Using flower essences

“The Onion Effect” in the Bach Flower Remedies

onion
The “Onion Effect” indicates how we work with the idea of emotional layers in our personalities when using the essences. Not only are we complex and changing from day to day, but we “layer” over feelings and attitudes with compensatory emotions and patterns of behavior. These compensatory attitudes often become our accepted operating system, or get buried by yet more compensating layers and go dormant and unrecognized in our general awareness. We can become unconscious of these layers of feelings and perspectives and keep them buried for many years. These layers can be likened to the layers of an onion; we peel back one layer at a time to get to the layer underneath. Cutting through all the layers at once can produce a few too many tears.

When one takes the Bach flowers, a balancing occurs in the release of a negative pattern. If that pattern was compensatory, another layer that needs balancing will, eventually, come to the fore. This is a good thing – it shows we’re changing. If we feel something later that we thought we’d released previously, it doesn’t indicate regression but, rather, a continuation of the healing of something that runs deeper than we realized. Even when we continue to feel feelings we think we’ve already addressed, it’s useful to remember that, no matter what we’re feeling, once we recognize it we can more easily release it.

Although it’s possible to experience some less than desirable feelings during a healing release, the most brilliant aspect of using the Bach Flower Remedies is that these forgotten or repressed feelings, these layers, can be experienced in a gentle and gradual way. If you ever feel something’s happening faster than you’re comfortable with, just pull back on the dosage. Fortunately, with the Bach Flower Remedies, changes can only be beneficial, so any discomfort during change is usually minimal and very short lived.

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