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Thursday, March 3, 2011

Hoplessness, Despair and the Bach Flower Gorse


These are pretty intense times we are living in. It seems there are explanations for this intensity from every aspect of science and nature whether it's astrologers,climate change experts,psychics,geophysicists,psychologists or political science analysts that you're talking to.

It's also early March. In my part of the world that means we're starting to get a little tired of snow. Ice is no longer something to enjoy skating on, and hats and scarfs are making us all itchy! It rained last night, and then turned to "minus something or another degrees". Discouraging...

Knowing the possible reason for something, doesn't always help the situation, in my opinion. Sometimes the very reasons themselves can become overwhelming and contribute to the sense of despair. There is also a contagious nature to negative thoughts that keeps the cycle going. In small circles we often toss the same ideas around, grumble about the same issues, and spread that sense of hopelessness. When people get in a cycle of hopelessness, they often are not inspired to get out. Something needs to happen to break the cycle.

The Bach Flower essence Gorse can be helpful for extreme hopelessness and despair. It is indicated for people that really have given up the fight and feel there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Dr. Bach said Gorse could help "bring sunshine into their lives to drive the clouds away".

The Gorse flower grows in a community way, not as an individual flower. As a wild flower it tends to spread over fields that have been neglected. The flowers tend to bloom in early April and when they do it's as thought a bright yellow blanket has been spread out. It's hard to distinguish individual flowers from each other.

The need for Gorse can creep up slowly on a person. For people that have been physically unwell for a long time, they may start to feel condemned to the pain and they stop looking for answers and solutions. It's easy to just slip into a Gorse state without really thinking about it. The workload piles up, the problems just keep building, debts slowly rise, and you don't even realize you haven't seen your mailbox for 2 months because it's buried under the snow drift.

For this reason, it can be very hard to self diagnosis the need for Gorse. By the time you need Gorse, most people are only trying something in order to please their loved ones, not because they have any true hope for relief. It is definitely easier to see the need for Gorse in someone else.

The results however, can be both dramatic and steady. Gorse can help restore a sense of faith and hope despite the current situation. Once the cloud has lifted, people can often find themselves on the road to recovery, brighter, happier and better equipped to find the positive. And this feeling, like the Gorse flower, can spread. Others around you may respond to your positive outlook in similar ways. You may find yourself discussing the seed catalog!

Who knows, maybe there is a long awaited cheque in that "buried under" mailbox!

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