Show Notes:

This episode is an excerpt from an upcoming course we’re working on, Foundations in Flower Essence Therapy, which will be available from the School for Flower Essence Studies in early fall 2024.  

We talk about the importance of using calming and centering essences when beginning to use essences for ourselves and others. It’s a really good first step, and sometimes all that’s needed. There are times we may want to skip over this and go right to essences that work with deeper challenges, but we’ve seen time and again the value of starting with calming and centering approaches to help the nervous system feel safer and more embodied.

We’d also like to let you know about something fun we’ve begun doing at the school for the last few months. Kathleen is hosting live community discussions online over zoom on a variety of flower essence topics. These events are free and give you the opportunity to be part of the conversation! They generally take place on the second Wednesday of the month at noon Pacific Time, and we post the replays on our Flower Essence Podcast YouTube channel. 

To get notified of these upcoming Live chats, go to FlowerEssenceStudies.com and sign up for the mailing list. We deeply appreciate our listeners and look forward to meeting and interacting with you when the opportunity arises.

Audio:

FEP68 Calming & Soothing the Nervous System

This episode is an excerpt from an upcoming course we’re working on, Foundations in Flower Essence Therapy, which will be available from the School for Flower Essence Studies in early fall 2024.   We talk about the importance of using calming and centering essences when beginning to use essences for ourselves and others.

Video:

Flower Essences discussed during the show:

• Star of Bethlehem – Healing Herbs
• Lavender – FES
• Chamomile – FES   
• Vervain – Healing Herbs
• Corn – FES
• Yarrow – FES
• Pink Yarrow – FES

Show Transcript

Rochana Felde: [00:00:41] Welcome, flower essence friends. Kathleen and I have been working on a new course called Foundations In Flower Essence Therapy, and we thought we would share some of it with you here. The following is an excerpt from the course, and it’s a segment describing the importance of using calming and centering essences when beginning to use essences for ourselves and others. It’s a really good first step and sometimes all that’s needed. There are times we may want to skip over this process and go right to essences that work with deeper challenges, but we’ve seen time and again the need to begin with calming and centering essences to help the nervous system feel safer and more embodied. This course will be released in early fall 2024, and we’ll let you know when it’s available. But in the meantime, enjoy this excerpt.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:01:37] We’re going to talk about them from the angle of where we see a lot of times the beginning phases of when we start working with people or animals, the things that are really, really important to establish before you can ever go any deeper or work with any other issues. Sometimes this is all somebody really needs, is they need a little help with their anxiety, they need to feel a little calmer, a little more grounded. And that’s really the whole issue. So you can do a lot of good work with these essences that we’re going to start talking to you and sharing with you right now.

And the beginning aspect is the nervous system and calming your nervous system because I feel that if you don’t have a calm nervous system and you can’t be comfortable in your own skin, there really is no well-being. There’s no way to establish well-being if you don’t have that set up as the beginning. So let’s talk about some essences that will help to ground, anchor, center your nervous system. Ro, you have some ideas on this too.

Rochana Felde: [00:02:44] Really we talk a lot about stress in our society and we all sort of know what it is, but it’s so pervasive that we don’t really know what to do with it. And when you think about what stress actually is and how it’s impacting the body, it’s really the response of the body to any demand. That’s what stress is. And so it’s not all bad. The demand that you’re getting can trigger a physical response or a psychological response or both. And when you get that initial demand, chemicals and adrenaline might release into your bloodstream and the body might have an increased heart rate or blood pressure, and that gets you ready to mobilize to fight or flee. Those are the ones that– that’s what your body is getting ready to do, and this has kept us alive in certain situations throughout our evolution. So it’s a really important response to have when warranted. The psychological piece of it is it activates your coping strategies. And if your coping strategies are successful, then that reaction, that fight-flight reaction is– and possible anxiety subsides. So then you’re done, and it’s okay and everything’s okay. And we go through these little things all day long every day.

The thing that is a problem is if the coping strategies fail and the stress continues, and then a range of manifestations might occur. And so we’re really focusing on creating a toolbox of things that can help us to deal with that, to help us to not fail in our ability physically and emotionally and psychologically to handle the stress that’s coming our way. And so let’s talk about some of the essences that can help us do that.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:04:56] And this is such a good place to start, with anybody you’re working with, whether it’s for yourself or for anyone else, is some of these calming, centering essences because I feel like it’s step one. If you can be relaxed and your nervous system be at ease, then all sorts of other areas can be accessed. But if not, the defenses are up and you can’t release other issues unless the body feels like it’s safe and it’s being protected in some way, like there’s some level of safety and then release can happen. So this is always a foundational piece.

I feel like Star of Bethlehem is just such an important essence. This is one of the Bach remedies and it has this character, it has this quality of just deeply calming and soothing and helping the individual come back to themselves. It works so beautifully on trauma, whether it’s a really recent or fresh shock or trauma or whether it’s something that’s very old from the historical experience of the individual. So whether it was something that happened to you when you were an infant or whether it’s something that happened to you five minutes ago, the Star of Bethlehem essence can help really soothe, ease, smooth out the nervous system, and help you come back to a sense of self rather than, like you were talking about, these nervous system states of fight, flight, freeze that is like a shock to the nervous system, and helping you come back into yourself where you can think and you can be present and you can breathe, this is very much the Star of Bethlehem characteristic.

Rochana Felde: [00:06:51] I think of Star of Bethlehem as a guiding light that helps bring you back home. So that concept of when you have a shock and you sort of maybe even leave your body for a second, you’re just like ejected because something startled you or really shook you. And the energy of that essence, it is a light, it’s a beacon, and it calls you back into your body.

I’d love to add Lavender into this conversation for a variety of reasons. One thing is that everybody knows about Lavender pretty much. I mean, even if you’re not studying plant medicine at all, most people know a little bit about Lavender. It’s scented in so many things, in soaps and body care products, and understand that that smell is calming. Now, flower essences don’t have a smell obviously, but the energy of it is also in the essence. And as an herb, it’s a nervine, and it does that, it has that relaxing energy for the nervous system. So what I love about Lavender and explaining it to people is it really also highlights the difference between an herb, an essential oil, and a flower essence. And you can see all of the ways that that can manifest in these different plant medicines. The herb acts on that physical system. The scent acts in the olfactory system and the essence acts on our energetic system. And so when you’re feeling depleted and you have that tension, especially in the mind, in the head, the Lavender can come in and help to calm the mind and the emotions, to restore peace, and help us reconnect with our spiritual self. The real indication is when you feel it, when you have headaches a lot, you feel the tension in your face and your jaw and your neck, you feel that constricted feeling that stress brings. And so that to me is the indication for Lavender, any kind of high nervous energy, high wire, overstimulation state. And Lavender is a beautiful flower essence to bring in. It really is so helpful for so many challenges.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:09:45] What you’re describing from a Chinese medicine perspective, the Lavender working on Liver Qi. And when the Liver Qi gets stagnant, when it’s not able to flow, when your life force and direction and what you’re trying to do in the world are thwarted, or for a variety of other issues, the Qi gets stagnant, and so you tend to get the neck pain, you get the high shoulders, you tend to sort of be tense and tight and clenched, that’s where Lavender comes in, is it helps to smooth out that Qi, it helps to ease that process of helping you release the tension, release the clenching, release that inability to sleep because insomnia is part of that pattern as well. So you can see it coming from a number of different perspectives. We’re all talking about the same thing, and Lavender is a great ally. It’s also just really gentle. It’s just really a sweet essence, and most people really enjoy having that energy in their formulas to help smooth out everything, smooth out the nerves, calm down the emotions as well.

An essence that’s also equally gentle and calming is Chamomile, and one more that we often use as an herb, as the tea. And Chamomile is such a beautiful, sweet flower essence that helps with a very similar, I think, state to what the herb works with, where it’s the emotional digestive upset sort of overwrought-ness that Chamomile can help calm and soothe. The essence also works in a very similar way, where it helps to ease that aggravation, the inability to digest circumstances. Now we’re not talking about physical digestion, but about digesting experiences and digesting what’s happened, and to be able to find a place to put it and figure out how to process that and move that through. And Chamomile helps to restore that cheerfulness. That where we can feel really overwhelmed or depressed by things, the Chamomile helps to smooth and cool and calm and help you digest life experiences. Is that how you use it as well?

Rochana Felde: [00:12:08] Yeah, I feel like a really good indication for Chamomile is irritability and the tension in the stomach. So we talked about Lavender with the tension in the head and Chamomile being that tension in the stomach. And that’s a good indicator to say that Chamomile might be the flower essence for this kind of stress. And that irritability, like a short temper, being easily worked up and reactive, and then having difficulty calming down again, and Chamomile comes in.

And again, this is another really widely used herb that most people are familiar with and drinking Chamomile tea, it is so good for that. I mean, I love my nightly Chamomile tea, and it also has a scent and works with the olfactory system as well. So the herbalist Matthew Wood likes to call it the remedy for babies of all ages. And I always think about that and remember that we don’t have to be two years old to have a temper tantrum. We all go through times where we just are really upset that things aren’t going our way. And to counter that and soften that strong mood swing or extreme emotional reaction, there’s a sweetness to this plant that just lets you let it go.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:13:52] It’s such a good one. I feel like Vervain can come in at this point. Vervain is one that I don’t usually think of as a primary stress essence. It’s more, to my mind, a constitutional type of essence. So when I encounter somebody who has a Type A sort of personality where they are very focused and very driven, I think of these people as being the border collies of the human world, where they’re just trying to make sure that everything’s– and you just get really intense and really focused and really frustrated when thwarted. And Vervain helps to calm that down, helps you to be able to take a wider view. Because when you’re in the Vervain mode, your focus narrows down to what’s exactly in front of you, and it needs to be going the way that you want it to go. And that is a nervous system state that is not coherent with relaxation. So Vervain, I find, helps to calm down that cycle of, it needs to be exactly this way. Helps you step back, take a little breath, and to look a little wider and go, mm, yeah, it’s not exactly the way I want it, but it’s okay, we’re going in the right direction. It’s okay to take a beat, take a breath, and to let this unfold in the time that it needs to unfold. Vervain is such a good essence for, it’s kind of a 21st-century kind of a vibe. All of us are expected to be Type A type personalities, we’re all supposed to be on point and crushing our goals and doing all the things all the time. It’s not really a good way to live. And Vervain can help us to counter that dynamic of the culture telling us what we should be doing.

Rochana Felde: [00:15:44] Yeah, I agree, especially with that last part, because I don’t really think of Vervain as for just Type A’s. I think of it as, our culture has kind of turned us all into that. And maybe not in all scenarios, maybe not in all subjects, but if you think about just the internet, and having arguments online, that happens so easily in groups, and it devolves quickly into trying to make somebody else see your point. And that is a Vervain challenge. So the constitutional Vervain person might do that with everything all the time, but I think we all can get sucked into that energy because that energy is so pervasive.

And then also with marketing and selling and sales, of course, we’re all faced with it coming in at us, but what I see is we’re all turning into those salespeople. Our younger generations or the influencer scenario where people are creating content but quickly are wanting to monetize and quickly basically becoming salespeople for products, really quickly and really young. And I’m seeing it happen younger and younger and younger, and it’s an interesting societal thing that is happening. When you think about a 12-year-old creating a reel in order to sell a product, this is not something that the younger age groups used to think about or have to deal with. And how is that going to affect us and our integrity as we get older and grow into life? And it all boils down to trying to convince somebody else of your opinion, or to do something, or to buy something, or whatever it is. And it seems to be getting more and more intense. So I feel like Vervain really has a place for a really broader use than maybe Doctor Bach envisioned it to be used for. And yeah, I feel like it could be an up-and-coming one that might be used more and more for this.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:18:25] It’s a great perspective. I really appreciate that you’re bringing that through because I think you’re really right that it is way more than an individual personality. It has become a cultural aspect.

Another essence that we can talk about that addresses the modern era, not that many people get to live on a farm and be out in nature all the time, Corn is such a valuable and important essence for all of us. I use this all the time. I certainly use it all the time when I’m working with animals who live in a city environment because they really need the help as much as anyone. But Corn gives us this ability to ground down in, to feel like we belong, and to feel a sense of self that we carry along with us, no matter how urbanized and noisy and chaotic the environment might be that we live in, work in, and walk around in. It helps us connect to our sense of verticality. The corn plant has these strong roots that allow it to grow up straight and tall, but it also interconnects with its culture and its community. So it gives us this touchstone of being able to connect in with those around us in a really authentic way so that we feel surrounded by community, and we also feel surrounded by the nature that truly is there beyond all the concrete and all the noise and the cars and everything else. Nature is always there. It’s a factor of being able to connect in with it.

Rochana Felde: [00:27:40] We hope you enjoyed that excerpt from our upcoming course, Foundations In Flower Essence Therapy which will be available from the School for Flower Essence Studies in early fall 2024. We’d also like to let you know about something fun we’ve been doing at the school for the last few months. Kathleen is hosting live community discussions online over Zoom on a variety of flower essence topics. These events are free and give you the opportunity to be part of the conversation. They generally take place on the second Wednesday of the month at noon Pacific Time, and we post the replays on our Flower Essence Podcast YouTube channel. To get notified of these upcoming live chats, go to floweressencestudies.com and sign up for the mailing list. We deeply appreciate our listeners and look forward to meeting and interacting with you when the opportunity arises. Bye-bye for now.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:28:51] 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.