Bach Essences to support New Year resolutions and other goals
Our resolve is firm, we proudly write down our long list of resolutions for the coming year. Day 1 goes well; on day 2 we go back to work and get sucked into the Hamster wheel that is life, and before we know it, our well-intentioned list is just that: a list in a notebook without action, without shape, and never realised.
Writing things down, building a vision board, writing our goals in a prominent and visible-every-day place all helps, but sometimes the sway of other people or even the voice in our head (telling us that we can’t do such-and-such) is so strong that it’s all too easy to give up and stay within the familiar.
Bach Flower Essences are wonderful for helping us to fulfil our dreams. Here is just a small selection of essences which may help you as you try to make changes in the months ahead.
** Wild Oat - this is actually for when we don’t know what we want to do. We might know that we want a change but have no idea what. This essence is known as the “Compass” and helps to give us direction in our life, often towards a more fulfilling career or relationship, but definitely along the path on which we are meant to be travelling.
** Walnut – this is known as the “Link-Breaker”. It is for when we know what we want to do (unlike Wild Oat). This is particularly useful for when we want to break old habits as it helps us to stay true to ourselves and protect us from outside influences during times of change. Maybe we have decided to eat more healthily or to give up smoking? Sadly when we make a change ourselves for the better, it isn’t always well received by family and friends. Often it highlights things which they know they should do themselves but would rather not look at, and where you would hope for encouragement, instead you can get quite the opposite, and it’s all too easy then to fall back into old habits. Walnut can help you stick to your guns.
** Centaury is a good one to take if we find it difficult to say “No” to others, maybe because we want to be liked or don’t want to offend, or maybe out of duty. It helps us to stand up for ourselves and our needs. Suppose we are trying to lose weight and some kindly friend tries to persuade us to have their homemade chocolate cake. We’ve done so well so far and don’t want to ruin all the hard work, but we are being pulled into what our friend wants. Centaury helps us get in touch with what we want, helps us express it and gives us the strength to be our own person, and if not eating the cake serves our purpose, then we can refuse nicely but firmly!!
** Larch. Often when we suffer with poor self-confidence or self-esteem, we don’t attempt anything new as we expect failure. Larch gives us the confidence in our ability and also to try new things, but if we don’t do so well or perhaps don’t pick things up as quickly as we’d hope, rather than get despondent, we take it in our stride and see it as a valuable experience. After all there is no such thing as failure when we have tried our best.
** Gentian is a good one if we are easily discouraged. Perhaps we are trying to lose weight, but over the weekend we had a wedding to attend and our good intentions went out of the window. Perhaps in our new exercise regime we strained a muscle which means we have to rest for a week. Rather than give up, we can be encouraged to try again.
** Clematis is for grounding our dreams. If we are prone to daydreaming about what we will do in the coming year, but nothing comes to fruition, it may be because we are not getting down to the nitty-gritty of actually doing anything!! Dreaming of being a size 10 sadly doesn’t make it so. We need to make changes to our diet and lifestyle!! Enter Clematis, which puts our feet firmly on planet Earth, and helps us to do something to achieve our dreams.
** Vervain is for when (very un-Clematis-like) we go at something like a bull in a china shop. We breathe, eat, and sleep whatever our new-found passion is, to the exclusion of other things. Vervain helps us to relax and take things at a sensible pace.
** Rock Water is a useful one when we are being too hard on ourselves. Similar to Vervain, but in this case we have taken things to extremes, and with it removed the fun out of life. We find ourselves meditating for 3 hours at a time and pass by opportunities to go out with friends because of it; or perhaps getting up an hour or two earlier each morning to fit in a “cannot be missed” run, in all weathers, and end up sleep-deprived. Rock Water helps to soften us and our approach to life. We can embrace change without making life a misery!!
Would you like to learn more? Tune into my "Introduction to Bach Flower Essences" Webinar on 19th February. To register - go to my 2014 Calendar page.
Here’s to a HAPPY, HEALTHY, FULFILLING and VIBRANT New Year
