially us empathic types. And we may not even understand why it’s making us sad, but I think that’s it. It’s just getting us in that core place of facing a little bit of our own mortality and the mortality of everything around us.

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Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:46:01] And really that awareness of the mortality and the temporal nature of things also has the capacity to awaken our sense of the sacred preciousness of life. And that’s another gift of the Metal element of how do we honor life and hold it as sacred and precious because it’s time bound, right? And so I think about Hound’s-tongue comes up for me a lot. Star Tulip, even just that sensitivity to spirit and the essence of things are both flower essences that I think really capture that aspect of metal. And also one of my favorites, which feels a little unconventional, but Iris, there’s something about Iris that allows us to really see the beauty of things and really see the beauty of life and to really be able to hold it in our consciousness while it’s here.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:47:03] Thank you. I’m really glad that you chose to spend this little slice of your life with us, of this time with us as we contemplate the shift of seasons, as we all reach for support from nature, from the elements to help us navigate this world, navigate life. I know that you’ve got so much going on. In the fall, a lot of us are– those of us who teach are spending a lot of time and energy getting ready for new courses. What do you have coming up? We’d like to hear.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:47:37] Well, one of my favorite courses that will be starting in October is the In Our Element class. And this class is a class that actually was the basis and the foundation for my book, In Our Element. But it’s a nine-month journey through the seasons. And so we move through each of the five elements. We learn about the emotional signatures, we learn about key flower essences that are aligned with those elements. We learn acupressure, yoga poses. It’s just a full soul medicine immersion in each of these five elements so that we can really embody them and see what these elements look like in our lives and in our clients and in our friends and family. And it’s one of my favorite classes to teach. It’s open to beginners. It’s open to established practitioners. And it’s almost like a full-term pregnancy. We start in October, we go all the way into early June, traveling through each of these elements and getting to know them in a really intimate, embodied way, and then of course, learning the flower essences that align with them. So that’ll be starting up in October. And then, of course, on the Spirit Seed website, our full certification program and all of our open-level flower essence classes are listed, including our partnered class on the botanical family. So it’s really exciting all of the things that are happening, how the community is growing. We have a few student presentations coming up that are also on the website, so I invite folks to check us out and see where they get in, where they fit in.

Rochana Felde: [00:49:15] That’s beautiful. And it’s like, yes, what else are you offering? You have so much to offer and it’s wonderful that you are putting that out into the world. So definitely check out. Is that thespiritseed.com?

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:49:33] Thespiritseed.org.

Rochana Felde: [00:49:36] Oh, dot org. Sorry.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:49:38] You can find us at thespiritseed.org.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:49:42] And if you have a parting thought for the listeners of the podcast and I’m waving, hi, all you listeners, we are so glad that you choose to spend time with us. It is so meaningful and we love to hear from you. We’d love to hear from our patrons because they help support this podcast. We really appreciate you all and we just love to hear on the socials and whatnot what your thoughts are. We tend to hear things second-hand and sideways, but boy,  you can always reach out and speak to us. We love to hear from you what your thoughts are and maybe some essences that we didn’t think of or we didn’t talk about that are your favorite essences. So, Lindsay, if you have a final little parting thought, we’d love to make a space for that.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:50:33] Well, I love what you said about inviting listeners to share their favorite essences, especially as it relates to the elements. I’m always really interested in what students bring in and the different ways of being with each of these essences and what they reflect. And I think my parting thought is just this affirmation of nature knows, nature is guiding us. The flower essences, they know things, the seasons know things. It’s, we live in this sentient world and just really honoring where we can be receptive, where we can be humble to that wisdom that nature shares for us.

Rochana Felde: [00:51:14] Thank you so much.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:51:16] Thanks, Lindsay. Thanks for being with us.

Lindsay Fauntleroy: [00:51:19] So much.

Rochana Felde: [00:51:19] Bye-bye.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:51:24] This podcast is meant for educational and entertainment purposes only. We are not physicians and do not diagnose, prescribe, or treat medical conditions. Please consult with your own physician or healthcare practitioner regarding the suggestions and recommendations made by the hosts and guests of The Flower Essence Podcast.