Self-expression

Exploring and resolving the root of self-expression
with flower essences.

Self-expression is as vital to living as breathing. It is how we interact with others and the world. It can be supremely fulfilling or irritably frustrating. Self-expression takes place through communication, body language, artwork, and even our clothes and hairstyles. It includes how we decorate our homes and the way we drive a car.

Sometimes we don’t even think about how we express our inner reality to those outside. It just happens naturally. At other times, we may strive to express something and disappointedly fall short of what we meant to get across.

What are some of the issues we may have with self-expression? Sometimes we can’t access inspiration and creativity to know what we want to express. Other times, we have an idea of what we want to communicate, but we don’t know how to make it manifest. Sometimes we think we don’t have the necessary skills or talents required to express ourselves.

Some of us have difficulty communicating because we are shy, insecure or just feel that our communication skills are lacking. Sometimes we keep our mouths shut because we think that what we have to say won’t make a difference anyway.

Whatever issue you may have with self-expression can be clarified and harmonized with the support of flower essences.

The Value of Self-expression

For those who feel that there is little they could say or do to contribute to a situation, Star Leaf flower essence can be a great friend. How often have you thought that if you had a better personality, new skills or a different set of innate talents that your life would be better?

Those for whom this essence is indicated usually see all the great talents and abilities that others around them have and feel that they lack something important themselves. The truth is that the greatness they see in others is mirroring their own.

Star Leaf can help you see that you bring something important to every situation in front of you. It can help you find confidence and courage to express yourself in whatever way is simple and natural to you. You may not always find out how much your input was valued by others, but you learn to trust that what you contribute is important. Just by being simply who you are, you can contribute to any situation in which you find yourself.

Actions that Fit Your Deeper Nature

For those who have difficulty clearly discerning what actions or expressions are in alignment with their essential nature, Birdcage Evening Primrose is the essence to use. This essence is for the times when you wish that someone else could tell you what is right for you. The essence is helpful in making decisions that really fit your deeper nature.

You may be deeply influenced by concepts or ideals that others have created that don’t really fit you. A huge inner conflict, and sometimes confusion, arises when you struggle to try to make yourself fit into them. Birdcage Evening Primrose can support you with a clear discernment of your own unique soul pattern. It gently helps turn you within to find the answers you seek rather than running to others outside for answers. It supports your relationship with your inner self and encourages trusting, valuing, and believing in yourself.

Fear of Expressing Yourself

Sometimes your self-expression is inhibited by your inability to accept your human mistakes and foibles. I think that the greatest deterrent to self-expression is the fear that others will not accept us. The Embracing Humanness Formula is the essence to use to find the self-acceptance that releases you from any fear of expressing yourself.

The Embracing Humanness Formula supports our own acceptance of everything about ourselves that is human. When we find this acceptance within us, we will find it in others as well.

Once you remove your fear of expressing yourself, imagine how free you can feel.

Honesty In Self-Expression

There are times when our outer self-expression doesn’t match our inner reality. We act nice and say superficially nice things when in reality it is not how we feel. In this case, is it really “self” expression?

When we pretend to be or feel what we are not, we deny ourselves the enjoyment of who we really are.[…]

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 helps us recognize the ways in which we are dishonest, to ourselves and to others, in our self-expression. It shows us how we hide behind insincerity. Once we peel off the layers of insincerity and pretense, we can uncover who we really are.

This flower essence helps us find honesty, ease, and enthusiasm as we connect with what is ageless and changeless within. When we express from this pure center, it is always a meaningful experience.

Difficulty Communicating

Even if we know what we want to communicate, we may feel afraid to say what we want. Communication always has an element of risk. How will the other person or people receive what you are saying? Will they still love you when you express your true feelings? If you negotiate an issue with someone, will you lose face or risk your position? Will it mean that you’ll have to give up or lose something?

Fishhook Cactus is the essence of choice for all issues about communication. It supports us in taking the risk. When we do, we usually find that the other person reacts differently from how we feared they would. The essence helps us to know that there is only something to be gained and not lost through communication.

All forms of self-expression are “risky”. We don’t know exactly how others will respond. Yet when we are willing to take a risk, we find that new levels of intimacy can be achieved, problems can be solved, other perspectives can be found, and new ways of perceiving the world are open to us.

Fishhook Cactus is an excellent choice when we want to learn a new language, give any kind of public presentation, or see a new therapist. It is commonly used by actors, simultaneous translators, interpreters, and students.

Alternative Ways of Expressing Yourself

We are used to expressing our wants, needs and desires in a particular way. However, as life brings us new experiences and situations demand change, is it logical to expect that the way we express ourselves remain the same?

Consider the parents of a child. As the child grows, the parents (hopefully) change the way they interact with the child as he or she matures. It’s often easy for a parent to continue expressing themselves in the same way they have been used to. Yet a more mature child requires a more mature interaction with Mom and Dad.

Fire Prickly Pear Cactus can help us find alternative ways of expressing ourselves when appropriate.

Fire Prickly Pear Cactus can strengthen our ability to find what is appropriate. It helps us distribute our focus in all areas of our lives. It supports us in balancing and tempering our instincts or automatic responses with our mind’s assessment of appropriateness.

One of the flower essence’s key support themes is adaptability.

Sometimes, circumstances require us to adapt to conditions or situations in ways that we wouldn’t under normal conditions. For instance, during some sort of crisis or difficult transition we may accept things that we wouldn’t put up with during a more normal time of our lives. If we have a lot of experience with exercising this ability to be adaptive, we may forget that sometimes it is appropriate to assert our will rather than change ourselves to fit a situation.

Any time you need support in finding new ways of expressing yourself, think of Fire Prickly Pear Cactus. It helps balance your ability to adapt your self-expression to fit a situation with a clear vision of whether it is appropriate to do so.

In Touch with Your Creativity

Sometimes you may feel a deep inner impulse to express yourself but are unable to tap into your creative source. The Creativity Formula is the essence to use to help you connect with inspiration and creative energy.

One of the biggest blocks to creativity can be your mind’s inability to allow a thought or insight to have the space to become a possibility. Some of the most inspired ideas are ones that start of as crazy concepts. By allowing them to be possibility, they may blossom into something really usable. Often your mind may immediately shoot down a seemingly crazy idea by judging and analyzing it too soon. The Creativity Formula can help you refrain from judging your ideas or yourself and thus blocking or stifling creativity.

Manifesting Self-expression into Reality

Many times you have a creative idea but are at a loss to know how to make it manifest. The Anchor-Manifestation Formula is a composite formula to help you with precisely that.

Very often those who are easily inspired with ideas have difficulty finding how to anchor them into practical being. This essence can help you with each step of the process of making an idea or creative impulse manifest into reality. You can paint your life with the qualities you want to experience or you can discover what you need to make a business plan become workable. Whatever the idea is, the Anchor-Manifestation Formula can help you become conscious of the step-by-step process you need.

Owning Your Level of Mastery

How many times have you found yourself in a new situation, convinced that you don’t know how to handle it, only to find out that you did just fine by just being yourself? Owning the Level Formula is for supporting you to handle whatever situation you find yourself in by using what you already have mastered from your life experiences.

At any moment in life you have yourself. Everything that you have experienced thus far in your life is the foundation for each subsequent moment. If you find yourself in a challenging situation, you can apply the talent and aptitude that you already have to successfully get yourself through. If you can view your capabilities from a wider perspective, you may find that you are much more capable than you think. Owning the Level Formula can help you see the bigger picture of yourself and own your level of mastery.

When you have confidence in yourself, you can always find what you need to handle any situation. By simply being present in the moment and using intuitive guidance with common sense, you can uncover levels of mastery that you might not have realized could be applied in a new way or different situation.

When I was deepening my skills of attuning with flowers I realized that my ability to speak several languages was a skill that I could apply to the attunement process. Translating my attunement impressions into understandable concepts was helped by my ability to translate from language to language. With this realization my attunements became much easier as I trusted that I could apply this skill in a slightly different way. Owning the Level Formula can help you have this type of perspective.

The Renewal of Spontaneity

Many people find that self-expression comes easiest when they can let go and be spontaneous. We have learned many rules and socially appropriate ways of being that are important to living peacefully with others. Yet sometimes we get too caught up in what is socially correct that we many strangle spontaneous impulse.

The Wild Woman Formula is a wonderful way to help free you from an overly controlled and entrenched way of being. It supports you in breaking out into the unexpected and discovering or rediscovering aspects of yourself that can bring a sense of renewal and delight. Anytime you feel stuck in a rut or boxed in, consider using the Wild Woman Formula to help let you out.

Support for Primal Expression During Childbirth

Self-expression is powerfully evoked during childbirth. One challenge is accepting the form it takes. Many women feel guilty when during the primal process of giving birth they have nasty or angry outbursts. They may feel embarrassed that such a blessed event contained such unexpected intensity.

While birthing a child, Mom can run the whole gamut of pure joy to deep depression. The Birthing Harmony Formula is a wonderful support for accepting all your emotional expressions during childbirth.

Many birthing teams find that spraying the essence around the room is helpful for everyone and supports the team in being available for providing a birthing woman with the very best support possible.

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 self-expression. The process itself of exploring and contemplating your relationship to self-expression 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 the root of your issue with self-expression.

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

Anchor Manifestation Formula

inability to bring your creative ideas into manifestation

Birthing Harmony Formula

accepting your self-expression while giving birth

Creativity Formula

inability to access your creativity and inspiration

Embracing Humanness Formula

an inability to accept your human failings and quirks inhibits you from easy self-expression

Fire Prickly Pear Cactus

for finding alternative avenues of self-expression when your current way of expressing yourself is no longer valid or appropriate

Fishhook Cactus

for all issues around difficulty with communication; fear of risking by communicating

Mariola

pretending to be what you are not, or feel what you do not feel

Owning the Level Formula

feeling you do not have the tools or inner resources to handle a new situation

Star Leaf

withholding self-expression because you feel at a loss to make a significant difference

Birdcage Evening Primrose

self-doubt or confusion based upon difficulty in clearly discerning what actions or expressions are in harmony with your essential nature

Wild Woman Formula

needing to let go of a too highly “held in check” attitude