The following article was originally published in Health Keepers, a magazine created by Trinity's founder, Dr. Wendell Whitman. This article appeared in Volume 2 • Issue 1 • Spring 1999, pg 24-25. This article originally titled, "Aspen,"  was written by Beth Adams Spencer M.H., N.D. 

DISCLAIMER: This blog post is not intended as medical advice. Its intent is solely informational and educational. Please consult a health professional should the need for one be indicated.

You could call them the dreads. Those vague unknown fears which occur for no reason. There’s an emptiness in your stomach and a very strong sense of unease. Why do you feel this way? Well, it’s because you have the dreads. There is nothing definite, nothing physical to warrant your fear, and yet it exists.

Dr. Bach was familiar with such fear and described it as follows:

Fear of such things as an operation, a visit to the dentist, a thunderstorm, a fire or an accident are physical fears, and they are bad enough. But, they are nothing compared to an unknown mental fear which comes over you like a cloud, bringing fear, terror, anxiety and even panic without the least reason. These fears are often accompanied with trembling and sweating from the abject fear of something unknown. Aspen is the Remedy for this kind of fear (Chancellor 1980).

The Bach flower remedy aspen is for unknown, unfounded fears. Fears which have been described as “of the mind” (Chancellor 1980). These fears can occur at any time day or night. Sometimes one will wake up from a nightmare which is immediately forgotten when waking and then be afraid to go back to sleep. Sometimes one will be afraid of the dark, not because only blackness can be seen, but because some unknown thing might be lurking out there somewhere. Sometimes one will be with a group of people and suddenly feel alone and afraid. All of these are characteristics of the aspen fears.

A tendency toward anxiety or panic attacks is another characteristic of the aspen fears; as is fear based on death or religion. Individuals who are described as having a thin or absent layer of protective skin are often sufferers of the aspen fears (Scheffer 1988).

A helpful way of remembering the aspen remedy is provided in this description:

The Aspen has often been referred to as “the trembling tree” because its leaves appear to shiver and whisper in the breeze. This is quite apt because the Aspen remedy is one for fear (Howard 1990). As well as alleviating these unknown fears, the aspen flower remedy can bring joy and a sense of adventure back into life.
 

In the mid-1930’s an English physician by the name of Edward Bach discovered what are now known as the Bach flower remedies. Abandoning his successful practice in London as a researcher as well as a personal physician, Dr. Bach searched the English countryside for remedies to emotional upset. It is he who realized that emotional healing works in conjunction with physical healing and he who found the natural remedies to promote emotional healing. The 36 remedies used by Dr. Bach are the traditional Bach flower remedies.

Bach flower remedies are similar to homeopathic remedies. What is used is actually the essence of the flower or leaf, not the plant itself. It is also only necessary to use small amounts of the remedy at a time, just a few drops each day.

Each single remedy is specific for a certain emotional upset. The emotional upset may be essential to an individual’s personality or it may be the result of a specific situation. Regardless, this emotional upset is causing distress to the individual mentally and, ultimately, physically so it needs to be addressed. By taking the flower remedy which most closely describes the way an individual feels, the emotional upset can be dealt with in a gentle, natural manner. For instance, if one would take a flower remedy for fear, gradually he or she would find that the fear is no longer quite so overwhelming and, eventually, may even discover that this fear no longer exists.

Personal formulas may be created by using more than one remedy at a time—because people can experience more than one emotional upset at a time. It is best to use six or less single remedies at any given time as it can be too overwhelming and ineffective to address more than this at once.

By Beth Adams Spencer, M.H., N.D.

DISCLAIMER: This column is not intended as medical advice. Its intent is solely informational and educational. Please consult a health professional should the need for one be indicated.
 

References

Chancellor, Philip. 1980. Handbook of the Bach Flower Remedies.

New Canaan, Connecticut: Keats Publishing, Inc.
Hasnas, Rachelle. 1997. Pocket Guide to Bach Flower Essences.

Freedom, California: The Crossings Press.

Howard, Judy. 1990. The Back Flower Remedies Step by Step.

Essex, England: CW Daniel Company Limited.

Jones, TW Hyne. 1976. Dictionary of the Bach Flower Remedies:

Positive and Negative Aspects. Essex, England: CW

Daniel Company Limited.

Scheffer, Mechthild. 1988. Bach Flower Therapy: Theory and

Practice. Rochester, Vermont: Healing Arts Press.