Article by Roberta Ciskey,
Spirit-in-Nature Essences Practitioner and Holistic Therapist,
Bethel, CT
Roberta’s article, in her own words, documents her experiences in combining affirmations with her own personal flower essence program. Here’s what she writes:
The power of words at times seems beyond comprehension. We use them all day everyday and oftentimes without much thought or care. It’s just something we naturally do. Words are much more powerful than most people think. Little do we know that when we speak about something we want or desire, we are actually using a form of affirmation.
What are affirmations? They are wonderful, positive statements much like a prayer, wish or a goal only more structured, focused, and specific. We have been saying affirmations our entire lives. Many people are unaware of this phenomenon because words are a part of our everyday life. Affirmations are so powerful that they can help to bring about a change we wish to make in ourselves; taking flower essences along with saying affirmations we help to further cement the idea and bring about the desired outcome.
There are many books, newsletters, tapes, and workshops that address the importance of affirmations and how to use them. An affirmation starts with a thought. When I first thought about writing this paper, I panicked and consequently got stuck thus becoming paralyzed with fear that I could not accomplish this goal. It seemed so distant and impossible.
What actually happened? Certainly I can write. People are constantly telling me I should write, as they find my writing engaging, entertaining and full of great information. What was standing in my way? I was being encouraged to forge ahead and just go for it. My goal seemed so far away and unattainable. I thought I believed in myself and knew what I wanted to accomplish. I had waged quite an interesting battle with myself.
It is of the utmost importance to keep our thoughts and desires positive. I wanted to write my paper and finish the (Home Study) course. However, at the same time I didn’t believe I could do it properly. What a revelation this was and just what I needed to hear to march gallantly in the direction of success. I began to compile information and do some research all the while struggling and procrastinating, which made the thought of doing this paper impossible.
I prayed, took more yoga classes, meditated, chanted constantly, recited affirmations by the bushel and worked in my gardens. Finally, I decided to take my own advice and seriously look at myself to find the entire answer to my dilemma. The first step was to begin a flower essence program. After all, my clients were having incredible success with taking their essences and using the affirmation cards. I stressed that saying the affirmation was an integral part of the program. During each consultation, we reviewed the affirmation that coordinated with the client’s essence according to the instructions of the Spirit-in-Nature Essences founder, Lila Devi. The method suggested on our instructional CD(3) for the third level of certification is as follows:
- First, say the affirmation out loud to attract the attention of the conscious mind.
- Next, whisper it to penetrate the subconscious, where issues may be harbored and uncovered so they can be worked on.
- Finally, silently say it to yourself so it will be absorbed in the superconscious self.
The power of this method is unbelievable. When I taught my class and presented this method, the students were so excited and asked that I repeat the instructions so they could write them down. Just the thought of doing their affirmations in a new way has a powerful impact.
I had copied the affirmation card corresponding to the Pear Essence I had given each person and asked them to look at the picture of the pear flower. We then proceeded to read the affirmation as instructed above. There was a tremendous upward shift of the energy in the room by the time we had completed this exercise. Each person became calmer, more centered, spiritually opened and intrigued with the essences. They were anxious to inspect and experience the beauty of each card and requested to see the entire deck of affirmation cards.
The comments were amazing. They squealed with delight at the sight of each card and hearing the affirmation given to support the flower essence it represented. I saw with my own eyes and heard with my own ears the power that affirmations in this manner held. Why wasn’t I following my own advice and instead choosing to stay in such an ugly, horribly uncomfortable negative state? Enter the Spirit-in-Nature Essences.
The gifts I have received and continue to receive from these amazing essences just keep coming. It was high time to seriously work on myself and my own issues. Fear had taken over my life and I was completely frozen and stopped dead in my tracks. I discovered this rather frightening realization while doing my research and taking my essences.
Having learned early on in my studies of the of the Spirit-in-Nature Essences that it was often difficult to see ourselves in the essences, I began to search for the clues that the universe always provides for us and to seriously look at the people who were showing up in my professional life as well as my personal friendships to see what it was they were there to teach me. I firmly believe that our lessons are always right there in front of us. We just have to open our hearts and be willing to see the lesson waiting to be learned.
I listened carefully to the conversations I participated in and took a good hard look at whom and what I had attracted to me. My clients were talking about being depressed and hardly able to get through each day. They were already being treated for this condition by medical doctors and were disturbed that nothing was working. Listening intently and seeing and hearing with intuitive eyes and ears, I realized they were unknowingly affirming and identifying with feeling dark, heavy and depressed. They were uncomfortably comfortable with their suffering with depression, wearing it proudly like a shiny badge.
Was I doing the same thing? How could that be possible? I knew all of the signs and people were seeking my help to get out of the doldrums. When I looked deeper into myself, I suddenly noticed that I, too had practically turned off the bright light people were always saying I brought with me wherever I went.
Immediately, I took out the flower essence affirmation cards and my essences. There was no doubt in my mind what to do now. All of the signs had been there for quite some time. Constantly reaching for my orange-scented body and room spray, using an orange patchouli sea salt scrub, and buying orange marmalade (I’ve never bought this before), I couldn’t get enough of the scent or taste of oranges and was forever reaching for my orange colored clothing. Even my son commented on how I never bought him orange juice anymore. Wow!
The universe was desperately trying to get my attention. Finally, I got the message loud and clear and began taking the Orange Essence, proudly displaying the affirmation card in a prominent place. I felt a sudden change in my thinking almost immediately. I knew I was now well on my way. I saw that the task ahead had more wonderful and exciting lessons to teach me. I would be so much wiser by the time I was finished. Saying the new affirmation on the card, along with the visualization exercise and suggested essence enhancers, I found myself smiling, inside and out.
The impact of these simple tasks was delightful. I could feel a smile form as I proudly recited my affirmation with feeling, and once again trusted that things would most certainly be okay. Seeing, feeling, and hearing the words, “My thoughts dance on air with cosmic energy. Singing joyfully, they soar above every dark valley of sorrow!”, renewed my sense of hope and enthusiasm. A zest for participating in the dance of life had returned with a vengeance. I no longer felt defeated.
I never fail to be amazed at how the teacher shows up when the student is ready, to paraphrase Paramhansa Yogananda, the first Indian yogi, great teacher and mystic to spend his lifetime in America. When affirmations are done properly, they always work. She was right. All of this information is in The Essential Flower Essence Handbook that I use on a daily basis. Reading this book reinforced the steps to success in taking flower essences and actually brought me closer to the essences. By seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling and tasting the affirmation excites and awakens the subconscious mind and brings results quicker. Using the Spirit-in-Nature Affirmation Deck along with taking the flower essence orally creates an undeniable force.
I have had clients report that they taste the fruit of the flower essence they are taking and can smell the flower or fruit when gazing at the affirmation card. The affirmation cards help to make the art of visualization much easier and also takes some of the stress off of the client, especially if they are new to the whole concept of flower essences and energy healing. Some people have also reported smelling the flower or fruit when gazing at the card. The pictures on the cards are so real you feel as though you can touch the plant and often a person’s mouth starts to water with the thought of tasting the fruit. In some ways it helps to see the flower, fruit, vegetable or nut and connect its energy with the essence.
There is a definite advantage to taking flower essences and saying affirmations together. You actually get a double dose of encouragement, since the flower essences themselves are a kind of affirmation. It’s like finding a good bargain while shopping. You can never beat a two-for-one sale! Now, armed with a renewed sense of hope and encouragement from the boost towards healing I received from taking my Orange essence, I was eager and ready to march gallantly ahead towards my ultimate goal. It no longer seemed so far out of reach.
The next step in my personal flower essence program was the Strawberry Essence. I chose this one to address my self-worth, feelings of inadequacy, and leaving a dysfunctional childhood in the past. This seemingly quiet little essence uncovered some rather intense issues. Once brought to the surface, I was determined to resolve the messages planted in my head when I was a young child. They continued throughout my school days and accompanied me all the way through adulthood and, to my surprise, into the present.
At first, this revelation was shocking, followed by a feeling of comfort in knowing that I could do something about it. I had been told over and over by my teachers that I could not write And because of a fight my father had with some of my relatives and my best friend’s father, people very important to me were removed from my life; through no fault of my own, at the tender age of seven, I was abandoned. The burden of carrying around the neatly wrapped package of worthlessness and low self-esteem had surfaced. It hit me like a tornado. No hiding under the covers anymore.
I didn’t feel I deserved the praise and support I had been receiving since beginning my journey with the essences-even though I knew in my heart that I had finally found what I had been searching for continuously throughout my professional life. The flower essences were a piece of my life’s puzzle that fit perfectly. Who knew that feeling accepted and cheered on could feel so uncomfortable? Wasn’t this exactly what I had been seeking?
I took my essence regularly, reciting the Strawberry affirmation throughout the day everyday for a week. The Strawberry affirmation is a perfect example of the power and strength that words can yield. After reciting, “I am strong in myself for I am one with what IS!” for a week, I felt like nothing could get in my way. I was ready to face whatever was put in my path without reservation.
This affirmation has become a permanent part of the daily chatter in my head. Even the red color of the strawberry fruit reminds me of the power and courage that this essence has helped me to find. To me, the words alone are not the only affirmation on the card. The gorgeous picture of the strawberry flower and fruit on the card could also be considered an affirmation too.The strong yet unassuming nature of the delicate flower sprouting from this tiny plant inspired me to continue my journey to maturity with grace and dignity. Since the strawberry plant stays so close to the ground throughout its entire lifetime, I saw the remaining grounded throughout any situation was of the utmost importance in following my own dreams.
As I continued to become more familiar with the affirmation cards and to study them closer, I found them to be invaluable. I discovered that they awakened all of my senses and therefore reinforced the affirmations and power of the flower essences. The cards pack an extra punch in support of taking the essences by helping us to envision our goals.
I have found in taking the essences that they are in themselves affirmations, since they help to reinforce the beauty and knowledge we already possess. Their messages are powerful in the vibrations they carry. The flower essences help to awaken those parts of us that are hidden. Reading the Quality/Message of Self-Mastery, and Positive Expressions sections in The Essential Flower Essence Handbook are just like saying affirmations as they begin the process of healing.(6) Even reading the negative indications and conditions is somewhat positive because these statements show us what we can address and give us the hope that we can turn them into something beneficial. Once we are able to view everything presented to us as a gift and learning experience leading us to our true self, life becomes lighter and viewed as less of a burden. It is so easy to get lost in the darkness of negativity, which serves only to dim our light and move us further away from our goals.
Then I remembered the chapter on how flower essences work in The Essential Flower Essence Handbook. Flower essences are a type of vibrational energetic healing. This is why the flower essences encourage us to want to change. They help us to create what we desire.
The law of attraction or magnetism comes into play here as well. A strong negative thought or statement is such a strong force that it would cancel out the weaker positive thought. This works in a similar way to be around a strongly negative person and shaking their hand. The weaker person would be influenced by the stronger one. This would occur because shaking hands with someone is a way of sending magnetism because our hands are actually magnets of energy. Flower essences are living vibrations and therefore both contain and give out magnetism. Their magnetism is stronger and more positive than that of a person who is unbalanced. Taking the flower essence helps to bring us back into balance; it makes us feel better. By saying the suggested affirmation along with taking the flower essence, our vibration is raised and we are able to initiate the change. Since the essences themselves are positive and, in effect, are affirmations, the desired change is better able to take hold.
Anything we read that encourages us to cast off the old and live in the present is a form of affirmation. This is something that is also strongly stressed with the use of flower essences. The flower essences encourage us to take a closer look at ourselves. Thus they can bring long-buried issues to the surface. We are often not even aware that incidents or messages from our past are affecting the way we live in the present. The true gift of the essences is the way they gently bring to the surface what it is time to address. I feel we are never given more than we can handle. With the flower essences and affirmations, we have a simple method of initiating changes by discarding what no longer serves us or those around us. With the positive messages the essences possess, we start from an advantageous place and are better able to grasp a positive state of mind. Once again we return to how our thoughts shape our present, which leads to the manifestation of our future.
It was now time to bring out “the big guns.” The next essence in my personal program was Blackberry, “The All Purpose Purifier”. This amazing essence quickly brought to the surface the manner in which I had been approaching not only the task of writing the term paper, but my general outlook on life these days. I had gotten mired in dark thoughts with clouded thinking, and wasn’t seeing the wonderful life waiting for me. The affirmation card that accompanies this essence stated exactly what I had been reading about our thoughts creating our future. When I first uttered the words on the affirmation card, it was as if a light bulb had just been illuminated-nothing could stop me from marching forward into my already created bright future. I only had to reaffirm what I already knew. I could indeed do anything I set my mind to, and I would do it in my own fashion.
The beauty of the human experience is that we are all different and unique. Not everyone approaches things in the same manner, nor is there only one way to do anything. After reciting this very special and eye-opening affirmation, I began to regain my perspective and stop procrastinating.
Saying the words, “Pure thoughts, like rays of sunlight, penetrate the dust-covered windows of my mind. They fill me with good will toward all” helped me reach into the corners of my own mind and remove what no longer served me in this lifetime. The power of this affirmation was almost overwhelming in its truth and beauty. Now I could get to work and put into action the thoughts that had been trying to seep through my temporarily dimmed light. I had been desperately seeking outside myself the very qualities I already possessed and was not acknowledging.
How many times had I said exactly this to my family, friends and even clients? Thankfully, I had been guided by my own internal radar to follow my own suggestions. This essence had a bit of a different effect when I began taking it. I was so disappointed and angry at myself for letting things get so far out of control. I cried often. Sometimes, I was smiling through the tears.
I was a bit confused as my emotions bounced around like a ping pong ball during a very heated match. Then I remembered that this is exactly what the Blackberry Essence is supposed to do. It puts right in front of you what you are ready to address. The visuals with this essence were stronger than I had with any other essence. I began to see myself dancing freely and singing. The next thing I knew, I was doing precisely that. I was, once again, dancing and singing in my kitchen with a bright smile while I cooked for myself and the family I hold so dear. It was now easier to meditate and chant loud and clear and really mean it. My yoga classes meant more to me than they ever had and became more enjoyable as people flocked to me like flies asking people to move so they could put their mat next to me.
It’s amazing how differently people are relating to me now and their kindness is at times almost overwhelming. I have these beautiful essences and affirmations to thank for helping to uncover and bring out into the open the real me. Wonderful, good things are coming to me sometimes at breakneck speed. It’s as if the floodgates have opened. Things are flowing at an incredibly rapid rate and the life I wanted and thought I was already living is a quickly becoming a reality.
The flower essences, being liquid words or liquid affirmations, and their accompanying beautiful affirmation cards are life-changing, powerful words. In using the Spirit-in-Nature Essences and their companion affirmation cards, we have the best of both worlds. These gentle tools of healing wield incredible power.
Affirmations have been a major part of my life and healing practice for a very long time. The universe has an interesting way of sending us precisely what we need when we need it. As I mentioned earlier, the clients who had been showing up recently were looking for someone to help take them from the dark seat of depression to happiness. Once again, I thought about why these people, along with constant reminders of people and incidents from my past, kept showing up almost on a daily basis. I had started this journey with the Orange Essence, to lift the dark, heavy energy I had been surrounded and consumed by in recent months.
In faithfully taking my flower essences, things came to light. I remembered how I kept thinking that I couldn’t be depressed. I was working actively on this with my own doctor. Each time I saw her, she would ask if I was taking my own essences. I would respond-of course I was. What I did not realize at the time was that the essences were doing their job. They were bringing out into the open the many hurts and disappointments I had experienced in my life’s journey. These issues were consequently buried so deeply that I was innocently believing they had long since been resolved; they could not possibly be affecting me now.
To really be effective, affirmations need to be said with feeling and visualization. All of these tools are also in The Essential Flower Essence Handbook. I had all of the answers at my fingertips.
So often we think in negative affirmations without even realizing what we are doing. When we say something like, “I never could write a decent term paper because I never have in the past”, we in fact reaffirm that we cannot do precisely what we are trying to accomplish and will only attract more of the same thoughts. The next thing we know, one seemingly honest and insignificant statement has snowballed like an out of control avalanche, becoming a fact in the present. It can then strongly resemble a cancer that grows larger every day. Even stating, “I will write a great term paper” is not enough to plant the message for the desired outcome. The influence our words have on ourselves and those around us is stronger and more powerful than we think.
The flower essences bring our awareness to how we are at times keeping ourselves stuck in the past and thus preventing us from living in the present and experiencing the joy and happiness already present somewhere inside our psyche. The flower essences and affirmations give us a boost towards living the life we desire.
Loving ourselves and acknowledging our true beauty is where the flower essences and the accompanying affirmation cards come into play. They can both help us to change the old messages and outdated thought patterns that no longer serve us. We can cut the ties to past that so tightly bind us. The advantage of using the flower essences to initiate the changes we yearn to grasp is that they usually help to bring about the changes in a quicker manner than just saying affirmations by themselves.
I have found in my research and practice that just taking the flower essence alone will help us to arrive at the desired outcome. However, it often takes a longer time to see positive results. When the essences are taken in conjunction with saying the suggested affirmation, the qualities we desire can emerge much more quickly. Saying the affirmation along with taking a dose of the flower essence, the affirmation becomes cemented in our thinking.
More often than not, people begin to say the affirmation throughout the day. It has now become a part of who we are. When we ingest the flower essence it too becomes a part of us as it is absorbed into our body, mind and soul. This “liquid affirmation” enters our body, similarl to the way the food we eat might do. The only difference is that the flower essence is consumed more on a vibrational rather than a physical level. Its healing effect is subtle and gentle, and in no way interferes with anything else we may be doing. This makes flower essences a desirable type of healing, since they can never be abused. They only bring us goodness and can never harm us. Their message is positive and in no way invasive. This is appealing to many people who are frightened by the thought of doctors and medication. Flower essence remedies are safe for anyone, and this makes them desirable to use for entire families and even plants and animals.
I have found in my own practice that sometimes people are averse to using the affirmations because this practice makes them feel self conscious and odd, requiring too much effort on their part. Little do they know, they are using affirmations by agreeing to take the flower essence remedy in the first place, since the essence is actually an affirmation-in-a-bottle. Lila Devi refers to the flower essences as bottled affirmations. I like to point this out to clients. Once this theory is introduced, they begin to understand the power of saying affirmations along with taking their essence.
At the end of a consultation I usually make the client’s flower essence remedy and then suggest that we take a dose together. We recite the affirmations, using the three-part method suggested in our certification training. This process removes some of the fear and apprehension the client may have in beginning a flower essence program. Putting a person at ease helps to relieve some of the burden that causes the energy channels to become blocked. It assists the client in being more open to receiving and really hearing the words of the affirmation and the shift that the flower essence initiates. In this way, the task of taking the essence and reciting the affirmation becomes much less daunting. The client is then well on the way to a successful journey through the world of flower essences and affirmations.
To summarize: After in-depth research into the world of affirmations, I have discovered through personal experience and feedback from my clients that affirmations used along with taking flower essences do indeed work. Together, they are a powerful force towards uncovering the beautiful qualities that make us who we really are. Employing the five senses, along with the aid of the Affirmation Deck designed specifically for the Spirit-in-Nature Essences, has proven to be of great value in aiding my own personal growth and that of my clientele. Results for me and my clients have generally been experienced at a much more rapid pace when all of these tools were used together. By using the powerful positive words of affirmations and flower essences or liquid affirmations simultaneously, we begin to weed out what no longer serves us. We can then plant the seeds of change and movement in our own personal garden, guiding us towards our ultimate goal of living a more authentic, enjoyable life.