In my ongoing quest to get a handle on my moods and be a happier and more even-keeled real adult, I recently began to dabble in the world of herbal remedies.

No, not that.

My life coach introduced me to the concept of Bach Flower Remedies. There are 38 of these flower-based remedies that “correct emotional imbalances where negative emotions are replaced with positive.” You can even give them to your pets.

The idea is to identify which of the 38 issues are inhibiting your ability to thrive and create a mix of the flower remedies to address your specific needs.

It’s a little overwhelming, right? First of all, I have to triage my issues, because there are SO many. When I first began to look into this, it was before Christmas and I was facing some real challenges that were severely impacting my moods, self-esteem and general outlook on life and my future. I wanted ANYTHING that could help — fast. Since the store that I was referred to wasn’t even open for the holiday period, I tried a quicker fix, the most well-known and general mix of these remedies, known as Rescue Remedy.

Rescue Remedy is really geared toward dealing with severe anxiety and panic, and I just thought it might take the edge off. I opted for the little chewable tablets versus the liquid drops.

Honestly, I didn’t notice that it did a whole heck of a lot for me, except for repeatedly opening up in my purse and spilling the little tablets all over. That didn’t help my stress.

Even the website says, “The Rescue Remedy is designed to help deal with immediate problems. If you are working through an underlying problem — or if you need rescuing every day — you will find a longer-term solution by selecting a personal blend of remedies.”

So after the holidays, feeling recharged and hopeful and with the store back open, I looked at the list to select my own personal cocktail of remedies.

They recommend only doing about six together at a time, so I tried to pick issues that I thought sort of related to one another with the idea that the remedies would work together more effectively. Here are the ones I chose:

Agrimony — Mental torment behind a brave face. Appear care-free and humorous in order to mask anxieties and unhappiness.

To be honest, I don’t really fool anyone and typically wear my emotions on my sleeve, but hey — it’d be real swell if my sleeve were covered in smileys and rainbows for once.

Crab Apple — When you feel unclean or have a hard time accepting your own self image.

I don’t know about the unclean part, since my OCD tendencies get in the way of that, but accepting my own self image? Stressing about my flab or gray hairs? Sure.

Gentian — When you easily get discouraged when faced with difficulties.

OH YEAH. This is probably Todd’s No. 1 frustration with being my partner. He doesn’t understand why I get derailed so easily, or as he said in a recent conversation, why there is only “Plan A.” “Life doesn’t work like that…” No. No, it does not.

Impatiens — Suitable for people who are easily irritated and impatient. They speak and think quickly, and are energetic, but tense.

Story of my LIFE. Hurry up! WHY HAVEN’T YOU TEXTED ME BACK?! Mother-f*&#ing RSVP already!

Larch — When you need more self-confidence.

Duh.

Willow — When you feel resentment, self-pity and bitterness.  You would like to regain a sense of humor and proportion.

I do tend to wallow at times.

So armed with these six ailments, I made my way to a little herbal store called Quintessence. I felt awkward walking in and asking for this magical mixture, but the man who helped me was a pro. First of all, he all but rolled his eyes at Rescue Remedy, even though they sell it, saying I was much better off choosing a tailored mix of remedies. It took about 5 minutes for him to make the mixture, and this bottle, which should last for weeks, was just $10.

You just put a few drops of this into anything you are drinking throughout the day — coffee, juice, water. “The worst it can do is nothing,” he said with a smile as I left.

I’m still not sure about results, but it’s only been a couple of weeks, and I didn’t use it at all when I was really sick last weekend. I guess maybe I feel a bit less impatient? As you may remember from my New Year’s post, I am working on trying to give things more time, anyway.

Oh, I’ve also decided to do Dry February, with a couple special day exceptions. I’m very eager to see how I feel. Day 3 (really day 6 because I started last Friday), and I feel fine, but again, I’ve been sick, so I wouldn’t want alcohol, anyway. Plus, I’ve been doing silly things like putting sparkling water, juice or soda in a fancy wine glass just because.

 

On February 1, Carly, who’s doing it with me, tagged me in this post:

So we’ll see how this goes.

As far as the Bach Remedies go, I’d like to give it until at least the end of this bottle. I may switch a couple of them out. I suppose I was feeling low when I selected Agrimony and Crab Apple, and I might be better off going with Cerato (When you do not trust your own judgment in decision-making), Heather (Helps when you are preoccupied with own ailments and problems. It also mentions telling anyone and everyone about them, which is another issue I have) or White Chestnut (When your mind is cluttered with thoughts or mental arguments. You may be unable to sleep because of the thoughts).

See what I mean about the triage?

If you have experience using these, I would LOVE to hear from you! It all may be a bunch of hooey. But I suppose I wasn’t spending that $10 on drinks this month, anyway.