Bach Therapy is based on one’s consciousness. Though in the process of what is generally referred to as the onion peeling effect, you finally arrive at the same conclusion, yet the tentacles of consciousness grow differently for different people. Depends on what choices they make…or what strategy they adopt in any given life situation.Let me explain it with an example. Suppose there is a kid who develops a feeling that he is no good. It could be just some conversation he has picked up from, say, members in the family or the school teacher or a distant aunt, just anyone. The actual phrases could be: “Oh, he’s not so smart!”, “He looks quite dumb”, “He’s quite slow.”, “He doesn’t seem to understand anything”, “He’d require a lot of coaching to come up to the class standards.” The elders do not realize that children can be extremely sensitive and these casual utterances could well prepare a blueprint of their lives. For the child, it is nothing short of a trauma. Sometimes even if there are frequent verbal quarrels or fights between parents, children seem to take the onus or the responsibility on themselves and believe they are causing it, with an undercurrent of feeling that they themselves are to be blamed for it and hence they are no good. At the outset, it is an energetic impact, which only much later, in adulthood, can be expressed to mean: “I am no good.” or “I am useless” or “I am not up to the mark” or “I am not capable”. Basically, a deeply unpalatable, unnerving *negative conversation about oneself. This is what I call a seed thought. Once it gets implanted in the sensitivity of the child and incubated in the consciousness cesspool…yes, because it’s all so dark and murky with so much of negativity around… it acquires different, at times, mind-boggling interpretations. It kind of develops a different vicious foliage and poisonous blossoming in certain people, because, to begin with, the seed was negative.For example:~ Since this truth isn’t all that nice about me, it is better I hide it. And the best way to hide it, is by feigning as if nothing is wrong. Pretend being jovial and full of mirth and bonhomie, so that no one will ever get to know the truth. (Agrimony)~ In fact it is quite humiliating, to say the least. So, let me mislead people with a flurry of words. A verbal diarrhoea which leads them away from my truth and traps their mind into giving me a sympathetic listening. (Heather)~ Surely, no one will ever know who I am being if I shun responsibility or delay what requires being done (Hornbeam) or, better still, not act out in life at all (Larch). If there is nothing I do, don’t take any initiative, there would be nothing to criticize or judge me by, all which would save me from being reminded about my painful reality…the ugly duckling in the garb of a swan. ~ One sure way to get out of the trap of being found out, is to not take even a decision myself. Better it is to ask others for their opinions……so that even if faulted, the blame can conveniently be transferred to the person who has offered it. (Cerato)~ Or wouldn’t it be better still, if I procrastinate and delay taking decisions by just allowing my mind to oscillate when such a situation arises? Surely, I cannot be faulted then? And can stay off being blamed. Let time take its own course. (Scleranthus)Up to this point the consciousness is kind of finding solutions to the deep-rooted, wicked problem in a passive way. But there can be more aggressive conversations too:~ Being so sensitive (Centaury), I can’t stand even reflecting on who I am or even being constantly reminded of how I am being. It is better I end my life, commit suicide (Cherry Plum) …or switch my mind off from the harsh reality now and then, for the reality about myself doesn’t give me happiness (Mustard).~ All that is said about me is incorrect. It is an injustice done to me…and I will continue to resent it with all my might. (Willow).Or a passive-aggressive option.~ If I find faults with these other people around, judge and criticize them…they will naturally be on the back foot and wouldn’t venture to come anywhere near, become pally and get to know who I am being. As such, no one will then find me out! (Beech)~ Even better it is if I talk big and take to persuading them in an excited way, they can be easily misled into believing, I know much or that I am quite capable (Vervain).~ The simplest thing really is to be quick and keep faulting them with reference to time. Once they know with what speed I work, they would naturally not bother to come near me… thereby giving me that lonesome time to drown my feelings of being “imperfect and incomplete” in a flurry of fast-paced activity. (Impatiens).~ This whole bitter truth about myself goads me to prove my mettle…. to demonstrate to one and all that I am not what they think I am ….and so I better be relentless with myself and persevere…till they recognize my true worth (Oak).~ I am so disenchanted and so discontented with myself that I need to keep looking at the little kinks in me and get them straightened out…if at all I have to achieve perfection and recognition from the world outside (Pine)~ Who will ever think I am a bundle of incompletions, insecure feelings and incapability’s, if I revv myself up as an “Ideal” person, being harsh on myself if need be, only to impress on everyone around how exalted and capable I am, just to hide who I actually am deep within. (Rock Water)~ I can always throw my weight around to get what I want, such that I achieve two-fold objectives of dominating them to get what I want done…without them venturing close to figure out who I am, or how insecure I feel, deep inside. (Vine)The strategy, as I said, is to find a way out of the situation that the external environment has thrust upon us. How we wiggle out, what strategies we opt for to save our skin, changes from person to person. This is how we process life…and life situations…and in doing so, affect our well-being, our solace and peace of mind. Yet, what is immediately required is a solution. That’s what our mind seeks on an urgent basis. This is why we require different remedies…. though the problem deep within may be the same or similar.Be joyous, everyone!*The conversation quoted above is just one such. There can be various others, like: “I am not loved” or “No one loves me”; “I am alone and forsaken”; “Love has always been a painful yearning”; “Something bad happens every time I am joyous”; “Life has always been a struggle” “Nothing is easy in life” etc. etc. These are all seed thoughts and the strategies then get woven around them accordingly…. depending largely upon the choices we make.
