The subject of survivor guilt and related flower essences is an interesting one. Here’s a recent correspondence with one of my students:

Hi, Lila,

I hope you remember me from the Pets and Animals Home Study Course lessons.

I’m doing a fictitious case study for a class in Chinese Herbal Therapeutics and wanted to include flower essences in the treatment plan. The situation is Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome following a car accident where the patient survived but the driver, her grandfather, died.

I was wondering if there were any flower essences specific to survivor guilt, or if one of the flower essences for guilt would work?

Cheers,
________

Here’s my response:

Dear _______,

How are you? It’s wonderful to hear from you again. Of course I remember you! And our consult. And your deep love for animals and your sensitivity to flower essences.

Yes, I have some ideas for you. What a fascinating assignment!

Before recommending any flower essences or essence programs, it might help to mention some metaphysical truths. A wise person once said, “The things that happen to us do not matter; what we become through them does.” That same sage also said, “Change no circumstance of my life; change me.”

Speaking of the epitome of survivor guilt: why is it that some people emerged from the concentration camps as saints, while others were completely broken by their experiences? Wouldn’t this suggest that it’s not circumstances, but the attitudes toward those circumstances that are most important?

Here’s where a simple change of focus, embodied in Coconut Essence for greater spiritual awareness, can be of value. If we can’t change our circumstances–in reference to your fictional case study, a fatal car accident—we can change our perspective. How do we grow? By making ourselves bigger than our tests, not by shrinking from them.

This is where Banana, “the perspective essence,” can help. Our car crash survivor can help to heal her body with healthy attitudes, such as broadening her focus; including others in her reality; and identifying with the greatness and beauty of life instead of the smallness and seeming tragedy.

A part of survivor guilt is the sense of “why me,” or rather, “why not me?” The question itself suggests a form of resistance, which is certainly understand- able in a fatal accident for those left behind. As mentioned in my previous post on Pear Essence, Pear reminds us to not resist our tests—which only causes greater suffering— but instead to accept them as best we can. This is why Pear Flower Essence is such a powerful salve for crisis situations. It addresses the thought, “This shouldn’t be happening to me.”

I would also suggest that this woman spend time in Nature: taking gentle walks with deep breathing, as a way of com- muning with its healing energy. Peach Essence, likewise, can help her to transmute her own suffering by becoming aware that others, too, have suffered; that we are not alone in our trials, and that we can help others emerge from their difficulties through the very tests which we ourselves have undergone. Consider, too, that many of the problems people face stem from simply focusing too much on themselves.

Every single moment of our lives offers us the same choice: to expand or to contract; to move toward the light or away from it. Guilt has been called, by clinical professionals, a coping mechanism. This may be so, but it’s a contractive approach. If perpetuated long enough or strongly enough, guilt can easily cause physical symptoms, such as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia.

Yet life force is an amazing thing. Give it half a chance, and it can heal even the most broken body! Activate that life force with the “bottled Nature” in flower essences, and watch what happens when we raise our energy and broaden its scope.

I hope, ________, that this answer offers some help for your assignment. I wish you well with it and with your continued flower essence studies.

Kindly,
Lila

A veterinarian in Austria wrote to us this morning, asking which flower essences are best to use for parasites or infections in rabbits. Here’s my reply:

Dear Dr. _____,

I am very sorry to hear about your rabbits and hope they are soon better.

To answer your concerns and explain how flower essences work: they work directly on the life force rather than directly treating physical symptoms. This is why we call flower essences “bottled life force.”

Yes, the essences can help with physical issues, but I cannot say we have essences for parasites or infections. These are physical symptoms that often need to be dealt with through physical substances, which can mean either herbal remedies or traditional medications. Having said this, you could try Lettuce Essence for the rabbits, to supplement whatever herbs or medicines they are given for their physical condition.

We have found through case studies that Lettuce Essence, for calmness, can help animals with physical dis-ease to deal with the implications of the medicines, including any possible side effects, and to help keep the integrity of their life force intact. Animals whose immune systems are strong tend to be more resistant to parasites. So we could say that flower essences would strengthen the life force that could in turn strengthen the immune system.

I hope this makes sense. Please let me know how the rabbits respond to their flower essence program.

Kindly,

Lila Devi Stone