As a flower essence practitioner I have worked with children and families for the past fourteen years. Flower essences are a form of natural healing that effect positive changes for families, initially within the realm of emotional issues. As flower essences heal and repair the finer energetic bodies, chi or life force begins to flow creating renewed vitality for the physical body.
Flower essences address a full spectrum of childhood issues. Tantrums, food allergies, bed wetting, and learning disabilities are a few of the things that improve with their use, and in many cases clear up completely.
The first thing that is important to consider is that children between the ages of birth and seven years imitate their parents. This mirroring is much like the process of making a flower essence; children are imprinting family patterns during these years as their physical bodies are being formed through the energetic imprint of life forces in their environment.
When you get well, your child gets well. This can be utterly frustrating since just when you are having difficulties your child also gets upset. Rather than having time to recover your own equilibrium you are called on to help your child.
The cauldron of parenthood requires you to polish your own mirror and as you do, to gaze honestly at the picture you see in front of you. Rather than sleep (a mother of young children always needs more sleep!) or retreat, your children, as your teachers, require you to remain awake and learn to witness the patterns they are showing you.
Having said the above in relation to your child’s imitative nature- ages birth to seven- there is another reason your child may be off balance or unhappy. If you polish your mirror, or honestly assess your own condition and find that you are balanced, it may be that your child is very sensitive.
Georg Kulhewind, the Hungarian philosopher and author, says in his book Star Children (Temple Lodge Press 2001): “As I checked in at the airport in Hamburg a young couple was in front of me, and the mother had a three-to-four month old baby in her arms. All of a sudden the baby turned around and looked at me. He looked me straight in the eye, and I was deeply shaken; for that was not the look of a look of a baby but of a very self-aware adult, a wise one, and he appeared to see right through me.”
In working with children of heightened self-awareness it is important to recognise who they are. An initial challenge for you may be to understand how your child is different from how you were as a child.
Reading as much as you can about how children these days differ will greatly reassure and calm your child as you learn new ways to be with her. Providing a supportive and understanding environment for her is the first thing she may need from you for graceful unfolding of her purpose in being here.
I recommend flower essences for young children that are simple floral tones.
The following are some of my favourites that I make for use with little children: Camellia, King Protea, Strawberry, Iris, Hollyhock, Wisteria, Shasta Wild Rose, Blue Lotus, Cecil Brunner Rosebud, Passionflower and Magnolia.
Other flower essences that I find work well with this age group are: Angelica, Buttercup, Chamomile, Fairy Lantern, Lavender, Cherry Plum, Violet, Peach and Pink Lotus.
I have used photo cards for years with children and teens as a way for them to choose the flower essences they like and feel they need.
If your local health food store carries flower essences, you might start of collection of them, buying one a week as a special treat for your family. Once you have a collection of them- go online or search through magazines for photos of these flowers. Laminate these pictures as cards or simply put them in a photo album.
When your child feels blue or cranky—bring out the “flower book” for her to look at. Ask her which flower she likes the best on this day.
Giving her a few drops of the essence in a glass of juice or water may surprise you with its beneficial results. Sensitivity can be a good thing too; your child’s ability to know what she may need herself can be very useful when you need help her feel better.
While it is my experience that children are often able to sense an essence they need by viewing floral pictures, if your child declines this method, trust in the process, and give her one that best describes her feelings from a written description of the essence.
Working with flower essences is an adventure, and bringing the messages from flowers into your life is a wonderful way to experience renewed harmony and increased vitality. Like “saying it with flowers” when you send someone a floral bouquet- essences are a way of infusing your day with fragrance and beauty.
If you choose flower essences as a way to help your child, using them for yourself at the same time will free your child to enjoy the positive patterns her flower essences are also bringing to her.
Deborah Craydon CFEP is the co-author of Floral Acupuncture, Applying the Flower Essences of Dr. Bach to Acupuncture Sites.
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