Creating Emotional Immunity

Emotions are contagious. You can catch them from other people just like you can catch a virus. When millions of people around the world are experiencing similar emotions, we might call that an emotional pandemic. Emotional pandemics are dangerous things. They create hysteria, a situation where people are overwhelmed by the group emotions and can't think straight.

Think of it this way. A mob is like an epidemic of anger. It makes people lose their normal sense of right and wrong and engage in destructive activities such as a lynching. It can also lead to rioting, vandalism and looting. In contrast, a plague of fear makes people cower and submit. They are afraid to trust their own judgment, express their own opinion or act on their own independent reasoning. A pandemic of fear makes people submit to tyranny, to irrational restrictions on their freedom done in the name of public safety.

To be fair, contagious emotions can be positive too. We can get caught up with laugher when associating with friendly people. We can also be inspired to courage, faith, hope or love by those around us. However, right now, we're seeing people being swept up in the emotions of fear and anger.

It's not very intense where I live in Southern Utah, but I felt this emotional energy intensely during my recent visit to the Seattle-Tacoma area. It was like a dark cloud hung over the area, even though it was a sunny day. The emotional climate of this urban area stood in stark contrast to the feelings I had when I was on the Olympia peninsula. While I was there at a remote beach it was actually cloudy, but there was tranquility in the air. It was foggy when we went into the Olympia National Park but there was no dark energy. Being enveloped in the fog, the world around disappearing into the mist, It felt more like a magic, peaceful fairyland.

I'm pretty sensitive to the emotional climate I'm in, but there is a difference in being aware of these emotions and getting caught up in the emotions that are "going around." It's possible to feel the emotional energy in your environment without being adversely affected by it. I think of it as having emotional immunity and I've found several remedies that help strengthen this type of immunity.

Red Clover Flower National Parks Service

Breaking Free from the Mob

During some recent walks, I saw red clover, a common weed that grows in fields all over North America. It is a traditional blood purifier and anti-cancer herb, and it is also one of the best flower essences you can take to build up your emotional immunity. The blossoms help you remain compassionate and aware, but emotionally self-contained when strong emotions could otherwise be overwhelming. 

If you're easily prone to get swept away by whatever fear or hysteria being created by mainstream or social media, or you are overly influenced by group thought or politically correct thinking, you should try this remedy.  It's very helpful for people who experience anxiety or panic over what they're seeing on the news or what friends are telling them.

To explain this action of red clover, I'd like to point out a few of the plant's signatures. First of all, red clover is in the pea family, and generally speaking this family is know for its social nature because they produce seeds in special pods called legumes. Think of the phrase, "peas in a pod." 

If you look at the blossoms of red clover you'll see that all the flowers are arranged in a sphere, all connected to a central point. But the color of the blossoms is out at the tip, not towards the center, which draws the energy away from the connection point out to the end of each individual blossom. Thus, the flowers are part of a group, but also maintain a sense of individuality. That's the basic nature of red clover. You're still part of the group, but able to be an individual, ie, think for yourself, at the same time.

Thus, in any crisis situation, red clover helps you to determine your behavior from your own internal logic and reason, apart from the group mindset. It's especially invaluable in emergency situations for helping you keep a clear head when people around you aren't.

Although these indications for red clover are primarily for the flower essence, the herb itself may help with this process. I was talking about it in a class and one of the students shared an interesting experience. There had been an earthquake in the area where she lived, and while everyone around her had been nervous and scared she had felt remarkably calm. Up until that time she had not known why but had just realized she had been drinking red clover tea daily for over a month prior to the earthquake. 

Based on what I've seen, a lot of people could benefit from taking red clover flower essence or just drinking red clover blossom tea right now. It would not only be good for helping protect them emotionally it would also act as a gentle tonic to their immune system.

More Flowers to the Rescue

The most widely used flower essence was created by Edward Bach. It is a blend of five flower essences called Rescue Remedy and I've seen great results with using it in any situation that's causing emotional distress. Rescue Remedy helps calm down feelings of fear, panic, anger and even terror. It is my favorite remedy for any kind of emotional shock. It helps a person rapidly regain a sense of calm and inner peace and react more thoughtfully and rationally to the crisis at hand. It is also known as Five-Flower Formula and I even designed my own version which I call Distress Remedy. Distress Remedy adds red clover and arnica to the formula, making it an amazing remedy for all kinds of shock and emotional trauma.

The best story I can share about Rescue Remedy involved an accident with a truck at my neighbor's home when our family lived in Elk Ridge. My wife and kids were visiting the neighbor's house and were in the driveway behind the neighbor's truck. The husband wanted to put the truck into the garage but didn't want to turn on the engine and blow exhaust on everyone standing behind it. Since the driveway sloped downward towards the garage, he simply put the vehicle in neutral to let it coast into the garage, so no one heard it when it started to move. 

He heard a thump as the vehicle moved forward and slammed on the brakes. He had just hit and knocked over my two-year-old daughter, who had been standing right in front of the truck when it began to move. She was too close and too short for him to see her there. She was lying under the engine block of the truck when he stopped. Fortunately, she only had a couple of minor bumps and scrapes and was more frightened than injured, but it shook everyone up.

When I came home shortly thereafter, everyone, including the neighbor was at our house. The emotional atmosphere was very tense and anxious. I was thankful and relieved to find my daughter was safe and wasn't seriously hurt. I understood that what happened was just an accident and told my neighbor not to worry, everyone was alright. He still felt very bad and had a hard time accepting my assurances. 

After he left, I decided to give everyone a dose of Rescue Remedy and within a few minutes the tense, stressed emotional cloud lifted and everyone was feeling better. It was then I realized that the person who probably needed the Rescue Remedy the most was my neighbor. I knew that he didn't believe in herbs and natural remedies like flower essences, but it occurred to me that he probably felt guilty enough that if I asked him to take it, he'd do it anyway.

So, I went to his home, knocked on the door, and when he answered, I said, "I know you don't believe in this stuff, but take some of this." I handed him the bottle of Rescue Remedy without explaining what it was for and told him to put a few drops under his tongue. Then I left.

When I saw him at church the next week I asked him if he had taken it. He said that he had and told me that he didn't believe it would do anything, but felt that he owed me so he took it anyway. He said he started to feel better in a few minutes and then asked me, "Does that stuff work?"

I love this story because it's one of the best examples of the many times I've seen flower essences and other natural remedies work even on people who believed they wouldn't do anything and who didn't even know what they were supposed to do. Right now I feel like lot of people would benefit from taking Rescue Remedy, Five-Flower Remedy, or even my version, Distress Remedy, because of all stress and trauma around recent events. 

Pink Yarrow by Steven Horne

Negative Emotions and Physical Illness

I'll mention one more really useful remedy to fortify your emotional immunity—yarrow. You can read the article I wrote on Yarrow a few weeks ago for its general uses, but here, I want to focus on the pink yarrow flower essence. From the start of the current pandemic, I have been very concerned that the fear and panic created around the disease could be just as harmful, if not potentially more harmful in the long-term, than the disease.

It is possible to discuss the fact that we have a crisis and at the same time express hope and optimism about our ability to deal with it, but that's generally not what happened. Instead, mainstream media and even social media have focused on terrifying projections and dire warnings. Since fear weakens the immune system, this is not a good tactic for keeping people healthy.

There are individuals who are highly empathetic and sensitive. I've known many individuals like this as many of them are attracted to the healing field because of their great compassion for others. Many actually pick up on the emotional vibrations of others and are overwhelmed by them, unable to distinguish their own feelings from the feelings of others. These people often become physically ill from the negative emotional environment they are in, soaking up this negative energy like a sponge. Pink yarrow flower essence is specifically for these people.

It helps a person clearly discern the difference between their own feelings and the feelings of others, so they are not overwhelmed by the emotional environment. They retain their ability to be empathetic and compassionate but are able to shield themselves so the problems of others don't make them sick or emotionally disturbed.

I've seen this first hand in my emotional healing workshops. We'll do some emotional work on someone who was severely abused or traumatized and after we have released their trapped emotional energy I see many people staring in shock from the intensity of the emotions being released. I pass around a mixture of pink and white yarrow flower essences and have everyone take it. In a few moments, everyone is able to let go of these strong emotions and feel calm again. So, if you're a particularly sensitive and compassionate person and are not feeling well right now due to all the negative news I have two suggestions, stop watching the news, including avoiding social media, and take the flower essence of pink yarrow or pink and white yarrow combined. It will help to shield you from the emotional impact of what is going on.

These three remedies, red clover flower essence, Rescue, Five-Flower or Distress Remedy, and pink yarrow flower essence are all remedies I'd recommend you try using for yourself or other people who are being adversely affected emotionally by current events or any other disaster big or small. They can be used to help strengthen your emotional immunity so you can remain aware of the emotional climate around you without being overwhelmed by it. Of course, it also helps to pray and put trust in God and stay open and connected to those you love and who love you. God bless. Be safe and happy.