Flower essences can be a wonderful framework for viewing our life experiences.

Spirit-in-Nature is a finite set of 20 essences containing elevating qualities from their corresponding blossoms. Taking the remedies themselves is one way of working with them; “wearing your flower essence glasses” and using them in your language is another: That is so “Coconut,” or “He’s acting so “Fig” right now.

Kathy, a practitioner of Spirit-in-Nature Essences (photo, center, with daughter and granddaughter), recently wrote to me:

“Lila, you would love to eavesdrop on the ‘essence chatter’ that my daughters and I share from time to time as a 3-way phone conversation:

“Anna: ‘My jeans are too tight and I am so bummed!’

“Danu: ‘Are you taking Strawberry Essence?’

“‘No, but I’ve been eating a lot of strawberry yogurt! ‘”

If you can stay even-tempered when someone cuts you off on the freeway, you’re in the positive Cherry state. If you’re preparing to take your written driver’s license test and are actually enjoying studying all the nuances of parallel parking, speed limits, and changing lanes, you’re expressing strong Avocado qualities.

“Oh, that’s so sweet!” I know that, whenever I say this, I’m expressing the Date Essences‘ characteristic of tender sweetness. In other words, whatever state of mind you’re in, that’s what you’ll see in your environment and project outwardly through your magnetism.

“Wearing your flower essence glasses” is an entertaining exercise to sharpen your flower essence skills. It can also accomplish these goals: to act as a bridge that connects you to higher flows of energy (in sanskrit, called sattwic); to help to raise your awareness of the world around you; and to put you in touch with greater realities.

To develop a good memory, concentrate wholly on anything you do.

An avid fan of Avocado Essence, one of our customers who is already strong in the qualities of this remedy, writes:

“I can focus, especially on a project or a question. Also, by the way, it has occurred to me that one reason I did well in school was not because I am particularly intelligent, but because I loved taking tests!”

She also admits that she “loves being a student.” The Avocado buff’s joy in learning and challenging the mind is a strong indication of the presence of this essence within our own consciousness.

Avocado Essence is perfect for children of all ages before taking exams–it helps to make learning fun and removes the element of drudgery: “Mom, do I have to study?”

For pets and animals, this essence is wonderfully supportive for their training, especially for those pets who need to pay attention to the task at hand while in the presence of distractions, such as other animals or activities. It also helps animals who have received conflicting training in previous homes.

You could say that the need for Avocado Essence is expressed, basically, as a weak memory, which is caused by 2 things—lack of concentration; and the mental blocks people raise in rejection against some of life’s experiences.

As you use this essence, think of the softness of rich, ripe, green avocados. Their softness poses no hardness of challenge in the chewing. Affirm that you, too, pose no mental obstacles to life’s experiences.

“I’m taking a flower essence combination right now,” said one of my clients on the phone today, referring to an order from another company. “This formula tends to be overwhelming because I’m working on so many things at one time.” In fact, just listening to her response was overwhelming!

As mentioned in an earlier blog, flower essences affect us much like affirmations. Both flower essences and affirmations touch on deeper-than-conscious levels of our essential self. Yet how many affirmations can we say at one time and still remain focused?

Our office receives significant feedback from essence users similar to this woman’s experience. I’m reminded of the old Simon and Garfunkel Song, “Slow down, you move too fast.” According to people’s responses, combination formulas can be too much of a good thing—too intense and too fast. Paradoxically, although there may be an initial sense of energy moving from taking combinations— sometimes in an overwhelming way as mentioned earlier—people often report that it take longer to see substantial results, perhaps a full month.

In most cases, assimilating a single lesson at a time works best for people. The single, or serial, method of taking flower essences allows for greater mastery of the new information, that often manifests in the form of insights and realizations.

Isn’t it so that even one new perception contains many subtle facets? With every expansion in awareness, there can be much to digest.

If we hold the belief that one essence can only help us with one quality—Banana Essence only for humility or Rasberry Essence solely for kindness—then of course there is the tendency to want to take more than one at a time. This view can be limiting, however, and does not give the essences full credit for their overarching benefits.

In contrast, if we use one essence for one person at one time, it then becomes easier to grasp their subtle influences.

And is “more” really better anyway, or is it just—more?

The phone conversation with my client ended on a lighter note. We talked about how a flower essence can also be called “bottled life force.”

“You too are bottled life force,” I said, “but you’re surrounded by an aura instead of a glass bottle!”

Yesterday was a day of parade floats, root beer floats, patriotic songs, and fireworks. It was the 4th of July.

I was cast as Betsy Ross in a parade float of historical personages, sewing the last few stitches into the first American flag. Some of our best loved presidents —George Washington and Abe Lincoln—shared the truck-bed-turned-stage. There too was John Paul Jones, known for proclaiming with Tomato Essence courage, “I have not yet begun to fight,” who then proceeded to win that battle of the Revolution, even as his ship was sinking.

In honor of such battles won, a spirit of celebratory victory hung in the air like the banners on many of the floats. They seemed to symbolize the inner independence that we are all seeking in our pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness.

Offering this metaphysical definition of freedom, a sage once said, “Do what you have to do, and then you can do what you want.”

In other words, if we live according to natural laws and spiritual principles, we earn the right to live in true inner freedom. If you want to lose weight, for example, it simply doesn’t work to overeat repeatedly, skip out on exercising, and basically “let yourself go.” We have to respect the laws of health and diet.

This is where flower essences, energized by their corresponding affirmations, enter the equation. They act by positively influencing our dormant positive tendencies. Flower essences help us to replacing bad habits with good ones and to consciously choose life-affirming actions over life-negating ones.

We could say that the message of flower essences is–let freedom ring.