Cherry Plum:
Letting Go

All of us have felt at times that we were about to explode. We may want to tell a friend all the things we've absolutely loathed for years about his behavior. We might have murderous fantasies. We may feel that if one more thing goes wrong we're going to have a nervous breakdown. Our emotions feel dangerous and uncontrollable.

This is known as the negative Cherry Plum state. In its most extreme forms suicide may be contemplated - and in this or any other extreme emotional state it is extremely important not to rely on flower essences alone for help.

The Cherry Plum condition is on the surface paradoxical. It occurs when one desperately fears one's thoughts and emotions; yet the ending of this state can only be achieved when the individual is able to let go.

This condition usually comes about after a long or intense period of stress. Men coming home from prolonged warfare have reported its symptoms, as have people who have suffered long illnesses. It can also occur after a series of profound life changes.

Often people respond to such situations by closing up within. The unspoken, often unrealized thought is, "I can't take any more." They avoid any focus on their thoughts, may suppress any memory of their dreams, and resist feeling. (Cherry Plum frequently comes up for people when they are first embarked on any kind of psychotherapy, as an indication of their fear to look within.)

Thoughts and feelings, however, don't disappear when ignored; in fact, they cry out all the more loudly for attention. That's when a person feels as if s/he's losing control.

Although it may feel more difficult, it's far more empowering to stay with the thoughts and feelings which come up during or after a period of stress or crisis. The person who can do this learns that when his/her inner world is approached and faced it isn't nearly as frightening as it may seem to be.

Cherry Plum is the Bach Flower Essence which helps us to experience that every event which occurs in our lives, however negative it appears, has lessons to teach us, and that, once learned, these lessons don't have to come up again. Then we can become life's true warriors, those who travel their live's paths with courage, unburdened by the inner demons which cause others to turn back.

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