For a couple of weeks now, Paul and I have been having stress dreams at night and sometimes full-on nightmares. This is not normal for us, especially not for me. Many years ago, I actually asked my psyche to let me remember dreams that had an important message for me but to not let myself remember dreams that were working out and processing the day’s events. Believe it or not, that intention made a tremendous difference and for decades I never remembered my dreams unless there was spiritual guidance in them I could make use of. I keep a journal by my bedside just for that purpose and the practice of analyzing these dream messages has done me a lot of good.
But lately, that’s fallen apart. I have stress dreams about my job where a “message” of needing to remember to do something I forgot repeats over and over. I wake up and the thing I’m being told to remember is nonsense but I go back to sleep and have the dream again. Very frustrating! The other night, though, I dreamt that Paul and I were homeless and that was very upsetting. And Paul has had dreams about invaders in our house.
We both attribute these dreams to various forms of PTSD. The workload on my day job has gotten so completely out of hand that I do worry about forgetting to do things. And both of us have a bad habit of drinking the daily news and fearful commentary like it’s poison Kool-Aid!
And that’s exactly the effect I think it’s been having on us. Like it’s toxic and we need to purify it from our systems somehow before we take it with us to bed.
I don’t actually have a way I typically work with that so tonight we’re going to give Chaparral flower essence a try.
Smoke from Chaparral leaves was used by Native American tribes for purifying purposes as part of sacred rituals. The flower essence is used to detox from experiences of violence or terror. But it can also be used to release the toxic effects of violence or terror taken in vicariously by watching the news or hearing about something on the internet. People say this flower essence can be powerful and can even have a cathartic effect. Personally, I hope that doesn’t happen. It doesn’t sound like fun. But I do know how important emotional release can be and nightmares are definitely not fun! So we’ll see what happens.
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Starting at around 9:30 pm we both took a first dose of Chaparral and I felt like I wanted to take some more a little while later so I did. I felt energy mostly centered in my third chakra (solar plexus). And also in my second chakra. I found myself yawning (which I associate with releasing tension). Wet eyes but not exactly crying. (Noticeable because my eyes tend to be dry.) Then lots of yawning with release of tears. A gentle release. Again, I wouldn’t call it full-on “crying” or cathartic. I am surprised at how much yawning I’m doing though. It’s very relaxing.
Since the energy has remained centered in my third chakra I thought I’d mention that this chakra is associated with personal power, use of will, and self-confidence. When it is out of balance a person might tend to feel powerless which is the main distress I have these days—especially around politics and how that might affect my financial well-being and feelings of safety. Powerlessness alternating with impotent rage. (Rehearsing angry things I want to say to certain politicians while in the shower which doesn’t do anything.)
So this is GOOD. I had not identified a feeling of powerlessness as something I could focus on for healing before this moment. It was just something I was living with and sadly accepting as “truth.” The thought occurs to me: what if I didn’t do that?
Additional thoughts: if we are taking in threats and intimidation purposely intended to make people feel afraid and powerless, releasing this toxicity might be necessary for regaining full access to our personal power and recognizing what agency we DO have. Even in prison—and most of us aren’t there yet!—you still have agency over what you think and how you respond. Viktor Frankl comes to mind. He was a Holocaust survivor who developed a whole field of psychology based on finding meaning in life and life purpose as the key to mental health.
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Paul forgot to pay attention to how Chaparral affected him last night so no detailed report from him. He just said, “I forgot to pay attention, but I feel good!” He then proceeded to watch the same “Alien Earth” episode that gave him nightmares the night before while telling me not to look up from time to time while I was writing this because “a bad scene” was happening.
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I took one more dose of Chaparral before bed and found it more grounding this time. Will I have pleasant dreams or no dreams at all? Will Paul? Time to find out!
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Paul and I slept well and did not have stress dreams or nightmares.
At one point in the night I woke up with the idea that I was like an agile cat with a broken leg that could be healed. I woke up in the morning with new thoughts about how I could play a small but potentially powerful role where I thought I could do nothing.
I never realized how useful this flower essence could be before! I’ll be continuing the experiment. (It only took 20 minutes on social media before I felt like crap again.) I might have to develop some other habits.
Find Chaparral flower essence in Reiki-infused dosage strength form in my Etsy shop.
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Flower essences are used to assist with mind-body-spirit interactions and individual results may vary. They are extremely dilute which makes them quite safe. But because so little physical substance can be detected in a flower essence solution, these products are presumed to work on an energetic or vibrational level—something that cannot be adequately tested by western scientific methods. Claims made by me, therefore, are based on personal experiences and the evidence of the combined multiple decades of case notes by Dr. Edward Bach as well as Healing Herbs and Flower Essence Services (the companies who make the ingredients I use in my products). This is not, however, accepted medical evidence or substantiated scientific evidence from a modern allopathic point of view. I am not a medical doctor or licensed healthcare practitioner.
Statements made have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. The information provided on my blog, websites or by this company are not a substitute for a face-to-face consultation with a health care provider, and should not be construed as individual medical or mental health advice. Consulting with a health care provider is a must for anyone taking medications or working with a medical or mental health condition, and highly recommended before using any herbal product. Please consult your doctor or health care provider for any possible contraindications and/or interactions with current medications. I trust you to seek the medical guidance you need to use any of my herbal products healthily at your own risk.