Bach Flowers and the mind-body connection

For a long time now doctors have been talking about stress and high blood pressure - but they usually talk about type A executives, driving themselves beyond their endurance to succeed more and more.

Well, the rest of us have stress too. It just isn't quite so visible.

And finally, doctors are realizing that stress can do more to our bodies than cause high blood pressure. It can cause an overall degeneration of many body parts, because after all, those parts are all connected!

Bach Flower Essences can help rebalance our energies to remove that stress and make the ups and downs in our lives easier to manage.

Dr. Bach, of course, talked about how our spiritual self affects our physical self. He believed there could be no true physical healing without emotional and vibrational healing. I personally believe that's why some people who "should" be well continue to be ill, while others with challenging injuries can heal quickly.

Bach Flowers can be preventative medicine - treating emotional upheaval before it takes a toll on our bodies. And they can be healing medicine, working in concert with traditional medicine to allow bodies to recover. Either way, because it's both inexpensive and totally harmless, I think using Bach Flower Essences is an intelligent approach to health care.

If you're interested in trying this natural approach to wellness, here's another book that could help you understand and choose the correct essences: Illustrated Handbook of the Bach Flower Remedies


You'll find Bach Flower Essences in many places around the web, but for fast service and the best prices I've seen, I recommend Feel Bach! More important, they use the same formula that Dr. Bach perfected back in the 30's, while many other manufacturers have chosen to use a cheaper method.

Note: For a selection of books that cover everything from using Bach Flowers for stress to treating pets, just type "bach flower remedies" into the Buy.com search box at the top of this page.

Yours for stress-free, joyful holidays,
Marte

Tomorrow: Meditation

Safe and unsafe sleep aids

Today's newspaper once again has horror stories of things people do "in their sleep" while under the influence of prescription sleeping aids. Things like demolishing the neighbor's car and smearing their faces with chocolate pudding.

And of course we've all heard about people sleeping walking and sleep driving while under the influence of those pills.

After experiencing sleepless nights myself, I can understand why someone might be desperate enough to try the pills, even knowing the risks.

But there IS something better: It's called Sweet Dreams and it's made by Feel Bach! They're the premiere Bach Flower Essences manufacturers - the ones who offer several pre-mixed formulas designed to help with common problems. (That matters, because it costs far less to buy a bottle pre-mixed than to buy several bottles and mix them yourself.)

As a rule, because Bach Flowers work by rebalancing your energies, it takes a few days for the effects to kick in, but that's not always the case. I gave a friend a bottle of Sweet Dreams yesterday - and last night he got his first good night's sleep in months. Even I couldn't believe it could work so fast.

The best part is, Bach flowers have no harmful side effects. They're safe even for babies, the elderly, and pregnant women.

So before you resort to taking some kind of poison that could cause you to take a baseball bat to your neighbor's car... try nature's way.

Yours for good health,
Marte

Chantix - a blessing and a curse

Last week's doctor column told a sad tale - a gentleman who wanted to quit smoking and was prescribed Chantix. He said the drug worked so fast he couldn't believe it. He quit smoking after nothing else had helped.

BUT, depression was slowly creeping up, and then one morning he awoke feeling such total despair that he thought he'd never be happy again. And he couldn't get help - not from mental health clinics and not from emergency rooms. Finally the doctor who had prescribed the Chantix called in an antidepressant. Right now the jury is still out - if it's going to help, it is taking a while.

What did the newspaper doc say about it?

The side effects are listed right there for all to see. They include depression, thoughts of suicide, and bizarre behavior. That's while you're taking it - and withdrawal symptoms can be just as bad.

So what's worse? Smoking, or not even wanting to live?

I'm thinking that I might try Feel Bach's flower essence "Stop Smoking" formula myself. I know it requires a commitment to take the flower essences 4 times per day, but there are no side effects, and the flower essences cost practically nothing compared to the cost of deadly pharmaceuticals.

Here's to a healthy body and a sane and happy mind...
Marte