On Willingness

Willingness has been a thematic undertone lately. Yesterday I spoke with 3 clients about willingness. Willingness is a spiritual principle defined as “the quality or state of being prepared to do something”, and I love it. I love willingness because it’s such simple action that I can take in the face of immobilization.

We often become immobilized upon our paths due to fear. My latest example is about online dating, which I have often had a bad attitude about, but things are changing in that realm due to willingness. About a week ago, feeling fettered by the land of online dating, I consciously bumped up against an unwelcome pattern. It seems I’ve historically radiated towards 2 different types of men in the last several years. The first is a man who looks good but is incapable of celebrating humanity and imminently rejects me. Man #1 checks his hair in the mirror more than I do. I attract the second type of man when I take my appreciation of humanity too far. Man #2 is on an entirely different playing field than me, playing an entirely different game and doesn’t even wash his hair. It’s ok to be on different fields than others, but while primary partnership shopping, I hope to find someone who shares my fundamental values.

For me, dating and intimate relationships with men has been a painful and arduous journey of trying to force square pegs into round holes – always beating the paths of most resistance. After recognizing this pattern, a visual appeared before my mind’s eye: the middle path. The middle ground. The ground of relatability, true humanity and “normalcy”. The path I have never trodden. The path that meets the other 2 relentlessly beaten paths in the middle. The path of least resistance. As I tried to visualize myself stepping onto this path, a fiery anger rose up in me and, like a child in the throes of a temper tantrum, my bad attitude swept in, spouting things like “I HATE online dating!”, “This sucks!”, “Ugh!!” (with accompanying eye-rolls and exasperated sighs). In my meditation, I could not bring myself to set feet upon this path, which felt shameful, ironic and self-deprecating. Why, upon finally seeing the path of least resistance, would I vehemently reject it, insisting instead on trodding through the stenchy muck of most resistance? It didn’t seem to make sense. I’ve been keeping myself, most forcefully, from that which I desire the most. Ouch.

After some shock and brief petulance, here’s the solution I came up with: I visually gathered my fuzzy blanket and slippers and I laid down at the outset of the path. Willingness. In the past, I would have tried to berate myself onto the path, shaming myself for what seems like avoidance of the obvious. In this shaming, I’ve propagated my own resistance to the path because I’m sure it comes as a surprise to no one that reproach and degradation have never proved progressive. And so today I’ve decided to relinquish those old, ineffective ways. Gently, I allow myself to get comfortable at the mouth of the middle ground. I give myself permission to be where I’m at – to not resist resistance. And lo and behold, a day or so after simply allowing myself to lie down and rest at the start of the path, my visual allows me to set foot on the path. Just one foot. Willingness.

What are Flower Essences?

Flower Essences are, by far, one of my favorite things.

Let’s clear up some misconceptions right away: Flower Essences are NON-aromatic and are remedies that are ingestible by mouth. In other words, Flower Essences are NOT aromatherapy and each remedy smells exactly the same.

Flower Essences are plant spirit medicine – the spirit energy of flowers captured in solution.

Flower Essences are the brain and heart child of Dr. Edward Bach, a medical doctor, homeopath and bacteriologist whose career spanned from 1906 to 1936, when he died in his sleep at the tender age of 50. Known for his creation of 7 bacterial nosodes used in the practice of homeopathy, in 1930, Bach became assured that there was a more subtle way to treat his patient’s ailments over and above the modern medical model, which he found to be crude and invasive. The premise of his outlook on treating individuals more subtly, is that illness is the result of discord between the purpose of the soul and the actions and mental paradigms of the person.

In 1930, Bach abandoned his lucrative medical practice for the countryside and fields of England, where he intuitively discovered his remedies over a dedicated 4 year period. Bach’s discovery started with his personal experimentation of holding his hands over the flowers he was studying while in the throes of difficult emotions. In this way, he would connect to the energy of the flowers until he found the one that alleviated his emotional discord. In spring and summer, Bach psychically connected to plant spirit, and in winter, he treated patients for free. Bach discovered that the dawn’s sunlight could infuse dew drops on flower petals with the healing energy of that flower, so he began testing the remedies by gathering those potent dew drops and preserving them for ingestion. As this practice progressed, the amount of dew collected was not enough, so he suspended flowers in spring water and used a sun-infusion method that is still employed today.

Water has memory and the ability to hold energetic charge. This is the basis for the way by which Flower Essences work. Since our bodies and cells are made up of more than 75% water, when we ingest plant spirit medicine, the energy of the medicine resonates throughout the water of our cells. Resonance is when vibrational frequency matches an endogenous state of being, therefore enhancing the charge of that state and allowing it to be brought to the forefront. For example, there is vibrational frequency associated with the quality of confidence – think about it: how does it feel to be in the presence of a confident person versus a person with low self-esteem? Feels different doesn’t it? Well, there is also a flower essence that holds within its water the resonant quality of confidence (there are a few actually). When you ingest that flower essence, the energy of confidence resonates throughout your cells, awakening your innate human capacity to be confident and amplifying that capacity, thereby drawing it to the conscious forefront of living. As these innate qualities get drawn forward with the use of Flower Essences, they also move through all the limiting beliefs that are keeping those innate qualities repressed. This facilitates profound awareness around the precise nature of such limiting paradigms and how they have been keeping us stuck.

What do I do with Flower Essences?

I am like a “flower interpreter”. I work with about 155 Flower Essences and have spent the past 11 years learning about the qualities of each one, both intellectually and experientially. When I meet with someone for the 1st time, I conduct an interview process that takes about 75 minutes. Within this interview process, I gather information about you and your life. We talk about values, goals for change, core wounds and paradigms: what is important to you and how would you like to see your life and your inner landscape change? What is your story? I love holding space for the stories of others and I do so with utmost respect and reverence. What are the core wounds that were created within that story that you hold to so firmly that they’re getting in the way? This does not mean that pain, anger or loss are not relevant or legitimate, nor is there ever any attempt to diminish your experiences. How have your core wounds and experiences shaped the paradigms you currently have? For example, the most common paradigm set that gets in the way of our living a joyful and fulfilled life is the “not enough” paradigm set: not good enough, smart enough, attractive enough, successful enough, etc.
Once I gather all relevant information about you and your life, I match flowers – anywhere from 1 – 5, just for you, and make them into a custom blend. I then send you off to ingest this blend for about 30 days, which is considered one cycle. I will ask you to come back in 6-weeks for a follow-up, where we will discuss your experiences, the state of your goals and how to move forward.

Barking at Fear

My son and I have become unseasoned fans of Harry Potter, having progressively watched all the movies over the last several weeks.

It’s gotten me to thinking about the symbolic nature of the classic ‘good versus evil’ storyline, which is representative of reality on so many levels and allows us to identify with our humanity through folklore. Voldemort (the villain in Harry Potter) is the archetypal shadow aspect, the quintessential personification of fear. Meanwhile, Harry Potter and his cohort are the classic presentation of courageous conquest. One of the more poignant scenes in the 2nd installment of part 7 in the series is when we can see the fear on Voldemort’s face as he recognizes he’s losing power. This struck me because he impersonated my own fear, desperately clutching to a form where it no longer belongs.

I’ve been sitting on a vision for a long time. It’s taken me ages to see this vision with any semblance of clarity and it’s still coming into focus. I’ve resisted this vision because of fear. Fear of failure, fear of success, fear of losing external validation, fear of financial collapse, fear of incapacity, fear of not being good enough.

I recently finished a Flower Essences round with the flower Wolf Willow. Wolf Willow entices a pointed personal exploration of where one stands in their own life’s progression and how we allow ourselves to be held back by fear, societal expectations and expectations from our own selves and those around us. One of my teachers, Laurie Szott-Rogers, who created the essence of Wolf Willow provided the following guided exercise as an adjunct to taking Wolf Willow:

When making this essence I envisioned 6 wolves each guarding a spiritual direction: One wolf in the north- the direction of ancestors and regeneration; the second wolf in the east to support new beginnings, the third sits in the south where passion and creativity are honored, and the fourth wolf guards west, the direction of intuition and letting go of that which no longer serves us. The fifth wolf guards what is below and the sixth, what is above.

Each wolf holds open the space to allow newness to emerge. They also alert us to interference from others around us, who benefit from us not shifting.

Take 6 drops of Wolf Willow Essence: Silently summon the six guardian wolves. Take a few minutes to notice each of them individually. Find out what they like and how you can develop a bond of trust with them.

State your boundary intention clearly to the wolf guardians. i.e. “I wish to write my book in the next 3 months. If you notice internal sabotage or interference from me, or external sabotage from anyone around me, or outside circumstances, please alert me. Please give me recognizable signals at the first indication that this boundary is being crossed, and help me repair and reinforce it.

I did this guided visualization numerous times during my Flower Essences cycle. What eventually came forward in my own vision were the wolves barking at all these villainous fears as they crept into my mental reality over and over again. Much like Voldemort, my fears can suddenly appear behind a smokescreen of reality and logic – my thoughts trying to convince me of all the reasons why my visions are unfounded and I must be an imposter in this world with such gall as to believe that I deserve to live forward my wildest dreams. Fortunately, my wolf guides have been consistent and present in their warding off my fear – dedicated in their spirit realm, barking with courageous conquest and spiritual dedication, ever reminding me of the illusory aspect of my worries.

Today I’m here on this cyberpage sharing the outset of my vision with you. I am consciously guided by my ancestry, connected by lineage and blessing to the medicines of the earth. I am forging new beginnings, committed to moving through the fires of my fears. I am passionate about making a difference through accessibility, honesty, holding compassionate space for others and joining my Flower Essences work to social programs and I pursue my passion with creative expression. I am intuitively connected to a power greater than myself. I acknowledge that that which is above is equally valuable as that which lies below. My magic wand is my spiritual practice and my hoarcrux is my self-doubt. Together with my wolf guides I move myself forward on this path, barking at fear.