Flower Power
Flower essences for the winter months. By Saskia Marjoram
Once the chaos and emotional turmoil of Christmas is over, we often feel completely drained and just want to hide under a blanket until the light and warmth returns.
It is in our animal nature to take time during the shorter days to rest, recover, and ruminate about what we need to let go of and what we want to grow — but how often do we take notice of our bodies and our true needs?
The plants, especially the trees, can be great friends in the winter months to show us how to settle and not feel like we’ve got to get straight up and on it with ‘New Year, New Me’ diets, exciting missions and lots of ideas.
As a flower essence producer and practitioner many people come to me who want essences to help give them more energy, a bit more zing and get up and go — especially if it’s after an illness where they feel like they are behind and want to catch up…although tempting to keep on keeping on, what they really need is proper recovery.
Fortunately, we have two very strengthening tree essences to help with that.
Oak Essence
This is the key flower essence for people who work past their limits, who don’t take time to rest, who are constantly on the go. Oak gently but firmly reminds us that ‘slow and steady wins the race’, that there is no rush, and that self-care is what is needed more than anything. The energy of this solid, grounded grandfather tree taken internally as a flower essence twice daily can really help you to gain perspective, change your pace to something that is much more realistic and still get you to where you want to go. It is one of the key essences in our best-selling Breathe Deep, Seek Peace blend which can help you sleep but is also very good at helping you let go and relaxing.
Olive Essence
For me, Olive is much more feminine than Oak and it can help us to know how strong we truly are, that we are never too old to keep bearing fruit but that we need to dig deep, stay grounded and find those old reserves of energy. It is solid and stabilising and very useful if you are recovering from an illness. Olive trees can live for thousands of years with very little nourishment and water but still they keep growing, still they produce nourishing olives. When you take Olive flower essence internally (or any flower essence) all of the water in your body gets the message that the plant has for you and your whole system responds accordingly.
Winter is a great time to take flower essences to help shift old patterns that are no longer needed, to bring us back to our true selves so that, and when Spring eventually comes, we can move into a future that feels aligned to our true selves. A personal blend is often a good place to start as these can go deep into our pasts and release everything that we no longer need.
I’m always more than happy to advise on how you can get the best blend of essences for yourself or you can find another flower essence practitioner to guide you.
Saskia Marjoram is secretary of the British Association of Flower Essence Producers and has been working with plants in various guises her whole life. She is always happy to answer questions and you can find out more about her award-winning flower essence range at: saskiasfloweressences.com
