White Chestnut
No. 35Thoughts going round and round that you cannot switch off
Not fully here
Thirty-eight flowers. One for every state of mind.
Bach flower remedies are a set of 38 gentle preparations, each one made for a particular state of mind rather than a symptom. This is a plain guide to all of them, without the vague language the subject usually attracts.
Start with the feeling
Every remedy sits in one of seven groups. Pick the one that sounds closest and you have narrowed thirty-eight down to a handful.
Fear
5For the whole range of fear, from a named worry you can point to, to dread that arrives without a reason.
Uncertainty
6For when you cannot decide, cannot commit, or cannot see the point in trying again.
Not fully here
7For when your attention is somewhere other than the present, whether that is the past, a daydream, or the same thought on a loop.
Loneliness
3For the different ways people end up apart from others, including the ones who talk the most.
Oversensitive to others
4For when other people's moods, opinions or demands take up more room in you than your own.
Despondency and despair
8The largest group, covering low confidence, guilt, exhaustion, shock, bitterness and the feeling of being unclean.
Over-care for others
5For strong personalities whose care for other people tips into control, criticism or pressure.
The ones people look up most
A reasonable place to start if you are new to this.
Mimulus
No. 20Fear of something you can name, plus the shyness that often comes with it
Fear
Larch
No. 19Expecting to fail, so not trying in the first place
Despondency
Walnut
No. 33Protection during change, and against other people's opinions of your choices
Oversensitive
Olive
No. 23Complete exhaustion after a long stretch of real effort
Not fully here
Star of Bethlehem
No. 29Shock and grief, whether it happened this morning or years ago
Despondency
Impatiens
No. 18Impatience and irritation at how slowly everything and everyone moves
Loneliness
Rock Rose
No. 26Terror and panic, when fear has gone past the point of ordinary nerves
Fear
What they actually are
Dr Edward Bach was a Harley Street bacteriologist who left his practice in 1930 to spend the last six years of his life working out this system. He finished it in 1936 and it has not changed since.
Each remedy is made by floating flowers in spring water in sunlight, or by boiling them, then preserving the water in brandy. What you buy is a small stock bottle that you dilute a few drops at a time.
Bach was insistent that the system should be simple enough to use without a practitioner. He kept it to thirty-eight, described each one in plain language, and expected people to choose for themselves by recognizing their own mood in a description. That is how this site is arranged, and it is a large part of why the remedies are still in steady use ninety years on.
How to take them
- A single remedy
- Two drops from the stock bottle in a glass of water, sipped through the day.
- A personal mix
- Two drops of each remedy into a 30ml bottle of spring water, then four drops from that, four times a day. Most people use up to six or seven at once.
- How long to give it
- Two weeks is a fair test. There is no dose to get right and no known way to take too much.