Flower Essence Healing in Your Garden
The cure for the stress of your life could literally be lying in your own backyard. Garden environments promote health, inspire tranquility and help to bring balance and a sense of wellbeing. The healing garden beckons, "Come into my peaceful space. Bring me your sorrows, your confusion, your frazzled nerves. Surround yourself with my colors, my freshness and fragrances. Let me be your haven on earth. Leave refreshed and renewed!"
Being out in nature simply makes people feel better. Medical studies have verified the calming benefits of viewing or being in a natural setting. Laboratory and clinical investigations have found that viewing natural settings can produce significant stress recovery within fewer than five minutes, as indicated by changes in blood pressure, heart activity, muscle tension and brain electrical activity.
Programs that utilize horticultural therapy, the use of gardens as rehabilitative settings, have been steadily growing in popularity. Patients recovering from traumatic injury or surgery have shown dramatic improvements in attitude and healing rate when they spend just one hour a day working with the plants or spending time in a therapeutic garden. Restorative garden sanctuaries have also become a hit with stressed-out individuals seeking refuge from the rigors of modern urban life. Whether in a city botanical garden, a community vegetable garden, or one's own backyard flower garden, many have found refuge, regeneration and serenity in these garden spaces.
Working with Rose Flower Essences in Your Healing Garden
You can work with the rose flower essences in your healing garden space. By spending time in your garden or in natural outdoor surroundings, you will greatly enhance your therapeutic program with rose flower essences. In the privacy of your garden you can play, dance, ruminate, meditate, sing, journal, dig, water and smell the roses, enjoy the play of light and sound, listen to the buzzing of insects and enjoy the song of birds. While working with your rose flower essences, you may begin to cultivate the qualifies of peace, joy, contentment and gratitude in your heart. In the healing garden space you can be alive, spontaneous and child-like, as you work with specific flower essences that nurture these qualities. At the same time you will find yourself less tense and anxious. The outdoors is the perfect place for self-exploration and natural healing.
Why the Rose?
The rose is the most universally recognized and beloved flower in the world. Roses are no strangers to the art of healing. They've been used for centuries all over the world as medicinal tonics, to help cure ailments, as mood enhancers, in cosmetics, perfumes, as aphrodisiacs, and even as culinary additives. Of course, they also add beauty and grace to gardens, homes and workplaces.
The blossom of the rose makes a very effective flower essence. Dr. Edward Bach made an essence from Wild Rose, also known as a species rose. This rose has not been crossbred with another rose. However, with the hybridization of roses, I believe that the healing potential of the rose has expanded since Dr. Bach's time. Rose flower essences present a healing system that can help us to address the emotional needs and spiritual challenges of our times.
The healing signature, or blueprint, of each rose cultivar can be found within the characteristics of each rose variety: its thorns, blooms, its hips, and in the plant's hardiness. We can see parallels between the physical qualities and nutrients in the plant and the emotional qualities it helps to balance. The rose flower essences, with a healing signature connected with its nutrients, affects one at the emotional level. It soothes and balances the nervous system and supports and protects the heart from emotional pain and trauma.
By taking a rose flower essence, one who has experienced hurt and trauma may find comfort, be sustained and fortified. More able to emotionally bounce back after being cut down, they may find it easier to deal with the unexpected challenges of life.
A rose flower essence, then, helps protect the heart from hurt and nurtures and rebuilds the injured heart and personality by supporting and nurturing positive spiritual and soul qualities within the individual. Among these soul qualities are endurance, motivation, resilience, nurture, and sustenance. These supportive soul qualities are symbolized by the color and fragrance of the bloom, the magnificent expression of the "soul" of the plant.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tenanche Rose Golden, MA, RMT is an experienced flower essence practitioner who has been using, researching and formulating vibrational essences since 1989. She is the owner of Rosaflora Botanicals and Flower Essences. A Reiki Master Practitioner and Teacher, reflexologist and artist, Tenanche is interested in documenting rose flower essence therapy in conjunction with Acupuncture, Massage, Reflexology and Art Therapy. She is the author of ROSE FLOWER ESSENCES: A New Guide to Natural Healing with 65 Remedies Made From The World's Most Beloved Flower, the first book to focus exclusively on rose flower essences and their healing implications for emotional balance and spiritual growth.
Art Credits: Page designed by Windfall. Images courtesy of Clipart.com.
The World Wide Essence Society does not mean to imply any recommendation of nor give certification to any individuals or companies above. This article is provided purely for informational purposes. We ask consumers to make their own determination as to quality of the services and products offered above. This article is not meant to be advice, and the information is not meant to replace medical or psychological treatment.
