Bach Flower Therapy: A Perfect Remedy For Your Anxiety And Stress

In a WHO study carried out in 2020 it was estimated that about 7.5 per cent Indians suffer from some mental disorder. It was predicted that by end of the year roughly 20 per cent of India will be suffer from mental illnesses. According to the numbers, 56 million Indians were reported to be suffering from depression and another 38 million Indians from anxiety disorders.Also Read – ‘Psycho’ or ‘Schizo? Labels or Language? Time to Change These Pseudo-clinical Terms

Statistics go more by definition of the diseases than their symptoms and causes, leading to much lower figures being reported. Many who are suffering from mild anxiety of some kind, may not even be considered as suffering from the disorder. Also, there are many who, suppress the symptoms (using the suggestive powers of the mind) choosing not to recognize that they suffer from anxiety lest they are seen as a stigma in their professional and social contexts. Evidently, they are missed out from surveys. Also Read – Suffering From Anxiety And Depression? These Foods Will Help You Calm Your Mind – Watch

The fact of life is that most people, in trying moments of their life do feel anxious. Does it qualify for being called an anxiety disorder? No. Is it recommended then that such individuals seek professional advice? May be yes. The reason is that for some who are more susceptible to developing anxiety disorder this may become a chronic condition going forward. Making it difficult to address and manage. Also Read – World Liver Day 2022: These Habits are Harming Your Liver – Take Corrective Steps Now

Why is it that some are more prone to suffering from anxiety compared to others? To understand this and in general to know how one becomes anxious.

Let’s understand how anxiety happens:

Like it or not, while the body gives an illusion of solidity of existence, in reality we live in a realm of subtle energetic and vibrational inter plays. The energetic self is continuously intercepting and interacting with energies around, not only in the terrestrial plane but also that which comes from the astral and celestial planes. While most are used to being impinged with such ‘vibes’ day in and day out and do not react to them, there are individuals who are more sensitive to such interceptions and feel uncomfortable. For such individuals, because the source of such ‘vibes’ are not clear, the mind interprets them as some kind of unknown threat.

In the next stage the mind begins to make meaning of such ‘threats’ by associating with life experiences – recent as well as past. It gets filled with negative repetitive chatters – self talk of sorts – with a ‘what if …’ prefix. Here are some possibilities:

• “Something terribly wrong happens to me and I die.”
• “Something terribly wrong happens to my loved ones.”
• “I lose my job and become jobless; don’t get any clients / customers.”
• “I go bankrupt and am left with no means to sustain myself and my family.”
• “Some terrible catastrophe befalls and I lose control of my life.”
• “I am held responsible and punished for something that I have done.”
• “I am isolated and left feeling lonely,” and likes

An interesting variance of this is Illness Anxiety Disorder – a condition where an individual reports several physical ailments none of which are clinically diagnosed as positive. They imagine being unwell all the time, affected by some disease or the others and, thanks to the self-fulfilling prophecy and suggestive power of the mind start showing up symptoms of the disease, functionally. The self-talk in this case, interestingly, is, “What if I get completely well? No one will pay attention to me or listen to me. I will become lonely”.

In the next stage of development of the condition, the mind goes out of control. The thoughts, the self-talk, the voice of fear and even the bodily responses become compulsive in nature. No amount of reasoning works. In some cases, one may get into panic or even a nervous breakdown.

Can anxiety be healed completely? Yes, anxiety can be healed completely. Not with anti-anxiety medications – which in reality are managing the symptoms on the surface, while allowing the disease to grow silently. One therapy that is increasingly preference for addressing and healing mental and emotional conditions from the root is Bach flower therapy – a therapy that is safe, simple and yet most potent as it works on mental and supramental bodies of consciousness.

How Bach flower therapy can heal anxiety?

When healing with Bach Flower therapy, every individual is treated as unique and the stages are looked at very minutely, uncovering individual reactions, which inevitably are different for each. As the entire episode starts from the negative chatter of imagined situation, this is what is first addressed and the link from past and recent experiences is broken, with the help of suitable remedies. This helps the client to reckon with reality as-is. Alongside the threat-sensitivity of the individual is addressed as also the compulsive nature of emotional and physical reactions, helping him / her to regain self-control. For those who tend to get into panic attacks, remedies to calm them down are added in the personal mix, helping them unfreeze and become more responsive. For those who are gripped with the fear of being punished and / or executed, their susceptibility to being intimidated and feel guilty, is addressed. For those who overtly feel concerned with the well-being of their loved ones, there are specific remedies to address and heal the same.

The above is a generic scenario of how a client-centric practitioner of Bach Flower therapy will go about addressing the condition – at a level of depth, instead of just alleviating the symptoms. Over a period of time, as the different stages get healed and the client begins to feel less anxious, other remedies, depending again on the client’s individual emotional states, are introduced. Reinforcing positive emotions, like optimism, self-confidence, hopefulness, among others. Eventually, one day, the client finds the shadow of anxiety shrouding his / her natural state of joyous existence, completely dissolved and begin to live a new, transformed life.

(Inputs from Indroneil Mukerjee, an accomplished Bach Flower therapist and psychotherapist approved by IPHM)