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Holistic Living
Flower Essences and Your Sleeping Patterns
by Nirmala Nataraj
Opting out of the league of the sleep-deprived is often easier said than done. Approximately 32 million Americans suffer from insomnia, which can be attributed to everything from light pollution to the kind of urban and suburban white noise that snakes its way into our dreams, leaving an indelible impression on our circadian rhythms. Thankfully, getting some shut-eye needn’t involve asking your doctor for an ultra-strength Xanax prescription—or even moving to a remote location where your only nighttime soundtrack is a cricket sonata. In fact, the answer to your problems might be as simple as flowers.
Aside from bringing a smile to your face and a fresh aroma to any musty old room, connecting to the earth element through flowers generally has a bevy of benefits in tow. These include deep breathing, improved recall (our sense of smell goes straight to the limbic system, the part of the brain that controls memory), and oxygenation to the body. Additionally, flowers are a rapid mood enhancer. A recent Harvard University study revealed that the simple act of stopping to smell the roses makes people feel less stressed and more compassionate toward others.
While inhaling flowers on a regular basis is a highly underrated way to improve your overall health, the advantages of using flower essences—dilute, unscented extracts of various types of flowers and plants—can be even more pronounced in treating insomnia and other sleep-related disorders. Flower essence remedies are made by leaving flowers out in the sun, diluting their extracted essence in water, and then preserving that essence in alcohol to make a mother tincture. This remedy is further diluted in spring water to make a solution that can be taken internally. The essences then work on the electrical system of the body through the same energetic medians used by acupuncturists.
A common misunderstanding is that flower essences are the same as essential oils. However, essential oils are highly aromatic, concentrated oils from leaves, flowers, grasses, fruits, and resins. They are typically used externally and work therapeutically through one’s sense of smell, which sends corresponding messages to the nervous system. Essential oils like lavender and clary sage can be used to relax the body and mind, and can also be used in combination with flower essences.
According to Jenny Pao—a San Francisco-based Quantum Energetics practitioner, flower essence practitioner, and owner of Nectar Essences—flower essences are powerful on a psycho-spiritual level because they include subtle infusions of the elements of ether and water. “The element of ether is the invisible energy extracted from the flowers, the invisible thread of vibrational healing that addresses the soul,” she says. “The element of water is also included. Like water, emotions are meant to flow. Flower essences are potions for your emotions, helping them flow and blossom.”
While the idea of vibrational healing may seem somewhat esoteric, science has continually demonstrated that a vibration in space has long-lasting effects. “Even if undetected, the effects of a tsunami can last for years, due to continuing vibrations. We can conclude that the living and vibrational energies of flowers do not cease to exist when separated from their flower and do create a ripple effect of changes,” affirms Katie Hess, a Phoenix-based organic alchemist and founder of Lotus Wei Organics. “When incorporated into the human electrical system of subtle vibrations, flower essences create a ripple effect of harmony and beauty.”
Understanding and unlocking the unique energy patterns of these potent extracts, which are similar to homeopathic remedies, is something that has been practiced through the ages. “Flower essences have been used for thousands of years, from Paracelsus collecting dew drops on flowers, to the aborigines of Australia, to the Himalayan yogis and meditation masters of Asia,” notes Hess.
While the healing quality of flower essences hails from time-tested wisdom, the first person to develop flower essence therapy was Dr. Edward Bach, an English physician (and founder of Bach Flower Remedies) who, disappointed with the limitations of western medicine, worked as a homeopathic practitioner and sought to find a holistic way of treating his patients that would not involve destroying or altering anything. Originally, Bach developed 38 Flower Remedies that he felt would correct all possible imbalances in the emotional and spiritual body, which would subsequently allow the physical body to return to a natural state of equilibrium. Since then, a slew of flower essence societies and practitioners have cropped up to provide guidance for people who, much like Bach, are frustrated by the “something is wrong with me” philosophy of contemporary western medicine.
“While pharmaceuticals seek to treat the symptom of trouble sleeping, flower essences especially seek to find the root of why there are sleep disturbances in the first place,” explains Hess. And while pharmaceuticals can result in long-term toxicity of the blood and organs, leading to future illness, “flower essences are the safest, most gentle form of natural medicine.”
On an ecological basis, using flower essence therapies makes a great deal of sense, considering that there is no harvesting involved. “With the exception of a couple of blossoms, flower essences are plentiful and inexpensive,” says Pao. “They don’t contain substances that alter the body. Instead, they alter our perception of life.”
While recent scientific studies have touted the positive effects of flowers on individuals’ wellbeing and psychological health, science hasn’t quite caught up to explain the mechanics of flower essences. At the same time, practitioners and people who have successfully used flower essences to treat an ailment are aware that you don’t need to see it to believe it. “X-rays, microwaves and wireless Internet are all technologies based on wave forms, energies, and vibrations that cannot be seen. The energies and wave forms emitted by plant life and flowers can’t be seen but certainly do exist with a wide range of specific functions and positive benefits for humankind,” says Hess.
Because flowers seek to reestablish the body and spirit’s natural balance, they can be especially beneficial for people with poor sleep patterns. “Recent studies affirm the role of flowers and flower essences in addressing sleep patterns. For instance, lavender is shown to assist in sleep, and neroli in depression. But there isn’t too much research on this because soul-based therapies are hard to measure,” Pao explains.
Pao also notes that popular sleep products generally contain herbal extracts of flowers, such as passionflower and chamomile. Also, flower essences associated with healthful sleep are very specific when it comes to enabling you to hit the sack in peace. Flower essences like bird of paradise assist in quieting the mind; dandelion works to relax the body’s muscles, while datura clears anxiety and a penchant for workaholism, allowing one to let go and feel a sense of comfort.
In terms of why people today are having difficulty with their sleeping patterns, both Pao and Hess believe that it goes back to our elemental connection with the earth, which has been disrupted “because we have lost connection with the basics of life,” says Pao. “Each day, people are facing their deepest fears, which are connected with the root chakra fears around safety. Flowers remove us from unhealthy clinging and attachment, and they help us blossom and grow—they give us medicine that uses the energies of the earth and also addresses the underlying emotional discord that prevents us from resting fully.”
The metaphor of a blossoming, changing flower is particularly apt, given the multifaceted nature of a flower’s healing qualities. Because flowers are so adaptable to their environment, the information and healing qualities they are capable of conferring also change. “Flowers are the antennae of the Earth. On Earth, as different challenges, diseases, and hardships arise, flowers are constantly refining and adjusting their qualities,” appreciates Hess. “The essence of a plant or flower is also a living, evolving phenomenon. Each plant and flower has qualities that beneficially affect human consciousness in diverse ways.”
Flower essences that can aid in restful sleep and sweet dreams:
White chestnut essence - (to quiet a restless mind; can be found in the Nectar Essences Sleep spray and Bach Rescue Sleep)
St. Germain essence - (for faith, light, and peace; can be found in Nectar Essences Sleep spray)
Bush iris - (can be found in Balance for the Mind drinking water)
Bach Rescue Sleep - (a sleep aid containing five of Dr. Bach’s Flower Remedies)
Calms Forte - (a homeopathic botanical remedy)
Balance for the Mind drinking water - (an Australian drinking water infused with flower remedies)
Floracopeia organic lavender essential oil - (a pure oil from an ecologically sustainable botanical medicine company)
Lotus Wei Quiet Mind - (a muscle-relaxing combination of flower essences including bird of paradise, datura, dandelion, and lotus)
Nectar Essences Sleep spray - (a spray with 11 flower essences, also containing sleep-inducing organic aromas of lavender, neroli, and jasmine)
Wei of Chocolate Inner Peace - (a “sleepytime” fair-trade dark chocolate that is infused with flower essences and lavender petal powder)
Yogi Tea Bedtime Tea - (contains valerian, St. John’s wort, chamomile, and passionflower)
For more information on flower essences, visit www.lotuswei.com and www.nectaressences.com.