Aging

A selection of flower essences for
recapturing the truth about aging.

Why does our society have such a negative attitude about aging? I have often wondered why some folks equate aging with something to be avoided at all costs. I was raised in a family where aging was a good thing, where the most important thing about aging was enjoying the benefits that each stage of life brought.

I remember once when I was five, sitting with my grandmother’s cousin who was, at the time, ninety-six years old. I asked her what it felt like to be ninety-six and she responded by saying, “I feel just like I always have. I feel like I did when I was five. There’s no difference. There’s something in me that has never changed.”

At that moment, I saw that which never changes within me. It was peaceful and joyful. That experience has always stayed with me as I have matured. My body has grown and changed. Wrinkles have appeared and some body parts no longer function the same. Yet something within me never changes.

The process of aging can at times pull us away from that which is peaceful and joyful. Our mind has thoughts that compare our present physical state of being with how it used to be years past. Sometimes we may allow our thoughts to convince us that we are no longer capable of creative solutions because we are older. And most of us have to overcome different societal beliefs and stereotypes about aging that we have learned from people in our surroundings or inherited from our family of origin.

A Disharmonious Perspective about Aging

Some desert flower essences can support us in recapturing the truth about aging: that it is a normal part of living and that it can be filled with joy and grace.

Senita Cactus flower essence can help us if we cling to perspectives about aging that do not really serve us.

The spines on the young growth are gray and few. As Senita Cactus ages, its spines become long, twisted, numerous and bristle-like. They give the plant the appearance of having disheveled white hair or beards at the ends of their stems. Just as older men sprout hair out of their ears and nose, so too this cactus appears like an old man. Therefore, it’s name ‘Senita’ which means ‘old one’ in Spanish. […] Senita’s flowers are small and pink. They flower among the disheveled, bristly spines.

This flower essence can help you find that beauty resides within the wrinkles and changes of your aging body.

The Many Transitions of Aging

Some people find that it is a bit of a shock to face the transitions that aging brings. The Transitions Formula is excellent for harmonizing the fears and difficulties of making any of the transitions that aging brings.

Whether it is about adjusting to a new home, getting used to living without a loved one, or simply getting used to different conditions of your body, this composite formula is a wonderful support. It helps with three distinct stages of making a transition: letting go of the old; mastering being in limbo before the new appears; and then embracing the new, which often doesn’t look like what you expected.

Unresolved Regrets

Unresolved regrets can also be an impediment to finding joy in the process of aging.

Senita Cactus flower essence is important for helping us to heal regret. ‘Why did I do that? Who is to blame? Someone has to pay for this.’ These are some of the inner questions that Senita Cactus can help us let go of. This flower essence can support us in resolving regrets and seeing how a particular situation had a greater purpose in our life. It helps find acceptance of each event and situation so we can see the perfection of our lives as they have unfolded.

Feeling Old

Mariola is the flower essence to use if you feel old our out of the mainstream of life. You may feel that you have to hide your essential self behind a facade or perhaps you have created a false persona that you show to others. This flower essence helps restore a exuberance in your self-expression, allowing that which never changes in you to shine out. It helps you drop insincere or inessential expressions of yourself so that you have a greater congruence of your inner experience with your outer expression.

Fear of Losing Physical Capabilities

It can be unsettling to lose a physical capability that you always relied upon. Arizona Sycamore can help you if you feel that the loss is confining or entrapping you. It can help you find that a limitation can be something that allows you to develop other capabilities and new ways of doing and being. The essence helps you find inner freedom within a limitation and the possibility to grow in new directions.

Fear of Losing Your Mind

It is not uncommon to fear that you might lose your thinking faculties as you age. After all, the mind is what dictates reality for most of us, and it is the source of the kind of fear that is not instinctual. Sacred Datura is for the fear of losing your mind. It helps you let go of a known or familiar reality, such as fear of losing your mind, or the conviction that if you age you will inevitably lose your faculties. The essence can help you view things differently.

Sacred Datura is excellent also during periods of transition or during transformational situations. It helps you let go of what is outdated or outmoded in your life.

Usually when we reach our 80’s, we begin to shift into other realms of awareness. This is a normal process as we come closer to making the great transition. Sacred Datura helps you feel comfortable with this tendency to shift awareness to other dimensions. It helps you know that a new, expanded sense of reality is not unusual and that the doors of reality can open in new ways. The essence can help you be comfortable with visionary states and help you know that they are normal.

Equating Aging with Struggle

Arizona White Oak helps you if you believe that in order to grow you must struggle and everything must be difficult. There is usually deeply accumulated tension resulting from a fear of moving on in life. The essence activates the strength to move ahead by surrendering to what IS.

Sometimes what is really necessary is to let go and look at what is really happening. Often the solutions to our struggles are right in front of us but we don’t see them because we are caught up in the struggle […] The essence shows us that when we struggle there is usually something within us we do not want to accept.

Beauty in Aging

Evening Star is the essence to use if you feel that you are no longer beautiful, or that you no longer have something special to offer the world. As we go through menopause, for instance, there is usually a few years where our body changes, we take on weight, when our beauty is no longer the essence of youth. You may feel that the changes have made you undesirable or ugly. Evening Star flower essence can show you a new appreciation for yourself, just as you are. It can help you shift from needing outside sources for validation to your own inner knowing of real beauty. It brings confidence in your essential beauty and worth, which is that which never changes.

Frustration with Aches and Pains

Sometimes it is frustrating to deal with aches and pains. Using Candy Barrel Cactus together with Cellular Joy Formula can help. Candy Barrel Cactus helps you find inner resources to deal with anything. Those resources have been there all along, but the essence helps you see them.

Cellular Joy Formula is a composite formula that helps unlock and release tensions, traumas and pain that are locked into the cells of the body. Using it together with Candy Barrel Cactus can help alleviate pain and frustration with your body.

Claiming Your Place as an Elder

The Woman of Wisdom Formula is excellent for supporting the journey into “elderhood”. Using this flower essence is like activating a rite of passage, as your inner elder shows you how to take your place as an elder in the world. This essence supports you in understanding and integrating the alchemical process of making wisdom from experience and sharing it with others.

Living Your Potential

Salsify flower essence is excellent to use if you feel that you have difficulty maturing into your potential. Whether you are twenty-two or eighty-six, this is the essence to use when you feel as if your potential is just beyond your grasp. Salsify helps you when you feel as if you are like a seed that is attempting to unfold but is lacking some essential element for growth. The flower essence helps you feel vitally alive and nourished by life’s energies as it helps you tap into new sources for nourishment and self-integration.

Re-Creating Yourself

As we age, we need to reinvent ourselves and our interests. The ReSourcerer of ReCreation is the perfect support for that. The archetypal sorcerer is one who has learned to transform and re-create. This formula helps activate this principle within you so you can recognize all the resources you have within you and creatively apply them with an attitude of joy and fun.

Aging is an essential part of life. It is also an inevitable one. The greatest elders I have known have had the most exuberant attitudes towards life. How do you want to age?

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 aging. The process itself of exploring and contemplating your 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