Floral Healing Therapy - an Interview

If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know I believe flowers make life happier and healthier. They truly have a positive impact on our mental, physical and emotional well-being. So you can imagine how excited I was a couple of weeks ago when I came across a little six-minute YouTube video called ‘I tried Floral Healing Therapy for my anxiety’.  Let me introduce you to Heather.

Heather has a business in Portland, Oregon, called ‘Floral Healing Therapy’. I reached out to her and asked if she’d be willing to answer a few questions about what she does, and she was kind enough to agree.

Hi Heather. Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions, letting us get to know you and your practice better.

How long have you been practicing Floral Healing Therapy?

I opened my private practice in April 2019. My love for flowers started early on and I’ve been a therapist for over 5 years.

Why do you think flowers are important for our mental well-being?

Flowers have a way of connecting us to the present moment. If we slow down and engage with flowers in a mindful way, meaning really paying attention to the qualities of each flower and how they come together as a whole, we can come up with creative solutions to our problems. Being around flowers improves our mood.

How do you incorporate flowers into your therapy work?

I bring fresh flowers to the sessions and the client arranges them. I encourage the client to do so slowly and to allow their feelings to arise naturally. After they’ve completed their arrangement, we talk about the flowers and the process. Flowers are full of good metaphors for life. We then end with a guided Floral Healing Meditation.

What type of reaction do you get from people experiencing your Floral Healing Therapy for the first time?

People are pleasantly surprised with how their arrangements turn out! A lot of people have beliefs about their creativity and in our culture, we often don’t try something in front of other people unless we know we will succeed. Floral Healing Therapy clients take a risk and they find that the process is empowering. Taking the arrangement home serves as a reminder of the progress they are making.

For those who don’t live in the Portland area, do you offer online sessions, and if you do, how do those work?

I offer video Floral Healing Meditation sessions for people who don’t live in the area where you bring some flowers for a guided meditation. I offer video Floral Healing Therapy to clients in Oregon and Washington, since I’m a licensed therapist in those states. FHT video sessions involve bringing flowers and arranging them during the session while talking through stressors and successes.

What plans do you have for the future with your Floral Healing Therapy practice?

My practice is ever-evolving. Since it’s a therapeutic modality I am creating from scratch, I want to design it for people who have a special connection to nature and flowers. Once we can gather in person again, I will be offering community meditations and flower mandala events. I want to offer training and certification in FHT so as many people can benefit from therapy and flowers as possible.

Here’s a tough question – what’s your favourite flower?

Foxglove! After I meditated for the first time, I stared into a foxglove and it’s been my favorite flower ever since.

Thank you so much, Heather. I’ve learned so much about you and how your Floral Healing Therapy works. I’m very excited to see where you take this in the future and when I next come to Portland, a session with you is at the top of my list for things to do!

Thanks for having me Mary!

I really appreciate Heather taking the time to answer these questions. If you’re interested in her practice you can find more information on her website or follow her on instagram @floralhealingtherapy .

Flowers - an Inspiration for Writers

Over the years I’ve gathered quite a collection of books, poems, quotes and song lyrics that reference flowers. It seems flowers, with their simple beauty, memorable fragrance, and vibrant colours, are a rich source of inspiration for creative minds. Previously I shared three favourite quotes from my collection with you. Today I’m sharing three more.

This selection comes from diverse sources. The first is Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States; the second is from Aaron Neville, an American musician; and the third is credited to Zen Shin. Zen Shin is not a person but a book, (full name Zen Shin Talks), a collection of short talks given by a Japanese monk.

When you read each quote and think about what it says, you’ll see no matter who wrote them, or when they were written, there’s something to connect with - something that makes them relevant today.

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“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”  - Abraham Lincoln

“Be honest, be nice, be a flower not a weed.” – Aaron Neville

“A flower does not think of competing with the flower next to it. It just blooms.” – Zen Shin

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Which quote speaks to you?

Flowers from a Florist

When you find yourself in need of flowers, there’s no shortage of options for where to find them. Your local florist, flower farms, farmer’s markets, grocery stores, corner shops and of course your own garden. All of them (yes, even the corner shop!) have their benefits. In the upcoming weeks we’ll look at each one separately. Today’s focus is your local florist.

The first thing to do is find a good quality florist in your neighbourhood. You’ll know they’re good if their shelves are constantly being refilled with a variety of fresh product, and the staff are friendly and helpful. Once you’ve found one, pop on in and start getting to know the staff. This is what a florist can offer you:

Expertly cared for flowers: As soon as a florist receives flowers in their shop, they condition them so they’re in tip-top shape. This is a skill they’ve learned as not all flowers are treated the same way. This also takes time. By the time you receive the flowers the conditioning has already been done which means you don’t have to do it.

Help make a decision: If you’re not sure what flowers you want to buy, your florist can give recommendations. They’ll know what’s in season, how to style them, and can work within your budget.

Share their knowledge: It’s part of a florist’s job to educate their customers so they have success with their purchase. They know all the tips and tricks to keep your flowers looking as fresh as possible for as long as possible and will share them with you.

Offer local product: Your florist will have an abundance of local, seasonal product. Nothing is better than getting the best and freshest flowers available.

Answer questions: Florists are a great resource if you have a flower-related question. If they don’t already know the answer, they’ll know where to find it. 

Create a relationship: If you have an ongoing relationship with your florist, they’ll get to know you and be able to contact you when your favourite flowers arrive in the store, or remind you when there’s important events in your life when you’ll want to make a purchase. 

Take care of delivery: Florists are able to arrange for local delivery. If you want to send something to a location further from home, they’ll be able to assist you with a local florist in that area.

Create skillful arrangements: A florist will be able to take your vision and recreate it. Or if you don’t know what you want, they can create something unique just for you.  

Source speciality items:  If you have a special flower you’d like but it’s not local, a florist should be able to source it for you. 

Give loyal service: Florists want to create loyal customer relationships. Their biggest means of marketing is by word-of-mouth so if you’re happy with their service, you’ll tell your family and friends, creating new customers for them.

Those who work as a florist have long hours and work on all the big ‘flower’ holidays like Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Christmas, missing time with their own family and friends. But they do this because they truly love flowers and want to share that passion with you. Next time you’re out for a walk and go past that little shop with the beautiful, fresh, window display that you always admire, how about popping in and making a purchase? It could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship!

Floral Perfumes

Without a doubt spring and summer are the best time of year for fragrant flowers. They fill the air with sweet and spicy notes, bringing another layer of beauty into the world. One way to extend that beauty into the rest of the year is with perfume. Wearing perfumes with the scent of roses, jasmine, lily of the valley and peonies will lift your spirits even during the darkest of winter days. One little spritz will transport you back to warm days filled with sunshine.

I wear perfume every day, but I don’t have a ‘signature fragrance’. I’ve enjoyed so many of the ones I’ve tried over the years, but I still love trying new ones. Right now I have two I am using and they both happen to be from Jo Malone.

First - Wild Bluebell Cologne. This fragrance is light and fresh and makes you imagine walking through a woodland carpeted with wild flowers. The top note is bluebell, balanced out with lily of the valley and persimmon. I like to wear this one during the day. 

Second - Red Rose Cologne. I first experienced this fragrance as a candle I received as a Christmas gift and fell in love with it. Shortly into the new year I was travelling to England and decided I would treat myself by going to the Jo Malone flagship store in London to buy it as a perfume. This scent is created with seven varieties of exquisite roses, crushed violet leaves and a hint of lemon. It’s clear, sophisticated and rich, perfect for a celebration or special evening out on the town.

With perfume, as with other things in life, it’s great to have your favourite, but don’t let that limit you - keep experimenting and trying new things. There’s a whole world of floral fragrances to discover!

(If you have a floral perfume that you love, please share with us in the comment section. I’d love to know.)

Three Flower Quotes

Writers, scholars, artists, and musicians make constant reference to flowers in their work. Their quotes can be sincere, inspirational, thought provoking or even funny. When I come across a quote I often think ‘this is my favourite’, but then I’ll come across another one and think ‘this is my favourite’. So what I have now is quite a large collection of my favourite quotes about flowers. I’m going to share three of them with you here.

The first is from Claude Monet, the founder of French impressionistic painting. The second is from Sigmund Freud, the Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis. And the third is from Alexander Den Heijer, a Dutch inspirational speaker, trainer and consultant. Very different people, all including flowers in their quote, and each one making me pause and think.

The quotes:

“I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.” Claude Monet

“Flowers are restful to look at. They have neither emotions nor conflicts.” Sigmund Freud

“When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.” Alexander Den Heijer

Introducing the Language of Flowers

It’s well-known that a red rose symbolizes love, but what’s not as well-known is that most flowers have a special meaning attached to them. Using flowers and their meanings to create and send messages has been practiced for thousands of years and across all cultures. This is the language of flowers. 

While the popularity of the language of flowers hit a high point during the Victorian era, today it’s existence has almost been forgotten. I first learned of it from a novel I read by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, aptly named, The Language of Flowers. Within the first few pages I was captivated by the way you could make a bouquet of flowers have a special meaning, purely from your choice of flowers. However, I quickly realized why the popularity of this “language” has fallen out of favour; intriguing and exciting as it is, the intricacies of the language make it difficult to use. It turns out every flower can have more than one meaning, and sometimes those meanings are total opposites of each other! Take a sunflower, for example. It can mean ‘adoration’, because of the way it turns its face towards the sun. But it can also mean ‘haughtiness’, because it can look like it’s turning its nose up at something. 

Despite these complications, I think now is a perfect time in history to start using this means of communication again. Today we live in a time when people are intrigued with the past, yet also a time of technology and social media. So while we value ancestry and all things vintage, we are also made very aware of what the latest trends are, and then we seem to want what everyone else has. Using the symbolism in the language of flowers is a great way to connect the past with the present. For example, you can take inspiration from an image of a flower bouquet on Instagram, and then make it unique by using flowers that give it a personal message. 

 In modernizing this language, we can make it popular again. In upcoming posts I will share with you ideas of how to take the complications away from the meanings, and then how to incorporate them into your flower use so you can create personalized and meaningful flower arrangements for your friends, your family and yourself to enjoy.

Time for a Flower-filled Vacation

Provence, Holland, Japan, California, Oman, the Azores, England, the Swiss Alps – what do these places have in common? They all have a spectacular floral landscape. Provence has their lavender, Holland their tulips, Japan their cherry blossoms, Oman their roses, California their poppies, the Azores their hydrangeas, England their bluebells and the Swiss Alps their wild flowers. 

When planning a vacation we normally think of which tropical beach, vibrant city, or snow-covered mountain we’ll go to. Having ‘flowers’ as the focus of your travels isn’t something many people have thought of. Let me introduce you to ‘Floral Tourism’ – planning your vacation destination based on the floral seasons. 

You may be wondering why you would make flowers the focus of your trip, but consider these three reasons:

 1 – When you’re visiting one of these flower-filled locations, you still experience the culture, people, food and language like any other holiday destination, but you’ve added another layer to your experience by treating your senses to local, seasonal flowers blooming en masse;

 2 – Holidays are meant to be relaxing, but they can also be stressful. It’s scientifically proven that flowers decrease anxiety, so imagine the positive impact on your vacation when surrounded by fresh, gorgeous flowers;

 3 – Flowers, with their vibrant colours and sweet fragrance create a warmth and beauty to the moment. The strong impressions they make will strengthen the memories of your vacation.

The place I’ve always said is the top of my list to visit is Provence. All that lavender would be heavenly and so relaxing! My goal is to get there within the next five years. But I’ve added another top destination to the list, and that’s England. I’ve been to England many times, but never when the bluebells are in bloom, and that is what I really want to see. I can just image a woodland scene carpeted in a sea of bright blue.

When traveling to see flowers in bloom there are several things you need to know to guarantee a successful trip. Most important (of course) is knowing when the flowers are in bloom. But you also want to plan where you will stay, what mode of transportation you will use when you’re there, appropriate clothing, and any special rules or regulations when you’re with the flowers.

In upcoming posts, I’ll focus on each travel destination giving you the specific information you need to visit that place. Let’s all take our vacations up a notch by visiting these spectacular floral utopias.

Fake Flowers vs Real - Same benefits???

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Having flowers in an interior space can make it feel more welcoming and have positive benefits on our mental, physical and emotional well-being. This has been scientifically proven. What I’m asked many times is, ‘Will fake flowers have the same benefits as real flowers?’. The short answer is no. And here’s why….

The fake flowers made nowadays can look very authentic. High quality materials are used, and they’re so botanically correct, that sometimes it’s hard to believe they aren’t real. They can ‘look’ the part, but that’s all. The reason they don’t have the same impact as real flowers is because they don’t engage as many of our senses. Here’s a comparison between fake and real flowers with each of our five senses:

Sight: While fake flowers can add beauty to a room, they lack the true, vibrant colours that real flowers have. And because fake flowers can be displayed for a very long time, the look gets stale. Real flowers give a space a new look and create a new ‘pop’ for our eyes, every time they are replaced.

Smell: No competition here at all! A vase brimming with garden roses, a bunch of fresh picked lavender, a handful of sweet peas that have just bloomed - all of these fragrances in fresh flowers are heavenly, but it hasn’t yet been figured out how to make fake flowers smell as good as the real thing.

Taste: This is pretty straight forward. No one is going to eat a flower made from silk or any other man-made material. And in the culinary world it’s a big faux-pas to put anything on the plate that you can’t eat - no matter how pretty it may be. Edible flowers on the other hand, make a great addition to a multitude of sweet and savory dishes, turning what perhaps is something rather ordinary into something extraordinary.

Hearing: Fake and real are pretty even here. This is the one sense of ours not engaged by flowers. Interesting though is the fact that there’s research suggesting that flowers can' ‘hear’ the buzz of passing bees, and when that happens, they produce sweeter nectar in response to it.

Touch: Even though some fake flowers look realistic, all you need to do is touch them to confirm they aren’t. Fake flowers are very uniform, lacking the variety of textures real flowers have.

So the bottom line is, while some may think not having to replace fresh flowers every time they wilt is a dream come true, it really is worth the effort. Nothing compares to the freshness, true colour, and idyllic fragrance of the real deal.

Quick tip: To give your fresh flowers a longer vase life, make sure they have clean, clear water. I change the water for my flowers every second day.