Apathy

An exploration of flower essences you can use
to address the root causes of Apathy.

Apathy is a state of either the absence or suppression of passion, excitement or emotion. It is also the lack of interest in things that others find exciting. Apathy can be the result of boredom. Denying or covering up who you really are and editing and expressing yourself according to who you think others want you to be can also be at the root of apathy. Having a taskmaster attitude toward yourself is almost guaranteed to result in apathetic feelings. And sometimes, it is difficult to know what is at the root of apathy. Following are a few flower essences that can help us explore and resolve the root of apathy.

The Taskmaster Attitude

The word apathy comes from the Greek word that means “without passion”. The easiest way to douse out passion is to force yourself to do something when you don’t really want or when you aren’t really up to it. Many of us have a taskmaster attitude towards ourselves. We hold our noses to the grindstone of what has to be accomplished. When we suppress our natural passion for something and always make work more important, we strangle our innate sense of the proper rhythms and cycles of work and play. This type of attitude can ultimately result in apathy.

Prickle Poppy flower essence helps us reconnect to our own inner cycles. Sometimes it is better to stop something we are doing and rest or just do nothing if that is what our body or emotional self is telling us. Later when we come back to the task, we accomplish it much more quickly and with ease because we are in the proper cycle of body-mind rhythm.

Prickle Poppy can help us be in tune with the cycles in our lives as well as our bodies. Another client of mine was forcing himself to complete a project that he had been working on for a long time. He was ‘whipping himself to stay with it,’ and it was causing a lot of tension in him. ‘But I have to finish it.’ Coincidently, he had been in a relationship with a very caring woman for several years. He had known for two years that he loved her and wanted to marry her but he was afraid to make a commitment to her. He used Prickly Poppy for four weeks, and then told me, ‘I stopped pushing myself to complete that project. It will get done in its own perfect time. I think I had decided that I couldn’t have fun in my life until that project was done. Now I see that if I have some fun in my life, I will want to complete the project. Oh, yes, and I also asked my girlfriend to marry me. I really surprised myself. It just felt right, like now is the right time. And the amazing thing is that I feel so much more physical energy now. It is like a huge weight was lifted off me.’

The Alchemy of the Desert – Second Edition, page 226

Disinterest or Boredom

Sometimes apathy comes from being uninterested in how we occupy our time. Even if there are things we need to do in life that we don’t find stimulating, there is always a way to find intellectual interest in anything in front of us.

One client of mine had a job painting houses that didn’t challenge him intellectually. He was bored and wanted more spark in his life. Using Claret Cup Hedgehog Cactus, he became clear that his mind needed more of a workout while his hands were busy painting. He discovered some CD’s of lectures of university professors on different subjects that attracted him and decided to listen to them while at work.

Just three weeks after using Claret Cup Hedgehog Cactus, he reported that he was excited to go to work each day because he was learning so much about a number of subjects that sparked his interest. He found that he was more interested in life in general and his social life improved as his enthusiasm was noticed by others.

Pretense or Denying Who You Are

One kind of apathy comes from a lifetime of denying or covering up who you really are so you can appear to be what you think others will find acceptable.

Many of us think that we have to say, or feel, or be something other than what we are. We say things that we don’t mean, thinking that it is what others want to hear. We pretend to feel things that seem acceptable so that others will approve of us. In this way we hide our true selves, both from others and our own selves. We bury our light in the mire of pretense and ‘trying to’.

Mariola flower essence can free us from pretense so we can recognize and fully enjoy who we really are. It frees us to see that our essential self can be a joyful experience. This is the essence that can help free us to let our light shine, sparking enthusiasm.

Often apathy comes when we feel old or out of the mainstream of life. Mariola helps us to find the joy of being, no matter what age we have reached. Beauty comes from allowing enthusiasm and passion to shine forth from within. Mariola can help us be who we really are and revel in it.

Mariola is also excellent for sparking interest though recognizing beauty. When we recognize the beauty that exists around us, in a sunset, a flower, or in the face of whom ever is in front of you right now, we lose the state of apathy and become interested in life.

Unconventional and Spontaneous

The Wild Woman Formula can help us to step outside of societal conditioning so we can dare to be different and uncover passion. Sometimes we become too concerned with being proper or correct or acceptable. We lose spontaneity and apathy sets in.

The Wild Woman is an important inner archetype:

She who dances with mud on her body, the Wild Woman, is totally wild and free from any constraints or restrictions. She does what she wants, when she wants to. Instinctual in character, she dances in nature with no regard for anyone or anything else. She can be suddenly crudely funny or outrageously devilish. She springs up without warning, bringing the refreshment of spontaneity back into our lives.

This essence can helps us let go and allow spontaneity and irreverence to shake us out of convention and into passion, excitement and interest.

Resolution

Sometimes it is hard to say what is at the root of apathy. You may want to take a particular action, but you are missing some essential element for you to be fully behind that idea or action. It’s as if there is something standing in the way of your intention or your desire to go deeply into a matter.

Desert Broom can help us resolve the feelings of apathy that are difficult to understand. Resolution is the key word for this flower essence. It can help you feel centered and gathered together. You begin to see that your will, your desire and your intention come together to form a unified decision about the matter at hand.

Exhaustion

Sometimes what you judge to be apathy is actually exhaustion. When your body, mind, and or being seems unresponsive, it could be because you just need to rest and regenerate. Many of us were brought up to always be in action, accomplishing, doing. Your being, however, needs some unstructured time of simply doing nothing, taking a nap, or getting some extra sleep. If you ignore the subtle hints your being gives you and you push on, you may end up in a state of exhaustion.

For flower essences that work with exhaustion, see The Core Issue: Exhaustion.

Selecting the Most Appropriate Flower Essences

Not every flower essence mentioned above will be appropriate for every person’s specific needs. Different people have different issues around apathy. The process itself of exploring and contemplating your apathy issues is important. It is the foundation for successfully selecting the most beneficial flower essences. Usually, careful self-examination can clearly show you which of the above flower essences are most appropriate for your particular needs.

Though you can use more than one flower essence together, you probably will not need to use all of the ones mentioned here. After contemplating your relationship to this issue, select the flower essences that apply for you, or use an intuitive method to select among them. (For more information on how to do this, see The Art & Technique of Using Flower Essences.) A general guideline is to use four drops at a time, four times a day, in water. However, it is fine to follow your intuition and use them as often as you like. Most people find that they tend to use them more often in the beginning and less often towards the end of the cycle. Unless otherwise indicated, a cycle is usually two to four weeks. [more]

For information on how to clearly evaluate the effects of the essences you have used, see The Art & Technique of Using Flower Essences.

List of the Flower Essences Mentioned in this Article

Claret Cup Hedgehog Cactus

for lack of interest in things

Desert Broom

irresolute; wanting to do something but not all parts of you are lining up behind that desire

Mariola

lack of joy and enthusiasm in being yourself

Prickle Poppy

for suppression of your passion, especially through “holding your nose to the grindstone”

Wild Woman Formula

being overly compliant with societal convention in your thinking and perceiving squelches creativity and joy