The other day I woke up feeling great, was having a wonderful day, and then unconsciously slipped into a fearful thought and fell off my apple cart. It happened in a flash and it felt almost impossible to shake. And it left me thinking, “wow, it only took a single negative thought to ruin my day?”
To be fair, a lot of us have been having similar thoughts—especially when our personal challenges intersect with legitimate concerns about things happening in the wider world that we can’t control. For example, in my life: will my California hometown be surrounded by fire again in the near future? Do we really want to continue to rent this apartment or try to buy a house in this community where the price of housing has skyrocketed by 40% in the last 3 years despite those fires? And, damn, local people on my social media list are saying they can’t get house insurance at an affordable price here anymore if they can get it at all! (The major insurers that everyone knows the names of have all pulled out.) On some level, the answer might seem obvious—we will probably go when our responsibilities here are over. But where will we go and how do we make that decision? What are the climate-change challenges likely to be elsewhere? Oh, and let’s not forget the bigger political issues rocking our world. That certainly plays a part in these decisions, too! It’s easy to fall off one’s cart and get stuck in the weeds. These are troubled times, and my family is certainly not immune to it.
Green Cross Gentian, a key component of my Support for Troubled Times formula, comes to mind. The Gentian used in Bach’s original flower remedies is similar in the sense of it helping a person get back on their feet after a setback. But Green Cross Gentian ups the ante and adds in the ability to gain hope and strength to persevere despite the troubles of the greater world that seem overwhelming. It’s not just for personal defeats and setbacks (although you could use it for that); it’s about setbacks that require the ability to navigate setbacks imbedded in a larger context than that.
The two Gentians, by the way are quite different from each other in terms of how they act in the wild. Bach’s Gentians are fairly small plants with cheerful upright violet-purple flowers with a mostly white and purple concave center. Green Cross Gentians, also known as Monument Plant, are also upright but they can grow to be 6 feet tall! Its flowers are green and white with purple spots. The flowers exhibit a green cross, which is where their name as a flower essence comes from. The center is green and protrudes out. Physically, you could say the Green Cross Gentian has BIG upright energy that also projects energy out from all the many flower heads along that the stalk. Do you need strength? Big Earth Energy-like strength? That’s what this flower is all about.
When I use Green Cross Gentian separately from my Troubled Times formula, I feel its power as deeply grounding—so grounding that I feel like my feet are firmly planted on the floor in a way I generally don’t notice otherwise. Then I feel energy come up from the ground and all the way up through the top of my head a few minutes later. The thought that came to me tonight when I took it while writing this blog was a line from a Kinks song popular in my childhood: “I don’t feel safe in this world no more. I don’t want to die in a nuclear war.” Yeah, that’s the issue this plant addresses—not feeling safe enough on the planet to want to stay rooted and yet this is where we live no matter where we go!
People often use Green Cross Gentian to support themselves in activism or hands-on work when they become overwhelmed by what seems like a daunting task, when they are taking on the burdens of the world in a way that is just too much to hold. The flower essence helps strengthen a person’s resolve and ability to try again when you feel knocked down.
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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.