Are you upbeat and looking forward to the new year? Or are you still
reeling in disappointment and frustration from the past? When things
don't go as you'd hoped, do you adapt and roll with it, or do you get
hung up in a certain measure of defeat?
I had a dream last
night of talking with an acquaintance named Melissa. I walked up to her
house and she was sitting outside in the dark with a black depressed
dog and talking to herself at a radically high speed until I
interrupted. We started talking about life and "tomorrow." Do we dare
get our hopes up? Is it going to be more of the same? Disappointment
after disappointment has rained down on our parades. Promises go
unfulfilled, our support structures are crumbling, and uncertainty is
rampant. I knew in the dream I had to make an essence blend called
"Tomorrow" to address hopelessness and anxiety about the future.
"Hope
deferred makes the heart sick." That quote was from Solomon, and if
you've ever muddled through Ecclesiastes, you know he knows what
he's talking about because it is a bummer. Hopelessness and
discouragement take a toll on the physical body as well as the mental.
It takes a lot of courage to have hope, because the tendency is to
protect ourselves from further heartbreak after our hopes had previously
been dashed.
But in our fear of keeping ourselves whole by not getting
our hopes up, we fall into the trap of hopelessness. "Hope deferred
makes a heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." If you
lose hope, you will never make it to the tree of life. Apathy is a
defense mechanism but it will shut us off from receiving renewal from
the tree.
Hope is powerful. It changes our thoughts, creates our
plans and guides what we actually do. Without hope we stay in our
ruts, not content, yet not moving either. With hope, we take
appropriate action and position ourselves to the best of our ability to
receive the thing we've been hoping for. Without hope, we don't complete projects, plant gardens, learn new skills or take care of ourselves.
Hopelessness breeds
despair and despondency about the future. Hopeless individuals believe
that their problems will never be solved and they will never succeed at
what they attempt to do. After all, success is attained through seizing
the opportunities and a hopeless person can't see the opportunities.
He or she only sees future disappointments. To the mind of a hopeless
person, what appears as opportunities and future promises are nothing
but future failures and disappointments in disguise. Any action taken
to better their situation seems like a fools errand. Chasing the wind,
as Solomon put it.
So how do you maintain hope in the face of
continual disappointment? For starters, let's look at Solomon's Seal
flower essence. "Set me as a seal upon your heart" - Song of Solomon
Solomon's
Seal helps with the frustration, the "why try" mentality and the
attachment to certain outcomes. When things don't go according to plan,
it will help you stay in a position to receive the best in life.
You'll be better apt to see blessings in disguises, and the setbacks
actually drive hope and anticipation higher because you can glimpse
something bigger than you imagined on the horizon. We always tend to
think too small and can become so grieved over our own little plans that
don't pan out, instead of realizing that things really do work out for the best.
Solomon's Seal in herbal lore was given Solomon's
stamp of approval and if you have an imagination, you can see the seal
on the roots. You might also see Hebrew writing on sliced roots, as if
it were a scroll, rolled up and sealed for your future. Every season of
growth earns the plant a new "seal" which is actually a scar from the
die back of the flowering stalk. Can you relate?
Every season of
set-back becomes a new promise if you can get on board with that. If
you can risk your heart by not thinking too small. Believe!
"Seal"
elsewhere in the ancient text signifies a promise that will not be
broken. Remember, the quote says "deferred," not "denied." However,
fulfilled promises rarely look exactly as you had imagined. Solomon's
Seal comes in handy here as well to help you readjust.
I've gone
ahead and made this essence blend, as per the dream. Remember Melissa?
She's my favorite flower essence. Melissa officinalis, better known as
Lemon Balm. I use it in probably half of Freedom Flowers blends
because it's so multi-purpose. Since Melissa was in the dream, I know
she's going in this blend. The high speed self-talk from the dream is
an issue that Lemon Balm corrects, the over-thinking, high velocity
thought processes with anxiety over the future.
She has a black
depressed dog - depression is "dogging" her, so I added some Borage for
that, and also for the courage, strength and the way it builds your
faith when you feel it's all been lost.
Scotch Broom is a great
anti-depressant as well, but more so on the pessimistic "worlds going
to hell in a hand basket" type of mentality. When the global issues
seem so bleak this is a great essence to break up that negativity.
Wild
Rose deals with the resignation that accompanies hope deferred. It
fixes that "I can't see any way out of this mess" thinking. Wild Rose
brings life back in, with a new found inner freedom to live life to
fullness even though it is filled with trials.
Bluebell for
moving into optimism. We know we need to "think positive" but it can be
so hard to do sometimes. Taking some bluebell essence is the shortcut
through the cynicism.
And of course, I added Solomon's Seal.
If you're not completely in the cynical, depressed, "life is a colossal failure" mindset, you can still benefit from these essences. I think all of us have areas of our lives where we have given up. You might want to re-explore some old dreams and look at what your rational is for not moving forward in that area. Is there a root of disappointment or resignation? If so, Tommorrow Essence might be the kickstarter you need. You might also look at M&M (Motivation and Manifestation) Essence to beat procrastination and feeling like the task is insurmountable.
So what are you waiting for? Renew your hope for tomorrow today! -Seneca
