Bach Flower Essences for Exhaustion

Sai Ram. How many days you woke up tired, unrefreshed and dreaded the day? How many times, through sheer grit and will power, you carried on even though you felt that you may drop from the intense exhaustion? Tiredness is OK after a day of hard work and normally a good night's sleep will refresh and recharge our batteries. But not always. May be we sleep for less than the optimal time or we sleep poorly (that is the quantity is OK but the quality is not)! Sleep has several phases: Light sleep, the beginning of sleep, when we are half awake. Then we have the dream phase (also called the REM phase) where we have dreams and then we have the deep, dreamless phase (non-REM phase). REM is an acronym for Rapid Eye Movements.

Just as the proof of the pudding is in eating it, the quality of sleep is determined by the feeling of freshness when we wake up in the morning. Poor sleep could be due to several causes:

1) Environmental - too hot or too cold room, too draughty or too stuffy room, too soft or too hard bed, insect bites (esp. where we have no control like in hotel rooms etc.) and many other factors affect sleep.

2) Other ill-health, for example, pain, allergies, GERD (Gastric Esophagal Riflux Disease) also called Acid Rifflux disease, Chronic Fatigue, Fevers etc. may interfere with good sleep.

3) Some foods and medications may interfere with sleep.

4) Sleeping with another person in the same bed may cause sleep disturbances.

5) Nursing sick persons may require our waking up in between and thus lead to poor sleep.

6) Awakened sexual desire (either in us or in our partner) may lead to an unscheduled interruption of sleep.

7) Too much stress and worries will certainly interfere with sleep.

There may be more factors. If you wish, you may add your own perceptions on them.

If you wake up unrefreshed and tired, and if the very idea of facing another day with its attendant problems tires you, but when you force yourself to take them up, you can do fairly well, you will benefit from HORNBEAM.

You are exhausted but out of sheer grit, carry on. You will benefit from OAK.

You are exhausted after a great deal of work and feel really at the end of your tether. Take a few doses of OLIVE and see the difference!

I mentioned above a few factors which may be affecting sleep. Not all of them can be corrected by Bach Flowers. Other measures may be needed to ensure that one gets a good sleep. Similarly good food, fresh air, good exercise etc. that is the basic ingredients of a good life should also be taken care.

Other Bach Flower Remedies may need to be taken along with say HORNBEAM if one wakes up tired. For example, due to nightmares and the consequent fears one doesn't get sleep - one needs MIMULUS or ASPEN or ROCK ROSE and that may solve the problem with or without HORNBEAM!

Similarly constant repetitive, worrying thoughts will call for WHITE CHESTNUT and then a good night's sleep comes and the tiredness goes off. If not, then add HORNBEAM.

Here is an easy way of selecting the Flower Remedy for exhaustion:

Starting trouble, i.e. the very thought of work makes one feel tired - physically the person is not really tired and the problem is more emotional - HORNBEAM

Tiredness from work - OLIVE

Tirednss in those who can't or won't stop struggling - they have a problem in letting others take charge, they also are probably perfectionists, they feel they have a mission and so won't rest - this can be approached from different angles like a house with several doors! - but if tiredness or exhaustion is the predominant factor, OAK will help.

The last example will give you an idea of why the same problem gets different prescriptions or suggestions from different practitioners! The practitioner and the person are seeing the same house from different angles! Normally, the most predominant emotion should be addressed first and then other aspects get taken care or are brought up clearly to be resolved with different flowers.

Taking power naps (short spells of sleep either sitting in a chair or lying in a bed) are another effective way of catching up with sleep and getting refreshed.