impatiens flower essence

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Impatiens flower essence

"Those who are quick in thought and action and who wish all things to be done without hesitation or delay. When ill they are anxious for a hasty recovery. The find it very difficult to be patient with people who are slow, as they consider it wrong and a waste of time, and they will endeavour to make such people quicker in all ways. They often prefer to work and think alone, so that they can do everything at their own speed." ~ Edward Bach, The Twelve Healers and Other Remedies

An Impatiens blockage:

• impatience

• irritability

• hurried

• tension

• short-tempered

• impetuous

Positive expression of:

• patience

• gentleness

• quick & alert

• decisive

• independent

• tolerant

• forgiving

Impatiens glandulifera

Impatiens earns the distinction of being the very first of the thirty-eight flower essences to be discovered by Edward Bach, and is one of the original Twelve Healers. A person can be in one of two Impatiens states—the high or the low—but when it comes to working with the essences, we focus only on the lower expressions. It might be tempting to look at the more positive expressions and want to reach for those, but first we need to properly identify and address the emotion standing in the way of you achieving those higher states naturally. So when should you reach for this particular essence?

Not all of the flower essences will be quite so obvious, but Impatiens is indicated when impatience and irritability rear their ugly heads. An Impatiens soul is one who finds it hard to sit still and allow others to work at their own pace; they have to fight—often unsuccessfully—not to commandeer the task themselves and so complete it in a "timely" fashion. Nothing irritates an Impatiens type quite like a slow pace does. Often they will fidget or drum their fingers, an obvious display of the inner mental tension.

Quick to anger, but just as quick to let it go, Impatiens people do everything just as speedily. Quick to think, quick to act, quick to speak, quick to decide—everything they do seems to scream "there's not enough time!" In fact, Mechthild Scheffer calls it "The Time Flower" because Impatiens types always behave as if the clock is loudly ticking and there's not a second to spare.

muddy the waters

If you read my previous essence post (here), then you know that the flower essences target emotions. If you were to reach out to a flower practitioner because you were unwell, the nature of your sickness or disease would have little to no bearing on the essences chosen. What that practitioner would be largely focused on is your mood.

Having said that, I'm now going to muddy the waters just a little bit (because when is anything ever black-and-white?), and tell you that the Impatiens essence is useful for more than just a mood and can also be used when one is in acute pain. This might seem initially confusing, but pain and tension so often go hand-in-hand. Whether or not tension causes pain or pain causes tension, the cycle can repeat ad infinitum. Impatiens types, with their high level of inner tension, can easily and unintentionally translate that stress into physical pain. This can often manifest as cramping, especially of the digestive track because of the tendency to eat just as quickly as they do everything else.

the flip side

So that's what things look like when you're in need of Impatiens, but what about after you've successfully dealt with your blockages—what lies on the other side? Definitely something altogether different! There's still a quickness to the energy, but now it's not harried, abrupt, and curt. It won't cut off your sentences or snatch the job from your hands. Instead, there's an air of patience, of gentleness, tolerance, and forgiveness. Additionally, there's a willingness to let others move at their own pace, even if it is a slower and more deliberate one. Alert and decisive, Impatiens types are independent without the pressing need to always work alone simply because collaborating with others drive them bonkers ;)

"The main reason for the failure of modern medical science is that it is dealing with results and not causes. For many centuries the real nature of disease has been marked by materialism, and thus disease itself has been given every opportunity of extending its ravages, since it has not been attacked at its origin. The situation is like an enemy strongly fortified in the hills, continually waging guerrilla warfare in the country around, while the people, ignoring the fortified garrison, content themselves with repairing the damaged houses and burying the dead, which are the results of the raids of the marauders. So, generally speaking, is the situation in medicine today; nothing more than patching up those attacked and the burying of those who are slain, without a thought being given to the real stronghold." ~ Edward Bach, Heal Thyself

how to use

For a detailed explanation of how to take the Bach flower essences and where to buy them, please visit my post here: Flower Essences: How to Use. And before I leave you for today, I will reassure you that I'm still slowly but surely working through each and every one of the flower essences! You can find them all conveniently located here: flower essences. Individually, this is what I've managed to accomplish so far:

• clematis

• mimulus

• agrimony

• chicory

• vervain

• centaury

• all about Bach flower essences

And that'll do it for today, my friend. The next essence on tap is: Clematis. (Are we having fun yet?) It's going to take me a while to get through all thirty-eight flower essences, so I've made up a cheat sheet to help you with your essence selection in the meantime. You can find that here:

flower essence cheat sheet.pdf

Download PDF • 555KB

Hoping your day is a productive one :)

Much love,

Melinda

Bach Flower Practitioner