Pet Loss Grief Support Animals in our Hearts Animal Communication Teresa Wagner

  • You should try to hear the name the Holy Ones have for things.
    People name everything according to the number of legs they have.
    The Holy Ones name them according to what they have inside. ~ Rumi

Flower Essences

A Partial List of Flower Essences for
Trauma, Crisis, and Acute Stress


Compiled by Teresa Wagner, M.S.

These essences are available from FES or Desert Alchemy as noted

FOR HELP IN THE MOMENT

Five Flower Formula (FES):

This remedy has the exact same ingredients as Rescue Remedy--Cherry Plum, Clematis, Impatiens, Rock Rose, and Star of Bethlehem--but with a much eaiser to use dropper, a lower price, and a much higher vibration.

IT IS FREE OF XYLITOL, a sweetening ingredient found in some Rescue Remedy products that is poisonous to dogs.

This essence brings calmness and stability in any time of physical, emotional, mental or spiritual distress. During moments of fear, pain or panic, it brings us back to center, to knowing we will be OK. In a stressful or critical situation, taking a few drops can be soothing and stabilizing. This fourmula is well known for the support it provides in dire emergencies (there are many stories, for instance, of these essences stabilizing severely injured animals, helping them stay alive until medical intervention is available or begins to work). These emergency formulas are also useful for the less dramatic but still very uncomfortable stressful moments of life. It helps bring the body and mind back to calm.

Star of Bethlehem (FES):
One of the essences in Five Flower Formula, it is a deeply restorative remedy, bringing calm, soothing, healing qualities, comfort and reassurance from the spiritual world. Can be especially helpful when we are in shock, or greatly overwhelmed.

FOR HELP IN THE MOMENT AND ON-GOING HELP AFTER A TRAUMATIC EVENT

Crisis Desert Emergency Formula (Desert Alchemy):
This is an extremely powerful and helpful formula to help through periods of great change and transition. During the moments of fear or panic, it brings calm. To support longer term change, it helps cultivate patience with the healing or growth process, helps us gently unfold to a situation so that we do not feel overwhelmed by it, brings courage, brings clarity and focus, and enhances our ability to manifest creative solutions. This wonderful essence helps us use the acute awareness that comes with crisis to further our understanding and acceptance of ourselves as our souls evolve.
Post Traumatic Stress Formula (FES):
This essence softens the debilitating effects of natural, very strong emotional responses to trauma and crisis. It can also be taken to help release the effects of past trauma. Sometimes, the pain of a past trauma in our lives can be re-triggered by another trauma occurring in the present. This essence also helps prevent suffering from the effects of trauma later, after the shock wears off. Symptoms of post traumatic stress can include recurrent nightmares, recurrent and intrusive distressing recollections of the trauma, flashback episodes, intense psychological distress at exposure to cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event, restricted range of feelings (i.e. blocking feelings), difficulty falling or staying asleep, irritability or outbursts of anger, difficulty concentrating, hyper vigilance and exaggerated startle response. This essence helps us cope with and heal the emotional and physical symptoms of exposure to trauma, and can begin to heal the effects of past trauma. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, taken by itself or in conjunction with Glassy Hyacinth.
Glassy Hyacinth (FES):
This essence has been used successfully to help both survivors and relief workers in war zones. For those who witness, directly or indirectly, abhorrent cruelty, violence, depravity or carnage, it restores strength and hope to the soul. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Because of the overwhelming and horrific nature of war and many other traumas, it’s normal to block our deepest feelings of response. But internalizing the horror of trauma can only be short term, it is bound to come back later as more complicated post traumatic stress. There is no escaping the need to process emotional pain. Glassy Hyacinth helps us do so with gentleness. It restores our equilibrium, heals our hearts so we can continue life inner peace. Effective taken by itself, with PTS Formula, or with Star of Bethlehem.
Borage (FES):
This essence helps us overcome feelings of depression and heavy-heartedness. Borage brings courage and a sense of upliftment and buoyancy. Though depression due to hardship in life is a natural state, a natural cycle of emotional life, Borage helps us to not get stuck in the weight of it, but to move through it more quickly.
Love Lies Bleeding (FES):
Helps us with profound feelings of melancholia and anguish, especially when the soul suffers privately and feels cut off from others. It also helps us find transpersonal meaning from pain and suffering.
Pink Yarrow (FES):
This is a classic essence for caregivers in crisis situation to provide emotional protection. For those of us who can be sponges for others’ energy, who are naturally empathic or sensitive, it helps us create appropriate emotional boundaries with others. It allows us to feel authentic compassion and connection with others (animals and people) without dysfunctional merging with, or taking on their pain or other energy.

How to Use Flower Essences for Yourself

How Much to Take, How Often and For How Long

Hold the essence or combination of essences in your hands. Imagine them as seeds being planted in the soul soil of your heart. Sense the secret and potential of the seed, the healing energy encoded into it. Breathe deeply. As you ingest the flower essence imagine this seed becoming moistened with the secretions of your heart, the dew of your tears, the waters of your feelings.

~Patricia Kaminski, FES Co Founder

  • Four drops, four times a day
  • Either directly in mouth from either stock or combination dosage bottle (dropper must not touch anything)
    OR
  • In bottle/glass of water; mist bottles; bath water; directly on skin; add to body creams
  • Duration: times for healing root cause issues: when see positive desired result plus times few mores weeks or month for stabilization
  • Change essences as new layers of healing emerge

Flower essences come in glass dropper bottles and are taken just a few drops at a time. Ideally, essences should be taken about four times per day.

Frequency of taking essences is extremely important to their effectiveness. Taking the essence just once a day may not make a difference in the situation you are attempting to heal. It is truly important to take them a few times each day. At the same time, more drops does not equate with greater effectiveness. Taking the whole bottle in a day or week will not heal the issue more quickly. It will merely be a waste of the essence, since only small quantities taken several times a day is all that is needed. The only exception to this is during a crisis or emergency, when taking essences every few minutes, every hour, etc. can ease the emotional burden and stress.

In addition, there is no possibility of "overdosing". Taking large doses of flower essences will not hurt an animal or human. If you accidentally spill an entire bottle of essences into a water bowl and they drink the whole thing, the only negative result of this is that you will have wasted a few dollars.

The duration of taking essences depends on the situation. Because flower essences are vibrational (i.e. they do not directly impact the functioning of the physical body as do drugs and herbs) there is no set protocol for duration. But there are a few important things to keep in mind regarding duration.

  • If you are giving essences for a short term situation, such as wanting some energetic support to feel confident and clear (vs. having stage fright and sounding inarticulate) for an upcoming presentation, you only need take the essences during your prep time and of course the day of the presentation.

  • If you are working with any long term, serious, or deep seated problem such as recurring depression or consistent negative feelings about your body image, I recommend taking the essences every day, a few times each day, until such time that you see significant change with the problem. This could be weeks or months depending on the complexity of the situation.

For deep seated problems, very often our healing occurs in layers. One area of our consciousness becomes crystal clear about this issue, then another layer comes up for healing. A typical indication of this is when we longer feel attracted to take the particular essence or combination of essences that have felt so helpful for a number of weeks. This is our signal that we no longer need or are being helped by those particular essences. It may be time to look within to determine what will best help us next.

Sometimes, the feelings and phases of a particular life problem or issue will change from day to day, week to week. For greatest benefit from the essences, re-select them to match your changing feelings and evolving process. There are many essences described in this site's list and hundreds more described in the books listed in the resource section for on-going future reference.

Be patient! They work powerfully, but more slowly than drugs

Even though some essences such as Five Flower Formula (this includes the same essences as Rescue Remedy) bring immediate relief and calm in crisis, please remember that overall flower essences are not drugs designed to mask symptoms. They are healers of root causes. Sometimes, it can take a number of weeks before we see any progress. Don’t give up.

After you see change or improvement, continue taking the flower essences for at least one more month, or longer if the issue is serious and long standing. This provides the energetic support needed to "seal in" or complete the healing offered from the flower essences for a particular issue.

There are No Contraindications

Flower essences are powerful but very gentle. Taking them will not in any way impact other medications. There are no foods, liquids, traditional medicines or holistic remedies that animals must avoid while taking flower essences.

How to Use Flower Essences for Yourself

Selecting Essences: What Do I Really Want Help With?

When seeking selection of flower essences for yourself you may want to spend time journaling, meditating or connecting with your spiritual guides to help you become as crystal clear as possible about what is in need of flower essence support. Consider the following questions:

  • What is the story of my pain or issue?
  • What are the facts about the discomfort/disharmony I want to balance? What hurts? For how long? What do I notice? Are there any ways I act or respond that are counterproductive or destructive?
  • What are the full range of feelings I have or have had regarding this issue/concern? What's the point of pain behind the issue? What hurts the most? What feelings consistently return?
  • What is the origin of this pain?
    • What, if any, are my memories of similar pain even if in very different contexts?
    • What beliefs have I created from these experiences and how do they impact me today?
  • In reflecting upon all of the above, what is the deepest level root cause energy of my issue that I know?

Asking such questions of ourselves with great loving kindness, nonjudgment and compassion increases intimacy with our own soul's wisdom. It is such intimacy, such self awareness, which is the stimulant if not the prerequisite for deep healing. Taking flower essences—or any other substance, or partaking in any healing process— without such awareness does not create healing. It merely numbs the pain of symptoms. Sometimes, of course, conscious symptom relief can help us build stability needed for further self understanding and deeper healing. But a steady diet of any healing substances or processes to merely numb pain takes us further from living in contentment from the wisdom of our own soul. Attempts toward healing without self awareness are often futile. The process of selecting flower essences, especially if on-going, is an experience of self awareness which in itself begins our intention of healing before we even begin to take the flower drops.

When we first hear about flower essences, we may feel the impulse to rush out and try as many as possible as soon as possible. But then, they would become only another thing we grasp for in our consumer-driven society. If we want to use flower essences truly wisely, we need to stop and reflect upon important questions.

~Patricia Kaminski

  1. Flower Essence Basics