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Australian Bush Flower Essences & Aged Care

October 25, 2011 by Clare Chapman

How can the Australian Bush Flower Essences be used in Aged Care?

Earlier this year, I was the guest speaker at an annual Activity Officer’s Conference for a major aged-care group in NSW Australia. Recently, I got to thinking about the college courses I have run with the individual facilities within that group and my interactions with aged-care staff and thought it would be a good time to put together an article on how the Australian Bush Flower Essences can be used to assist our aging population, and importantly those people given the critical responsibility of supporting and caring for them.

A study in 2010 commissioned by Alzheimer’s Australia predicted that Australia will face an aged-care crisis by 2050 given the huge demand for care facilities that we are currently experiencing. This is an urgent reminder that it is imperative for us to find new ways to reduce the numbers of aged citizens being placed into specialised care. Placing our focus on improving the health and quality of the lives of our elderly population can only be of immense benefit to this situation: ensuring that more people can continue to live independently for longer and taking the pressure off our aged-care system, by saving places for those people who simply cannot live alone.

That same study goes on to predict that by the year 2050 there will be an approximate shortfall of 280,000 places required in aged care facilities: so it is justifiable that the study additionally reports that Australians who are getting older actually “worry more about dementia now than they do about stroke and heart disease.” Add to this a shortage of nurses working in aged care facilities due to the huge demands on workers and low rates of pay they receive, and it makes finding alternative solutions imperative.

One of the potential complementary therapies that can assist the situation is the 20+ years strong Australian Bush Flower Essences range, which provides an easy and safe range of natural energy remedies to help maintain wellbeing. The Bush Essences can also work towards preventing many of the health ailments which eventually lead to the placement of our elderly in aged care facilities. They can be used to help capable elderly people gain and maintain the confidence to live alone, especially where a few modifications around the home, professional on-site assistance and of course the support of their loved ones, is all that is needed to prevent them from having to be admitted to full-time aged-care. Additionally, the Bush Essences offer support to our elderly who do find themselves with no choice but to live in an aged care facility and also to the nurses and other care staff who work to support our elderly: ensuring that our aging population experiences a better quality of life within their new community, and providing health care workers with the critical support they need in their own lives, to maintain their wellbeing within their crucial job.

Australian Bush Flower Essence: Dog Rose

Dog Rose can help elderly people maintain their independence longer.


Maintaining Independence for the Elderly

One factor which can lead to the admission of elderly people into aged care is the fear that arises when they realise there are things they have difficulty doing alone or that potentially threaten their safety around the home. Many people also start to see themselves as a burden on their families, friends and neighbours, from whom they need increased support – even finding they sometimes need to move in with family in order to make living arrangements easier for everyone (and if you do find yourself in this situation as the carer of a parent, you might want to take a look at this helpful information from Aged Care Australia as well as the section below titled ‘Critical Support for Families Caring for their Elderly Loved Ones’).

While there are so many aspects that need to be addressed and many practicalities which need to be overcome in order to successfully and safely live independently longer, the purpose of my article is really just to demonstrate how the use of Australian Bush Flower Essences can help with some of the emotions that will be experienced when faced with these situations. To assist with building and increasing the confidence of an elderly resident living at home, Dog Rose (pictured above) can be a helpful remedy to help diminish any fear of potential threats to safety that can be experienced, and can also help increase levels of self-confidence. If your parent experiences real phobias about living alone, then Grey Spider Flower can help them to face life head-on and know that they will cope with whatever they are faced with. If you are an elderly person who is doubtful that you will have the ability to live alone, perhaps trying the remedy Kapok Bush will help you to be willing to give it a try and set up the support system you need to manage the arrangement successfully.

Australian Bush Flower Essence: Black-eyed Susan

Black-Eyed Susan can help Aged-Care Workers manage stress-levels better.


Critical Support for Aged-Care Workers

With numbers of staff limited and under stress in aged-care facilities, the pressure on our aged-care workers is increasing by the day. What we often neglect to remember is that the people responsible for caring for our parents and grandparents are also ‘real’ people – with their own lives and their own issues and problems! So if this is you, then you need support more than ever to help you enjoy a better quality of life, while you help care for other people’s elderly family members.

Obviously with the pressure of such a demanding job comes high levels of stress, so the first Bush Essence that I usually recommend for aged-care workers is Black-Eyed Susan (pictured above) in order to reduce the impact that intense stress may be having on your health and immunity. Additionally, Macrocarpa is useful for dealing with intense levels of exhaustion, along with Alpine Mint Bush which helps carers to ensure they learn that their own needs are just as important to maintain, otherwise they risk being no longer capable of being in service to others. Another favourite Bush Essence that has quickly been adopted by most aged-care workers I have had the pleasure to teach, is Fringed Violet (pictured below), which helps you to protect your energy from being ‘drained’ by outside elements that potentially exhaust you, and can leave you feeling weary and irritable.

Fringed Violet

Fringed Violet helps you to protect your energy.


Emotional Support for Aged-Care Residents

Imagine if, after so many years of living in your own home, raising your own family, you suddenly find yourself ‘plucked’ from your familiar surroundings and placed into an aged care facility: with many new sights, sounds, smells, strange people and less personal space than ever before. You can hopefully imagine that the whole experience could be totally overwhelming and could even lead to depression and other mental ailments. For many elderly people, that is how they interpret their experience, and so it is an important aspect that the Bush Essences can help with. The Australian Bush Flower Essences combination, Transition Essence, while commonly used for people who are terminally ill, is also a wonderful remedy to help an elderly person (and their family) adjust to a new living situation. It includes the individual Bush Essence, Bottlebrush, which has the ability to help an elderly parent to let go of their previous life situation, in order to embrace new conditions and experiences. To help deal with the overwhelm of new sights and sounds that may be experienced by a new aged-care resident, the remedy Paw Paw is a good one to help absorb new experiences at a person’s own pace. And lastly the Bush Essence, Tall Yellow Top, is a wonderful choice for helping prevent feelings of isolation and eventual depression that can arise as the result of being the newest member of an aged-care facility or just feeling like you are different from all the other residents.


Support for Families of Residents in Care

What many people are not aware of (until they face the decision themselves) is what a difficult choice it can be to have to put an elderly loved one into permanent aged-care. Many considerations have to be made, such as which facility offers the right ‘fit’ for your parent, how the family will support and cope with the transition of the elderly loved one into permanent care and how they will continue to support their loved one while they are in aged-care. One of the many emotions that can arise when a decision such as placing a parent in care is faced, is guilt: even if the health of your loved one demands extensive 24-hour care. The Bush Essence that is most helpful when faced with feelings of guilt over decisions you have to make (or have made) is Sturt Desert Rose, since guilt is an unproductive emotion on its own. As one of my favourite inspirational speakers, Jack Canfield, has said about guilt: ‘you either change the behaviour or change your thoughts about the behaviour’. Guilt is just ‘sitting’ between these two options and not acting on its motivation to change something. Sturt Desert Rose can help you to make, and be comfortable with, decisions that are true to your needs, those of your elderly parent and indeed the rest of the family. Another combination which is very helpful for the family (as well as for the elderly loved one being entered into care, as I discussed above) is Transition Essence, which can help everyone involved in the situation to accept the changes more readily and be open to the new way of life that will arise for everyone.


Critical Support for Families Caring for their Elderly Loved Ones

Australian Bush Flower Essences can help you deal with caring for your elderly parent or grandparent in the home

Australian Bush Flower Essences can help you deal with caring for your elderly parent or grandparent in the home.

For some people, supporting their elderly parents or relatives within their home is an important family custom, or is simply the way they have chosen to help their loved one age. With this decision comes many different considerations and also many different issues that need to be dealt with, both for the surrounding family and also the parent or elderly relative needing care. Whether engaging the services of a professional mobile health-care worker or simply aiding a parent yourself, the Bush Essences needed if you are the main carer (or entire family if it is a shared job) are similar to those needed by aged-care workers in professional facilities. One of the main Bush Essences that comes to mind is Alpine Mint Bush which helps you to remember your own needs, in addition to those of the parent requiring care. If you dedicate yourself entirely to the care of another, this Bush Essence helps you to deal with your own emotions so that you remember to take rest breaks when you need to (engaging someone professional or another family member to fill in for your role), to eat and sleep properly yourself and even to schedule regular ‘time-outs’ to ensure your own needs are being met and that you are at your best so you can care for your parent.

You can see that there are so many different considerations in the area of aged-care: whether you are the member of a family with parents in aged-care, an aged-care worker yourself, a resident in aged-care or someone who would like to live independently longer, there is an Australian Bush Flower Essence that can help you deal with the emotions that will arise in all of the possible situations faced. They offer the possibility of dealing with aged-care placement situations from a more balanced viewpoint and enable you to make better decisions when faced with these life-changing possibilities.

To learn more about the Australian Bush Flower Essences, consider registering for one of my Official College Course Weekend Workshops (which are useful for those working in aged-care or caring for their loved one in the home) or enrolling in the official international Correspondence Course, plus be sure to register for my free newsletter and follow me on Facebook and Twitter (and subscribe to this blog to receive email updates when new articles are added).

Until next time!

Yours in flowery wellness,
Clare ~ Baliena Flower Therapies

© 2011 Clare Chapman T/As Baliena Flower Therapies, All Rights Reserved

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I would love for you to leave your comments below about this post & if you would like me to cover any particular topics or questions in future, just send your request through via my website.

Posted in Aged Care, Caring for Health Care Professionals, Natural remedies for elderly people, Using Australian Bush Flower Essences | 2 Comments »

Beating those Back-to-School Blues: Australian Bush Flower Essence-style!

January 27, 2011 by Clare Chapman

Australian Bush Flower Essences can help your child or teenager deal with those Back-to-School Blues

It is impossible for me not to remember how miserable I used to feel as a child when those ‘Back-to-School’ advertisements started appearing on television straight after Christmas each year: escalating in frequency as the end of January, and as its imminent arrival of school, closed in on me!

Hopefully many people are now becoming aware of how much school can contribute to a state of depression in children, with many feeling as though they are trapped in an institution that controls their available choices: giving them little room to be individual or independent; challenging them intellectually and socially in ways they often won’t have faced before; sometimes offering them little stimulation or too much stimulation; and at worst, leading to dangerous feelings of depression and despair.

With so much opportunity for children and teenagers to experience adverse emotions such as stress, low self-esteem, anger, sadness, jealousy, rejection and isolation, both parents and teachers need to be aware that all of these emotions left to escalate can contribute to dangerous levels of depression* and potentially worse situations such as teenage suicide*. The important role that parents, teachers and even older siblings can play in this situation, is to become more aware of the warning signs during times when a child or teen IS still managing to cope with the challenges, rather than waiting until they are feeling overwhelmed by them and may have reached a dangerous state of mind.

Before I proceed further, I do need to make it clear that it is not my recommendation that you should ever rely solely on using the Australian Bush Flower Essences to help your child or teenager to deal with the myriad of complex emotions or even the depression they may be facing (you definitely do need to seek professional help for serious issues at the same time by visiting your local health-care or mental-health professional and referring to the support services listed at the bottom of the article). What I am recommending though, is that you can use the Australian Bush Flower Essences to help prevent some of these emotions from getting out of control before problems have appeared and while you are receiving other professional treatment for problems that are already present. For some people, the concept of treating problems that have not yet arisen may seem odd or unfamiliar, but the old adage that ‘prevention is better than cure’ has much merit and the former is definitely easier to administer than the latter.

One of the easiest ways that you can use the Australian Bush Flower Essences is by using the pre-formulated Combinations, available ready-to-use at many health food stores and pharmacies or through your preferred Australian Bush Flower Essence Practitioner. For the sake of maintaining a reasonable length blog post for you (!), I will refer to only 3 of the 17 Combinations in this powerful range: ‘Adol’, ‘Calm & Clear’ & ‘Cognis’. You can use these alternately or simply choose the appropriate combination based on the types of emotions that may be potential problems for your children and teens. Using these Essence Combinations can help them to feel more fulfilled when going back to school, help them build up their self-esteem so they can handle life their own way and help them to view their upcoming school year through optimistic eyes, instead of feeling a sense of dread that yet another school year is still ahead of them.

Dealing with Stress & Worry

Black-eyed Susan is one of the Essences in the 'Calm & Clear' Combination

No doubt I have said it before in one of my previous posts, and you probably would have heard it from other health writers as well, but there simply isn’t a condition of ill-health that is not linked to stress in some capacity. This is quite helpful to know, since it means you can help to deal with stress now: whether you know that your child or teen is stressed or not, it is always going to be beneficial to reduce the potential for stress in your child’s life. The Combination that deals with stress best is the ‘Calm & Clear’ Essence Combination and it contains the individual Essence, Black-eyed Susan, which is most commonly used to combat the thoughts and emotions that lead to stress. This Combination can help them to slow down, know their own limitations and be content with progressing in school and in their relationships at their own rate. It can also help them to build up their resistance to stress, so when they do face a situation that would normally bring about an automatic stress response, they will instead have the ability to face it courageously and with a steady-mind. And if they do face a stressful situation during their day, it is a great Combination to give them when they get home from school to help them return to their usual self or attain a new level of calm.

Building up Self-Esteem

Again, as with stress, there isn’t a person alive who couldn’t benefit from improving their level of self-esteem: as an adult, you would most likely remember just how much your levels of esteem take a ’hit’ throughout your childhood and teenage years. There are so many reasons why self-esteem suffers during your child’s school years, but they often revolve around your child or teen feeling like they are different from everyone else, feeling as though they might be smarter or slower than other children around them, feeling as though they are not worthy of the attention of their classmates, and the list goes on. The ‘Adol’ Essence Combination is a great one to use for a child or teen who needs help building up their self-esteem, and the Essence working on this quality within that Combination is Five Corners. This Combination can help your child to develop a healthy level of self-love so they are confident enough to show their face to the world without compromising their own integrity: no matter how different they feel they are from everyone else.

Improving Learning Abilities

Bush Fuchsia is one of the Essences in the 'Cognis' & 'Calm & Clear' Combinations

While there are many reasons for a child to start to become disruptive or difficult in school, one of the most common reasons is their inability to keep-up with their school work: whether they have actual learning difficulties, have been diagnosed as having ADHD, or are simply bored with the content of their work. The Essence Combination which is so useful in all these situations for children and teens (and adults for that matter – but that’s another article!) is ‘Cognis’ Essence Combination. There are several Essences at work within this Combination that are so beneficial to your child, but one of the major components is Bush Fuchsia Essence. This is a very powerful Essence and has many uses such as balancing mental abilities, helping with speech and hearing difficulties, and even improving hand-eye co-ordination in sports.

Avoiding Rejection & Isolation

I’m sure you would agree that one of the major issues affecting or influencing most teenagers is their attempt to discover who they are and develop the courage to openly show their own individual personality. Unfortunately, one of the major outcomes for many teens who are trying to be more ‘comfortable in their own skin’ is to feel like they are different from other teens around them – and so they resort to masking their real personality for fear of being rejected by their peers. Often teens feel like their only choice is to be independent and risk rejection by fellow teens, or become a carbon-copy of their ideal role models or classmates, and feel isolated because they feel that no one appreciates their true identity. No matter what the reason behind these feelings of rejection or isolation, the ‘Adol’ Essence Combination can really help to prevent these feelings before they have taken over. One of the main Essences helping with these issues in the ‘Adol‘ combination is the Tall Yellow Top Essence, which can help with these feelings of isolation and eventual depression that can develop if these emotions are not dealt with appropriately.

But wait, there’s more …

I realise what I have covered above is metaphorically the ‘tip of the iceberg’ when it comes to the complexity of children’s and teen’s emotional problems, but I hope it is at least a good starting point to get you thinking about how you can use the Essences for your own family. The beauty of the Combination range from Australian Bush Flower Essences is just that: you can self-select and work out what you want to deal with next, because they are clearly labelled for the different issues they each deal with. So get down to your local health food store or pharmacy and take a good look, or check out the whole range online here at the Australian Bush Flower Essences website. And if you really want to get into using Australian Bush Flower Essences for your family (or for your clients) you really should consider attending one of my upcoming authorised Australian Bush Flower Essences Weekend College Courses to learn more detailed information on what they can do for you.

* If you do know a child or teenager who you are concerned about or who does require professional help dealing with depression or other overwhelming emotions, visit Youth Beyond Blue to find available help or call Kid’s Help Line on 1800 55 1800.

Until next time!

Yours in flowery wellness,
Clare ~ Baliena Flower Therapies

© 2011 Clare Chapman T/As Baliena Flower Therapies, All Rights Reserved

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I would love for you to leave your comments below about this post & if you would like me to cover any particular topics or questions in future, just send your request through via my website.

Posted in Building Self-Esteem, Dealing with Peer Pressure, Improving social skills, Learning Difficulties, Maintaining your calm, Parenting, Remedies for children, Socialisation, teenagers, Uses for Teachers & Educators, Using Australian Bush Flower Essences | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

The 12 Essences of Christmas Series – Twelfth Day…

December 20, 2010 by Clare Chapman

Day 12 of the 12 Essences of Christmas

On the twelfth day of Christmas, Australian Bush Flower Essences gave to me… Waratah (Telopea speciosissima).

We’ve reached our last Essence in this series, and hopefully you have started putting some of them to use this Christmas (or are at least planning to as soon as you get your Essence!).

So far this series, we’ve looked at eleven Australian Bush Flower Essences that can help you this Christmas to:

We’ve covered many different aspects of Christmas, and many different viewpoints, but we have one very serious issue still to address: for some people, Christmas heralds a time of sadness or depression rather than a time of joy. It serves solely as a reminder of what is missing from their lives and can cause much mental and emotional anguish when it arrives each year.

At any time that a person is questioning their existence and facing very hard times, there is one Australian Bush Flower Essence that comes to mind instantly (to be used in conjunction with seeking other professional and medical help, of course): Waratah. You will most commonly use this Essence as part of the Emergency Combination due to its quick effect and ability to help you see the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ – ensuring you seek any help you may need.

Let’s take a look at some ways that using Waratah Essence can help to make this season brighter:

  • Preventing despair: If your holiday season isn’t shaping up to be what you had hoped, then Waratah Essence might be helpful for you. Most of the time, our Christmas season doesn’t match the ‘greeting card’ image that we have in our minds, but we need to put the illusion of Christmas aside to ensure we don’t suffer from ill emotions as a result of unrealistic expectations. By helping you to expand into your heart more, Waratah Essence ensures you enjoy a Christmas full of love and joy, despite circumstances around you.
  • Re-connect to the greater field around you: If you have ever felt as though you are all alone, it is because your emotions and circumstances have made you actually disconnect yourself from the greater energy field of love from which we come (of course, you can never really disconnect yourself from your Higher Source, it can just feel that way when you ‘block’ the connection through negative emotions). Waratah Essence helps you to ‘take heart’ and re-establish your connection to Source, to ensure that you are well aware of the world of support out there to get you through Christmas.
  • Peace on earth, goodwill to all: It may sound a bit clichéd, but Christmas is traditionally that one time of year that we are supposed to forget our divisions and seek to create a united community (even during World Wars, there was often a cease-fire on Christmas Day). Waratah Essence can help you to pause and contemplate the possibility of acting from your heart – instead of from your head. The path to peace can only be found once we find peace within ourselves, and so Waratah Essence can help us on the road to a better world this Christmas – one person at a time.

Well, that’s it for this series! I really do hope you have enjoyed reading each day’s post, that it has provided you with an insight into different ways you can use the Australian Bush Flower Essences, and also has given you much food-for-thought this Christmas.

Thanks for reading and I wish you a wonderful Christmas filled with joy, happiness and every pleasure you could wish for, and a New Year filled with every one of your goals fulfilled! I look forward to you reading my blog again in 2011 and thank you for your company this year.


Yours in flowery Christmas-cheer,
Clare ~ Baliena Flower Therapies

© 2010 Clare Chapman T/As Baliena Flower Therapies, All Rights Reserved

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I would love for you to leave your comments below about this post & if you would like me to cover any particular topics or questions in future, just send your request through via my website.

Posted in Using Australian Bush Flower Essences | 2 Comments »

The 12 Essences of Christmas Series – Eleventh Day…

December 19, 2010 by Clare Chapman

Day 11 of the 12 Essences of Christmas

On the eleventh day of Christmas, Australian Bush Flower Essences gave to me… Alpine Mint Bush (Prostanthera cuneata).

Today we will take a look at an Essence that is most helpful this Christmas if you are the sole carer for an elderly parent, a family member with a disability or if you work professionally in aged care or nursing. While many people are getting ready to take a break between Christmas and the New Year, if you are a carer, you obviously cannot just abandon your responsibilities because it is Christmas. So for sole carers of anyone (and that includes mothers and fathers of young children), Alpine Mint Bush Essence is the present you most deserve under your tree this Christmas.

As a carer, this Essence really needs to become a regular part of your health and maintenance regime. It is very important to help bring about the emotions that ensure that you, as a carer, do take the time to replenish yourself, take the time out that you need to rest and recover and know that helping others is not meant to be at the expense of your own health or happiness.

How can Alpine Mint Bush Essence help you as a carer this Christmas?

  • Create personal time for yourself this Christmas: Alpine Mint Bush Essence is the perfect remedy to help you realise that you deserve, and need, to take time out for yourself. For many carers, one reason they don’t take time out is the difficulty they feel they will have in finding a replacement carer for their charge. Another reason is because they feel guilty that they are wanting the time out, and they hold the damaging belief that they should not be as selfish as to need time away from their responsibilities. But whether it be appealing to another family member, engaging professional respite services or scheduling annual leave with your manager, this Essence will encourage your need to find regular ways to take time out from your duties (after all, you are no good to anyone if you allow yourself to get sick due to overwork, poor nutrition and lack of sleep).
  • Bring joy to yourself, as well as to the world: For many carers, their main focus in life is to care for others. But for the professional carers I have personally taught in my classes, the concept of caring for themselves seems quite foreign and for some, almost selfish. This attitude has most likely built up over years of viewing the importance of their professional duties to society, but in return has somehow diminished their own sense of caring for and about themselves! Alpine Mint Bush Essence ensures that as a professional or home carer you make it your priority to care for yourself, as much as you do for others.
  • Revitalise and refresh this Christmas: There can be no better season to take some time out and really do something that is just for yourself (even just a small thing, if time is really scarce for you). Alpine Mint Bush Essence ensures that you will realise the importance that taking time out will bring to your life and will reduce the chance of becoming resentful when your needs aren’t being met because all your time is being spent caring for others. As a wonderful bonus, you will realise that after your break, you are more effective, more generous and more efficient for your charges, so they will thank you for looking after yourself as well!

I like to think of this Essence as the Australian version of creating a ‘White Christmas’, since we are enjoying summer at this time of year, and this plant grows in the alpine regions of our country that do see snow in the winter. And since winter is normally a time to slow down, take care of yourself and look at your life a little more, Alpine Mint Bush Essence can help you to do all this – regardless of the season you are in! It can help you to put your cares into the hands of someone else in order to give yourself the respite needed to be healthy and have time for your own life – while still fulfilling your responsibilities to others. While it is important and necessary to be of service to others, you also need to learn to be of service to yourself, by taking good care of yourself. After all, if you don’t, who will?

I hope you will join me for the very last installment in this series tomorrow, when we look at the last of our ’12 Essences of Christmas’.

Yours in flowery Christmas-cheer,
Clare ~ Baliena Flower Therapies

© 2010 Clare Chapman T/As Baliena Flower Therapies, All Rights Reserved

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I would love for you to leave your comments below about this post & if you would like me to cover any particular topics or questions in future, just send your request through via my website.

Posted in Aged Care, Caring for Health Care Professionals, Coping with Christmas, Enhancing relationships, Maintaining your calm, Natural remedies for elderly people, Nurturing your self, Remedies for men, Remedies for women, The 12 Essences of Christmas 2010, Using Australian Bush Flower Essences | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

The 12 Essences of Christmas Series – Tenth Day…

December 17, 2010 by Clare Chapman

Day 10 of the 12 Essences of Christmas

On the tenth day of Christmas, Australian Bush Flower Essences gave to me… Old Man Banksia (Banksia serrata).

Today we continue on a similar theme to yesterday’s post: taking better care of yourself and working out ways to better nurture yourself this Christmas. Old Man Banksia Essence is a very necessary Essence for you if you are a mother or father who is responsible for ‘making Christmas happen’ for your family. We already took a look earlier in the series at how you can reduce the additional burden the festive season adds to your schedule, and today’s Essence offers further relief to ensure you don’t get to the end of the season and suffer burn-out: emotionally, mentally and physically.

To work out whether Old Man Banksia is the Essence you most need to help you through the festive season, see if you tick any of the below boxes:

  • You live on only 4-5 hours sleep, as the other 19-20 hours in your day are needed to take care of your entire household.
  • You regularly feel weary and it takes a great effort for you to push your body into action – but you would never let your family down as you are the ‘rock’ whom everyone relies on.
  • You are quite slow-moving but are determined to get each task or duty finished – even if it kills you!

If any of the above sentiments match how you think and feel, then Old Man Banksia Essence can be of big use to you this Christmas (and well into the future!). For now, let’s take a look at a few ways you can put this Essence to use during the festive season:

  • Energy replenishment for hosts: If you are always the person charged with hosting the family on Christmas day (and every family usually has one reliable host who gets stuck with the chore each year!), then Old Man Banksia Essence can help you to keep well-energised by helping you to take care of yourself, and resting when you need to rest. It will also help you to delegate more of your chores so that you don’t get stuck doing everything, except enjoying the day, this Christmas.
  • Reducing over-exertion and that ‘burdened’ feeling: Sometimes it can feel like you are carrying the weight of the world if you are the person in your family who takes responsibility for Christmas (and most of the chores the rest of the year!). Old Man Banksia Essence can help you to remove that feeling of being ‘burdened’ with the entire load of work around you, and instead make you more likely to respect your limitations, and only move as fast as you can go. One of the tendencies of the type of person who needs this Essence is to attempt to take on all responsibilities and workloads in every given situation, so this Essence can help you to realise that you are limited to what you can achieve in a set amount of time, and that sometimes things will have to be left undone.
  • Being careful about what you ‘invest’ your energy in: Is it necessary to put so much effort into presenting your family with an absolutely perfect ‘Martha Stewart-esque’ Christmas? Or is it perhaps a ridiculous proposition to put so much effort into a single day that will be over before you’re even able to photograph the event for your Facebook album? One of the many benefits of Old Man Banksia Essence is that it encourages you to only put your energy and effort into what you can achieve and what is worthwhile to achieve. So that when you do put effort and energy into your family’s Christmas this year, it just might be ok to cut back a little on the traditional trimmings and let go of the unrealistic expectations that have ‘plagued’ you for years.

So there we have it: Day 10 of the ’12 Essences of Christmas’ and only two more days to go! I do hope that this series has been useful for you and would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below. Join me again tomorrow for an Essence that can help you to continue on your path to taking better care of yourself this Christmas, even if caring for others is your sole responsibility (subscribe to my blog to ensure you don’t miss a post).

Floral blessings to you,
Clare ~ Baliena Flower Therapies

© 2010 Clare Chapman T/As Baliena Flower Therapies, All Rights Reserved

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I would love for you to leave your comments below about this post & if you would like me to cover any particular topics or questions in future, just send your request through via my website.

Posted in Caring for Health Care Professionals, Coping with Christmas, Nurturing your self, Remedies for women, The 12 Essences of Christmas 2010, Using Australian Bush Flower Essences | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

The 12 Essences of Christmas Series – Ninth Day…

December 16, 2010 by Clare Chapman

Day 9 of the 12 Essences of Christmas

On the ninth day of Christmas, Australian Bush Flower Essences gave to me… Bush Gardenia (Gardenia megasperma).

Have you ever wondered how you can take better care of your loved ones and all your relationships at Christmas? Well there is an easy answer, and that is to take better care of yourself! While it may seem paradoxical to take care of yourself before extending yourself to others, if you don’t do this, you will have nothing to offer anyone else.

One of the main things Bush Gardenia Essence can help you with is better nurturing your intimate relationships, and part of its effect can be to inspire you to get better at nurturing yourself first. The Christmas season provides you with a good barometer to measure your relationships against: if you find yourself joyously doing the little things to make Christmas bright for your loved ones, then your relationships are flying high; if you find it a struggle to stretch yourself to do anything for your loved ones, then maybe it’s time to inject some Bush Gardenia Essence into your relationships.

So let’s take a look at some of the benefits Bush Gardenia Essence can add to your Christmas:

  • Enjoying the ‘scents’ of the season: Many countries have their classical Christmas scents, but one of my favourites here in Australia is when the gardenia flowers absolutely take over the airwaves! For me and my family, it heralds the start of summer and the Christmas season, and reminds me of wonderful times spent with loved ones. Bush Gardenia Essence can help you to better enjoy the beauty of the festive season and really appreciate the joys and wonders that often go unnoticed. One of the ways you will start to notice the things that are wonderful in your own life is to take time to stop and smell the flowers (gardenias or otherwise!) and this Essence can help you to sit back, soak in the smells and sounds around you and really appreciate the little things.
  • Self nurturing = better relationships: If improving your personal relationships is at the top of your agenda, then Christmas seems like it would be the best time to do this, don’t you think? And as I said earlier, to maintain wonderful relationships, your own self-nurturance needs to have your ‘cup overflowing’ with much self-love, respect, kindness, goodwill and gratitude – so much so that you truly want to pass on some of your excess gifts to your loved ones. Bush Gardenia Essence can help you to take better care of yourself physically, emotionally and spiritually so that you then want to put your heart and soul into your intimate relationships. In contrast, not nurturing yourself means that you are more likely to become a ‘Scrooge’ when it comes to sharing yourself with your partner and putting your time into your relationships.
  • Seeking the beauty in less joyous situations: Sometimes you can be faced with situations at Christmas which are uncomfortable, unenjoyable and seemingly unavoidable. But within these types of situations often lies the opportunity to learn more about ourselves, to better deal with others and if nothing else, to build upon our own levels of patience and allowance! Bush Gardenia Essence can help you to find the beauty that really seems well hidden in difficult or awkward situations during the festive season, and as a result can enable you to feel better about everything around you, but also can help you to take back your power when it comes to situations that appear to be out of your hands.

One of the best ways to embrace Christmas is fully nurtured, with a lot of heart and feeling sensuously alive with possibility, so try some Bush Gardenia Essence and watch your relationships come alive this festive season!

Don’t forget to tune in again tomorrow and make sure you don’t miss out on any of the Essences by subscribing to my blog here.

Floral blessings to you,
Clare ~ Baliena Flower Therapies

© 2010 Clare Chapman T/As Baliena Flower Therapies, All Rights Reserved

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I would love for you to leave your comments below about this post &  if you would like me to cover any particular topics or questions in future, just send your request through via my website.


Posted in Enhancing relationships, Nurturing your self, The 12 Essences of Christmas 2010, Using Australian Bush Flower Essences | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

The 12 Essences of Christmas Series – Eighth Day…

December 15, 2010 by Clare Chapman

Day 8 of the 12 Essences of Christmas

On the eighth day of Christmas, Australian Bush Flower Essences gave to me… Crowea (Crowea saligna).

How would you like to get to the end of the Christmas season and find that you feel great, have so many wonderful memories and are fighting-fit to meet the New Year head-on?

One of the key remedies that can help you feel much more balanced and centred is the Australian Bush Flower Essence, Crowea. This remedy is found most commonly in the ‘Emergency’ Essence combination, but also features in seven other Bush Flower combinations. You might imagine that being so involved in many of the combinations it must be a very useful Essence, and you wouldn’t be wrong in drawing that conclusion.

Crowea can help you enjoy a more balanced Christmas

In my opinion, if you could choose only one Essence from all twelve that we have, and will, cover in this series, it would be Crowea: the reason being there is so much that this remedy deals with that it almost becomes indispensable. So let’s take a look at the things it can help you with:

  • Balance, balance, balance: Can you ever be too balanced? Well at this time of year, I think it is highly unlikely that we are ever feeling too balanced. Being out-of-sorts is only to be expected with the long hours we keep and the delicacies we enjoy. Crowea Essence can help you to feel a lot more balanced, and to choose only activities, foods and drink that ensure you maintain your balance. So you can achieve balance in the mind AND balance in the body this festive season.
  • Soothing the stomach and aiding digestion: As with yesterday’s featured Essence, Paw Paw, one of the weaknesses Crowea Essence can help you with is your stomach and digestion issues. And of course, there is the high possibility of enduring some of this in a season where we suddenly find intense quantities of dried fruit, alcohol and poultry all thrown together in an almost painful combination!
  • Helping with overexertion: One of the amazing benefits of using Crowea Essence is that it can help you with any type of muscle fatigue or over-exertion, which during this season can be quite common when you are rushing from one party to the next, racing about to get your Christmas shopping all finished in time, and getting those overseas Christmas cards posted in time. A wonderful way to use this Essence is not only taking the drops internally, but also adding 7 drops to a foot-bath after a very long day – trust me when I say your body will thank you for it!

This is really an important Essence to take on a regular basis throughout the year, but at Christmas it offers so many wonderful benefits, ensuring you maintain your vigour and strength, and enabling you to better enjoy this festive season.

Join me again for tomorrow’s installment where we take a look at an Essence that will help you to better nurture yourself and find the beauty in every aspect of your life this Christmas (make sure that you don’t miss out on any of this series by subscribing to my blog here).

Floral blessings to you,
Clare ~ Baliena Flower Therapies

© 2010 Clare Chapman T/As Baliena Flower Therapies, All Rights Reserved

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I would love for you to leave your comments below about this post &  if you would like me to cover any particular topics or questions in future, just send your request through via my website.

Posted in Balancing your mind and body, Coping with Christmas, Digestion, Maintaining your calm, Stomach problems, The 12 Essences of Christmas 2010, Using Australian Bush Flower Essences | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

The 12 Essences of Christmas Series – Seventh Day…

December 14, 2010 by Clare Chapman

Day 7 of the 12 Essences of Christmas

On the seventh day of Christmas, Australian Bush Flower Essences gave to me… Paw Paw (Carica papaya).

Whenever you are exposed to a long-string of situations and events where you are outside of your normal routine, it is very easy to start to feel a little overwhelmed and sometimes even unwell. Unusual bedtimes, rich foods, alcohol and excessive socialising can all take their toll on you, and Christmas is a time for all of these possibilities and more.

Today’s featured Australian Bush Flower Essence, Paw Paw, is the perfect Essence to deal with the issue of excessive intake of food or new experiences and can help you to absorb the nutrients and events that you want to, and discard the rest. It is to be expected that you can start to feel sluggish, tired, low on energy and not functioning as well as normal when your body is pushed to the hilt, without your normal diet and activity levels which it grows accustomed to (especially if your diet and health regime is normally one full of nutrients and moderation!).

So today we are going to take a look at a few ways that Paw Paw Essence can help you to overcome any digestion and information overload problems and also help you deal with all the new experiences you are exposed to during the festive season.

  • Dealing with seasonal overwhelm: As much as we enjoy socialising with others, eating out at exotic restaurants and keeping late hours during the festive season, all these aspects can cause great levels of stress to the mind and body. Enjoyed in moderation, of course, all of these activities provide great enjoyment and create wonderful memories for us. But how do we know when is enough and which events we should miss? Paw Paw Essence can help you to be true to your own physical limits by aiding you with: the physical digestion of the foods you are enjoying; the rollercoaster-ride of emotions that you may experience via your interactions with people you love, people you dislike and people you may not have seen all year; the mental processing of all the unusual and unique experiences you may enjoy during your gatherings; and also the foreign locations you encounter during any international travels. By using Paw Paw Essence you may find that you maintain your normal levels of health, feel much more your ‘usual’ self and actually stay physically well enough to enjoy all the experiences you have planned this Christmas.
  • Staying on course and true to your plans:Paw Paw Essence is a wonderful remedy for getting in touch with your ‘higher self’ (or whatever you prefer to call your ‘higher levels’ of wisdom or intuition) when wanting to make decisions from a deeper perspective. This can be very helpful at this time of year, as it may enable you to better experience the things you have planned, while skipping the events that may not quite resonate with you. It can also help you to stay true to your visions, ideas and perceptions through all the additional information you can find ‘coming at you’ during the festive season.
  • ‘Digesting’ only the things you want to: As you would well be aware, the Christmas season usually comes ‘armed’ with an onslaught of information from the media about what you should be buying, who you should be partying with, how you should be making your house look and what sorts of gifts you should be giving. To take all of this information in and survive to tell the story would be a true Christmas miracle! Paw Paw Essence can help you to only absorb and ‘digest’ the information you were actually seeking and the things that you do want to retain in your mind. It is a key Essence for learning (you will most commonly find this Essence within the ‘Cognis’ combination made by Australian Bush Flower Essences) and one of the reasons it is so useful is because it helps you work out what you do want to learn and retain, and effectively allows you to discard the excess information that wasn’t for you.

With a little help from Paw Paw Essence, this Christmas will see you ‘digesting’ not only the rich foods, but also taking from your experiences the things you want to retain and remember – leaving you with a happier, more manageable festive season and a better start to the New Year.

Tune into tomorrow’s installment for an Essence that can help you achieve better levels of balance this festive season: inside and out! Don’t miss out on any of the Essences by subscribing to my blog here.

Floral blessings to you,
Clare ~ Baliena Flower Therapies

© 2010 Clare Chapman T/As Baliena Flower Therapies, All Rights Reserved

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I would love for you to leave your comments below about this post &  if you would like me to cover any particular topics or questions in future, just send your request through via my website.

Wow, up to the halfw

Posted in Coping with Christmas, Digestion, Socialisation, Stomach problems, The 12 Essences of Christmas 2010, Using Australian Bush Flower Essences | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

The 12 Essences of Christmas Series – Sixth Day…

December 13, 2010 by Clare Chapman

Day 6 of the 12 Essences of Christmas

On the sixth day of Christmas, Australian Bush Flower Essences gave to me… Kangaroo Paw (Anigozanthos manglesii).

Wow, up to the halfway mark already! But we’re not slowing down yet, as we are today going to look at the more social aspects of Christmas, since it is the time of year when we are most likely to interact extensively with others. For some of you out there, this can make the festive season a very uncomfortable time: it’s often easy enough for us to interact with others on a professional day-to-day basis in the workplace, but having to interact with others using our ‘real’ persona can be incredibly awkward and uncomfortable.

That’s where today’s Australian Bush Flower Essence, Kangaroo Paw , comes in. If you look at the flower itself, you will see that it even looks awkward – and almost seems like it can’t decide if it prefers to be red or green! If you didn’t know it was safe to handle, you might even be reluctant to touch it – but if you did extend yourself to it, you would realise that it is actually quite soft, enjoyable to touch and quite elegant in its own way. These aspects of the flower mirror the personality difficulties that it assists with, as it helps you to present the softer inner-side of yourself to those around you, despite the fact that you might often appear as awkward, clumsy and possessing a perennial case of ‘foot-in-mouth disease’!

Christmas brings with it many fun opportunities, but your level of fun is going to be governed by how comfortable you are with other people and how well you understand and relate to those around you. If you are the sort of person who: doesn’t feel they can be themselves around other people; feels petrified at the idea of making ‘small-talk’; or doesn’t know what other people expect of you so don’t know how best to act, then Christmas parties and other events might be an almost painful experience for you.

So today I thought we would look at some ways that you can use Kangaroo Paw Essence to enhance your social opportunities this season and also to act as a ‘social lubricant’ to make all your obligations run smoothly.

  • Developing and maintaining tactfulness: Tactfulness is a learned behaviour, so if you happen to have been in the presence of parents whose social skills were a little lacking, you hopefully will have had a mentor elsewhere in this skill. If you didn’t have anyone to help you learn this concept, then you might very well be the guest at the party who walks up and introduces yourself to the female host of a party, only to find yourself embarrassingly congratulating her on the impending birth of her child when she isn’t even pregnant! Kangaroo Paw Essence is a wonderful remedy for helping you to develop your level of tactfulness, and ensures you don’t accidentally say the wrong thing and simply ‘blurt’ out the first thing that comes to mind when conversing with others. After all, often we only lack tactfulness due to discomfort when interacting with strangers, so with Kangaroo Paw Essence’s help, take a deep breath, think before you speak and you will become the life of the party!
  • Being sensitive to people around you: There are so many benefits to being sensitive to the needs and personalities of other people around you. Not only do you enable people to be themselves around you, thereby creating the opportunity to form meaningful friendships, but you also get the opportunity to really understand what other people are communicating to you. Instead of just nodding and making mandatory conversation, Kangaroo Paw Essence can enhance your level of sensitivity to the people you are interacting with, and enable you to not only hear what they are saying, but really understand what they mean as well.
  • Creating a more sensitive you: Christmas allows you the opportunity to extend the softer, kinder side of yourself, and Kangaroo Paw Essence enables you to bring this to the forefront more readily. Now for some people, the idea of having a ‘softer side’ might imply that you have a weak side: quite the opposite. You can be soft and yet still powerful, sensitive and yet assertive. Kangaroo Paw Essence enables you to develop your ability to feel and understand how you are being intepreted by the people around you, and ensures you present the best side of yourself to everyone you meet.

This is truly an Essence we can all use at some point in our lives, as interacting positively with other people presents a great challenge all our lives. Whether it be because of a particular life stage or a critical time in your life, there is always a period of time in which you find yourself unable to interact with others in a sensitive and emotive fashion. Kangaroo Paw is such a wonderful Essence as there is always room within us for being more sensitive, and above all else, it encourages you to be more sensitive in your most important relationship: that you have with yourself.

I hope you enjoyed our sixth day of Essences, and I look forward to you joining me tomorrow for Day Seven (subscribe here to make sure you don’t forget the rest of the series!).


Floral blessings to you,
Clare ~ Baliena Flower Therapies

© 2010 Clare Chapman T/As Baliena Flower Therapies, All Rights Reserved

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I would love for you to leave your comments below about this post &  if you would like me to cover any particular topics or questions in future, just send your request through via my website.

Posted in Coping with Christmas, Help with insensitivity, Improving social skills, Socialisation, The 12 Essences of Christmas 2010, Using Australian Bush Flower Essences | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

The 12 Essences of Christmas Series – Fifth Day…

December 12, 2010 by Clare Chapman

Day 5 of the 12 Essences of Christmas

On the fifth day of Christmas, Australian Bush Flower Essences gave to me… Dog Rose of the Wild Forces (Bauera sessiliflora).

I do hope that you are enjoying this series on using the Australian Bush Flower Essences to cope with and create a better Christmas. So far we have tackled creating greater levels of enjoyment for you during Christmas, manifesting your perfect new life, releasing old resentments to better cope with family festivities and yesterday’s Essence addressed committing yourself to making real lasting changes in your life this festive season.

Today we look at the issue of maintaining your own levels of calm, peace and sanity within the hectic pace of the festive season. Our chosen Essence today is Dog Rose of the Wild Forces (also a part of the Emergency Essence combination) which is very helpful for maintaining your calm ‘amidst the storm’. This Essence is incredibly powerful for creating your own sense of presence: keeping your mind still so you can consciously make positive decisions, and ensuring you don’t get ‘swept away’ in the panic that can overtake you while attempting to create the Hollywood-vision of that  ‘picture-perfect’ Christmas.

Despite the fact that many of us start the season planning for an easier, more restful Christmas, it can be easy to get caught-up in advertising, promotions, perfect-looking catalogues and the desire to create an unrealistic Christmas. Do you really believe that the people you see in advertising campaigns, catalogues and movies resemble a realistic family dinner-scene? Do you really think there are many people who are actually able to put together a Christmas like that, without having an entire household staff at their beck and call? We are often misled by all the images we are presented with, but most often by our own sense of unreasonable obligation which can make us attempt to achieve unrealistic visions for our family and loved ones.

Dog Rose of the Wild Forces Essence is the perfect remedy to ensure you stay level-headed about what you want for Christmas, and here are just a few of the frantic aspects of Christmas it can help you overcome:

  • Keeping your cool: You’ve probably heard good therapists say that you shouldn’t take it personally if the weather chooses to rain on your wedding day! With Christmas often being a highlight of many people’s social calendars, any hiccup that interrupts the smooth course of events can easily lead to you lose your cool and nearly give up on everything. So what if the turkey didn’t defrost in time, or you forgot to buy the custard for the pudding? Do you really think your guests will leave miserable and thinking what a rotten host you are? Of course, if you throw a small-scale temper-tantrum, you are very likely to leave that exact impression on your guests! Dog Rose of the Wild Forces Essence can help you instead maintain a sense of calm and cool in the face of any ‘bump in the road’ and can help you to become the King or Queen of clever improvisation when things don’t travel quite as you’d expected. And if your past experience is anything like mine, those times when you are forced to improvise usually leave you and your guests with the best memories.
  • Creating a greater sense of calm: Dog Rose of the Wild Forces Essence can help you to create a level of calm and have you working like clockwork, so much so that your family and guests will think you are truly unflappable! During times of frantic activity, you can be forgiven for thinking the universe is throwing every possible obstacle your way: whether it be your kids loudly complaining about the batteries you forgot to buy for their new toys; your family getting in your way and telling you how things should be done; or your phone constantly ringing off the hook causing you to burn the sauce you had gently simmering on the stove. Dog Rose of the Wild Forces Essence can help you to realise that random ‘stuff’ just happens, and the best way to handle it is to go with the flow, maintain your calm and hold your resolve to stay happy no matter what.
  • Maintaining your sanity when facing harsh deadlines: Some of the things we attempt to do at Christmas could lead an outside observer to think that maybe we are all just a little bit crazy at this time of year! Let’s look at a scenario that just may resemble one of your own past Christmas experiences: Your 9-year old son comes home the night before his school’s Christmas Eve play and tells you for the first time that he needs to have a shepherd costume ready for tomorrow evening; your 15-year old daughter tells you she is traveling away with her friends from Christmas Eve through to Boxing Day despite your loud protests; and your partner tells you that you have to attend their work function – you guessed it – also on Christmas Eve, which now means you will have to leave your son’s play 30 minutes before it ends in order to attend the work party, and ensure you get home in time to get the next day’s banquet prepared and stop your daughter from jet setting off to wherever she is not supposed to be heading. Arrgghh! As I pointed out earlier, Dog Rose of the Wild Forces will help you to maintain your calm, but it will also help you to maintain your own clear-line of thinking so you will be able to deal with all scenarios that may arise and will help you to sort through what you can achieve and what you can’t. Most importantly, it will ensure you don’t get caught up in the hysteria of those around you who may have left their obligations until the last minute!

Above all else, Dog Rose of the Wild Forces Essence can help you to avoid the feeling that you are going to lose your sense of sanity this festive season and will help you maintain your own sense of presence amidst any turbulence. The easiest way to use this Essence is within the Emergency Essence combination so ensure that wherever you are or whatever you are doing this Christmas, you have plenty of Emergency Essence or Dog Rose of the Wild Forces Essence on hand!

Remember to check back tomorrow as we continue forward onto the sixth day of Christmas Essences (subscribe here to make sure you don’t forget the rest of the series!).


Floral blessings to you,
Clare ~ Baliena Flower Therapies

© 2010 Clare Chapman T/As Baliena Flower Therapies, All Rights Reserved

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I would love for you to leave your comments below about this post &  if you would like me to cover any particular topics or questions in future, just send your request through via my website.

Posted in Coping with Christmas, Maintaining your calm, The 12 Essences of Christmas 2010, Using Australian Bush Flower Essences | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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