Now before we get too deep into this, I need to say that I used to work for the Alzheimer’s Association and a Caregiver Resource Center for people taking care of family members with dementia. In those roles, I used to do presentations on the latest science related to memory loss and confusion, and there is no way that I would recommend you use flower essences as your first modality of choice for these issues, especially if they have lasted awhile! There are too many physical reasons that are reversible that might be responsible for these symptoms to neglect going to a doctor to get some tests done. For example, did you know that a simple urinary tract infection—something almost every woman experiences at some time or another—is one of the most likely causes for a sudden increase in dementia symptoms in elderly people? Did you know that iron, B12, or D3 deficiencies can also cause such symptoms? Also, insomnia, allergies, drug interactions, or hormonal changes— these are all easily treatable problems for most people. Plus there are, certainly, some serious health conditions that include these symptoms that are also reversible with proper medical care. Go to your doctor and get tests done! It can make all the difference in the world!
That said, once you rule out physical causes, there are also emotional states that can temporarily cause mental fog and difficulty remembering things. Clinical depression and intense anxiety are two of those things—do see a doctor to eliminate physical causes for that. But, honestly, even a transient state of depression or anxiety can do the same thing. I just heard E. Jean Carroll being interviewed by Rachel Maddow about going to trial to sue Donald Trump for defamation, and one of the first things she said was that she was so terrified about confronting him that she couldn’t think straight the first day. This is not an uncommon experience. Plus there are numerous far less intense states that can affect mental clarity.
So let’s get into this from a flower essence point of view.
The first thing to do is to explore when the symptoms first showed up, how you were feeling at the time, and how you feel now. How you feel is always the key to determining what flower essences to use.
Panic, Fear, or Grief (and Groundedness)
Obviously, if you are in a state of panic or high anxiety, you would address that first. Try flower essences for fear like Rock Rose, and combos like Rescue Remedy (or my Reiki-infused version called Emotional Rescue) and Releasing Worry and Fear to get grounded and calm yourself down.
And speaking of getting grounded, fear frequently makes a person want to “jump out of their skin.” Any flower essence that energetically brings you back into your body can be helpful. Rock Rose is my personal favorite. But you might also consider flower essences that do the same whether fear is obviously to blame or not because feeling spacey is another version of energetically disconnecting from your body. The herb Rosemary is famous for remedying this. Shakespeare immortalized it in the play “Hamlet” when Ophelia says that Rosemary is for remembrance. Rosemary flower essence helps a person feel more embodied. It can be strongly grounding and then it seems to clear the head, especially with multiple uses.
For traditional Bach Flower enthusiasts, Clematis has similar effects. It’s for people who get lost in daydreams instead of focussing on the task at hand. This is also a type of disconnecting reaction people sometimes use when they’re bored. Nothing wrong with that once in awhile! But if you also do that when a task feels hard or tedious, it can seriously get in the way of functioning well on the job or even remembering what you need to do! It’s also part of Bach’s Rescue Remedy because of the fuzzy-headed feeling that comes up for some people in emergencies. Clematis helps a person be embodied and come back down to earth.
Fuzzy-headedness or brain fog, by the way, is a common component of grief. This is true for all ages, but it can have particularly devastating effects in the elderly. The most common statement I heard from caregivers at the Alzheimer’s Association was “Mom was okay until Dad died!” Nothing makes a person want to check out more than the shock of feeling like their whole world has just ended because the person they built their whole life with is gone. You’ll need to address the grief, shock, profound loneliness and overwhelm to use flower essences effectively in this situation. Star of Bethlehem is pretty much essential—it is so very soothing in cases of shock and trauma! This flower essence is part of Rescue Remedy (Emotional Rescue). It is also in my very poorly named but VERY EFFECTIVE formula Support for Troubled Times. It combines Star of Bethlehem with Splendid Mariposa Lily, Green-Cross Gentian, and Self-Heal for soothing comfort, a feeling of great inner support, and for the ability to persist even when things feel so hard you don’t know if you can manage it. You could also use Healing the Broken Heart formula which is also for grief. It combines Star of Bethlehem, Bleeding Heart, and Walnut for healing shock or trauma, soothing the longing for the one you love, and letting go of how things used to be. I make scented spray or scented oil versions of these last two formulas that are particularly nice because the essential oils I used were specifically selected to combine effectively with the flower essences. They also smell wonderful which is soothing in itself.
Support for Troubled Times Scented Spray
Support for Troubled Times Scented Oil
Healing the Broken Heart Scented Spray
Healing the Broken Heart Scented Oil
Chronic Stress, Overstimulation, and Attention Difficulties
Overstimulation, chronic stress, and problems with attention and mental clarity pretty much go hand in hand. More than half of all people with an ADHD diagnosis also have a diagnosis of anxiety and/or depression and most feel under constant stress that can veer out of control at times. But you don’t have to have a diagnosis of ADHD to be overstimulated and have similar problems with attention and memory! Furthermore, even people who never had this problem before will start to exhibit attention issues after engaging in a steady diet of cell phone or laptop scrolling on social media while watching TV or engaging in other behaviors. Having your attention split while addictively training your brain to have a small attention span is a sure fire way to induce at least short term issues with memory and attention. Learning to interrupt these behaviors and engaging in more meditative (single focus) ways to relax can make a huge difference.
Unfortunately, learning to interrupt these behaviors can be challenging if you are using it to distract from distressing feelings—as those of us with a social media account all tend to do! This has become a societal difficulty, and not without serious mental health consequences especially for younger generations who have engaged in this behavior since childhood. There is a reason constant scrolling becomes addictive—you get an exciting dopamine (“feel good”) hit for every “like” or positive post that catches your attention. But, worse, the hits are intermittent. If the rewards from scrolling on social media or some other behavior were constant, you would just get your reward and move on to something else. But intermittent rewards are more addictive because you’re actually being programmed to engage in a behavior that is associated with getting a reward the longer you engage in it. So you are much more likely to continue doing that behavior in search of those rewards (like a video game where you rack up points). Meanwhile, time is slipping away, including time spent in deep connection with friends or engaging in activities that improve your life or the world I know you’re worried about. And you’re also being exposed to horrific things unexpectedly at random that make you increasingly feel worse about this world and want more rewards to antidote that.
Healing from addiction can be complex depending on your past history so it is more than I want to address in this post. But the first step in choosing flower essences is to take a break from your distracting influences, and see what comes up. Anxiety? Work with flower essences for that! Grief or anger—same thing. Work with flower essences for the feelings you are avoiding. (See above for a few suggestions.) And call a counselor if you need more help.
The Blog Post That Won’t Stop
I realize at this point that there are SO many more emotional and behavioral reasons for difficulty focussing and mental clarity that flower essences could address. I could go on and on, but there HAS to be a stopping place. So, one last thought: are there flower essences specifically to help with clear thinking and focus? Yes! Let me list several possibilities:
Calm Focus: my flower essence combo combining Rock Rose and Indian Pink for people who need to calm down to be able to pay attention
Focussed Attention: for people who need more energy to focus, synthesize ideas, and the willpower to get things done (Madia, Peppermint, Shasta Daisy, and Blackberry)
Cosmos: for the ability to organize one’s thoughts and speak coherently when overexcited and overwhelmed by too many ideas
Dill: for calming sensory overload so you don’t need to shut down and can think clearly again
Indian Pink: for the ability to hold focus in an overstimulating environment with too much intense activity
Madia: for the ability to have a single focus without being so easily distracted
Peppermint: for feeling more awake and alert
Rabbitbrush: mental flexibility so you can more easily shift from focussing on details to the wider view and back again
Yarrow: for aura strength when a person can’t concentrate or focus because of hypersensitivity to outside influences
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Flower essences are used to assist with mind-body-spirit interactions and individual results may vary. They are extremely dilute which makes them quite safe. But because so little physical substance can be detected in a flower essence solution, these products are presumed to work on an energetic or vibrational level—something that cannot be adequately tested by western scientific methods. Claims made by me, therefore, are based on personal experiences and the evidence of the combined multiple decades of case notes by Dr. Edward Bach as well as Healing Herbs and Flower Essence Services (the companies who make the ingredients I use in my products). This is not, however, accepted medical evidence or substantiated scientific evidence from a modern allopathic point of view. I am not a medical doctor or licensed healthcare practitioner.
Statements made have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. The information provided on my blog, websites or by this company are not a substitute for a face-to-face consultation with a health care provider, and should not be construed as individual medical or mental health advice. Consulting with a health care provider is a must for anyone taking medications or working with a medical or mental health condition, and highly recommended before using any herbal product. Please consult your doctor or health care provider for any possible contraindications and/or interactions with current medications. I trust you to seek the medical guidance you need to use any of my herbal products healthily at your own risk.