Exploring Self-Healing with Australian Bush Flower Essences

Discover how Australian Bush Flower Essences (ABFE) can be easily integrated into your daily life as a powerful self-healing modality for yourself, your family, and even your animal companions. Learn about their history, what they are, and personal experiences of their transformative benefits. We'll also explore how ABFE can be used professionally with natural healing methods like Reiki within the realm of vibrational medicine, supporting individualized care and complementing other healthcare approaches.

Author: The Holistic Health Show

Guest Speaker: Deb Sharpe

Category: Health & Wellness, Alternative Medicine, Self-Help

Publish date: 05/04/2025

Duration: 18:14:00

Transcript: Find the transcript and more information at www.bodymindki.com/podcast

LINKS TO OTHER SPEAKER RELATED INFORMATION
www.reminessence.net

Transcript

[00:00:14] Amy: Hello, welcome back to the Holistic Health Show. It's been a while and I'm excited to be back with you today. And today we have Deb Sharp. Deb is a master practitioner and teacher with the Australian Bushflower Essence Foundation.

[00:00:30] Amy: So this is something that's a little bit new to me. I, I know some things about essential oils and I, I love using essential oils in my practice, my personal life, but when it comes to the Australian bushflower essences, I am a newbie. So thank you, Deb, so much for joining us on the show today. I would love for you to tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started with this.

[00:00:53] Deb Sharpe: Oh, thank you, Amy. It's a pleasure to be on the show. I'm really grateful to have the opportunity to [00:01:00] be able to share some information about the bushflower essences because they seem to be a little hidden gem that Australia has. It really surprises me. on a regular basis, you know, when I get starting to talking, to talk to people about what I do and the flower essences that, you know, they're not all that well known considering that they have been around really for well nearly close to 50 years now.

[00:01:27] Deb Sharpe: I first got introduced to flower essences from my naturopath when I became a parent and I was just looking for complementary therapy for my, my children. And at that time in the early 1990s I got introduced to bark flower remedies. and Bark Flower Remedies originated in the UK, they were quite helpful for my son at the time who had he had issues with the Eustachian tubes in his ears after having severe tonsillitis [00:02:00] and my naturopath suggested that we try those.

[00:02:02] Deb Sharpe: And then I, I used also another remedy called, uh, rescue remedy, which is a bark flare remedy as well. And a lot of people might be familiar with that. You can actually buy that on the shelves in some supermarkets now and chemists. 

[00:02:19] Amy: I can remember going

[00:02:19] Amy: to my grandmother's house when I was quite young, and she'd always had the rescue remedy out.

[00:02:24] Deb Sharpe: Yeah.

[00:02:25] Amy: I think, that one.

[00:02:27] Deb Sharpe: funny enough, at that time in the nineties, that's when A. M. White was starting to get the Australian version of that up and running. And he's a fifth generation herbalist and naturopath. And he he decided to get really involved in sharing his knowledge that he'd learned from his grandmother in particular when he returned home from An overseas trip and had had an illness there and was looking [00:03:00] into alternative options, complementary options, you know, to support with Western medicine.

[00:03:07] Deb Sharpe: And then he became really passionate and it just took over from there. 

[00:03:12] Amy: It's amazing. The natural resources that we can find if we, if we look out for them and kind of open our eyes and our, and our learnings to them. I'm really curious you know, , which Australian flowers are the ones that we're using. 

[00:03:28] Deb Sharpe: Well, the flower that the Australian Bushflower Essence uses, their main emblem is waratah. Waratah's in a lot of the blends that you can purchase at health food stores. And, and from I call that ABFE for short, from the ABFE website. Yeah, so one I use quite a bit is Waratah. I'll just show you the card.

[00:03:51] Deb Sharpe: If you can see, see that there. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:03:55] Amy: It's quite pretty, isn't it?

[00:03:56] Deb Sharpe: it is, yeah. Yeah. And Waratah in [00:04:00] particular is for strength and courage to cope. In, in situations. And that's actually a key ingredient in emergency essence, which is the Australian equivalent to rescue remedy. 

[00:04:12] Amy: what are the other options that we have? Do they all have these clever little names or is it just the emergency one that does?

[00:04:19] Deb Sharpe: There are blends that you can buy at health food shops that have. They're easy to use options and they're readily available for us. So we have blends such as Relationship Essence Adult Essence, which is really good to support adolescents you know, during the transition. period that they have in that phase of life.

[00:04:44] Deb Sharpe: There's another one called transition essence, which also supports us through various transitions that we might have, you know, even something, something like end of life, you know, when someone, [00:05:00] you know, is terminally ill, you know, transition essence can help them and the family to cope during periods, periods of time like that. 

[00:05:10] Amy: And I would imagine even, you know, being a new parent myself, thinking about that transition for myself and my husband. Perhaps even at that stage of life, it could be something that can help you cope with all of those changes or, or maybe menopause even?

[00:05:25] Deb Sharpe: yeah, yep, yep, kids going to school, you know, first days at school, things like that, yeah. So there's there's 71 flower essences now. There were 69 for quite a few years and then they released two recently. Caliphilum which supports leadership. in supporting others that was released recently and also Sedum, which is the first essence that he actually made overseas.

[00:05:57] Deb Sharpe: It's grown in Corsica and that [00:06:00] supports connection to our higher self. 

[00:06:02] Amy: And so,

[00:06:02] Amy: how do you take all of these? Do you dilute them and ingest them? Are they diffused? Or is it a combination? 

[00:06:09] Deb Sharpe: They're not, they're not diffused. There are a number of ways that you can take them, but perhaps it's a good idea to just talk briefly about the difference between them and essential oils, because I find that's where a lot of people do get confused when I do talk about Australian bushflower essences.

[00:06:32] Deb Sharpe: So essential oils, they differ a lot. Quite significantly from flower essences because they are as the name suggests, oils, they are extracted or pressed directly from the flower or the plant. And used for aromatherapy purposes. Whereas the Australian bushflower essences it's more of a like an alchemical type process where when Ian [00:07:00] makes the, what we call the mother tincture which is the main stock essence which he then dilutes into these particular.

[00:07:12] Deb Sharpe: stock essences that you'll buy from ABFE. He uses the four elements. So he selects particular flowers and then removes the flower petals from the plants and puts them in a bowl of, So you're using the element of water in a glass bowl. Indirect sunlight. They're left in direct sunlight for a period of time, a matter of hours.

[00:07:40] Deb Sharpe: Upon the earth so it might be upon the soil or it might be upon a rock at a particular location. In the open air, so, so that in fact you're using the four elements, water, earth, fire for the sun and air. And then it's an energy [00:08:00] exchange that occurs. The water is strained and And then it's preserved in in a bottle with pure preservative brandy.

[00:08:11] Deb Sharpe: And then that actually results in the mother, what we call the mother tincture, being obtained. And then from there, as I said, then it gets diluted into the stock. strength. And then from there, when you purchase a stock strength bottle, then you can dilute it down into what we call a dose strength. So a dose strength you use pure still water.

[00:08:36] Deb Sharpe: , that itself is a carrier, the carrier for the process, for the energy exchange. So I've got here just to show you that I've got some pew still water here, one of the dose bottles. And then we can select whichever flourescence that we are drawn to. And we put seven [00:09:00] drops of the flourescence into the dose bottle.

[00:09:05] Deb Sharpe: And then we use a quota of, I generally use one quarter. If I'm going to use preservative brandy, I'll use one quarter brandy. And then I'll use the remainder to fill a 15 ml bottle with the pure pure still water. And when you do make up the dose strength, you can make up using one flower essence.

[00:09:30] Deb Sharpe: or you can use up to potentially five as long as they all are related to the one issue that you're looking at 

[00:09:40] Amy: if we could just go back, just so I can get clear on a few things. When you're making the dose strength in this little bottle that you have there, that's not one dose though, in that bottle. That's a prescription, say. Right.

[00:09:55] Deb Sharpe: that's right that's right yeah and the recommended [00:10:00] dosage is seven drops under the tongue twice a day

[00:10:04] Amy: I see.

[00:10:05] Deb Sharpe: yeah and a 15 ml bottle on the average would would potentially last you two weeks Hmm. Mm

[00:10:13] Amy: mentioned you can use up to five of the essences For the one issue

[00:10:19] Deb Sharpe: hmm.

[00:10:20] Amy: so you can't say mix them You know if I had a few things going on say if I was anxious and going through a transition phase would you be able to mix for those or you would need two separate dose?

[00:10:36] Deb Sharpe: Ideally, you'd focus on the one issue. You'd make a priority as to what's your main issue at the moment, you know. And that's where it comes in that it might be good to just have some reflective time. You know, perhaps meditate. on it for a little while and contemplate what is the issue that you're really wanting to deal with at this time.

[00:10:59] Amy: [00:11:00] And I suppose working with a practitioner like yourself could kind of help be a guide during that process and, and figuring out what really to add inside those, those vials. Because I myself certainly wouldn't be able to look at all 71 and think, well, this is what I need today. I would certainly need some assistance.

[00:11:17] Deb Sharpe: Yeah. And that's where, what I just showed you, the insight cards. There's a deck of insight cards that, that you can get and. I quite often give people the opportunity to choose their own essences, you know, that particularly the children, you know, I find children really enjoy yeah, spreading out the cards, whether it be on the table, like one behind me, or even on the floor, they spread the cards out.

[00:11:47] Deb Sharpe: And then we have a look and see what what jumps out might be the colour that might be resonating with them. It's really amazing, you know, to see what does [00:12:00] unfold, you know, when you give people that opportunity to actually just tap into the energy of the flower because it is a, it's an energy exchange

[00:12:09] Deb Sharpe: that's how the flowers are basically working with us. It's the same when you go out for a walk in nature. You know, and you might, if you're fortunate enough to be able to go for a bush walk where there are some flowers, bush flowers growing 

[00:12:24] Deb Sharpe: . And and and then you know we we feel so much better after being for a walk in nature and then that validates to how the flower essence actually they work with their energy because it's it's from a vibrational frequency perspective. You know, and as we just spoke about, the the process of making the flower essences is an energy exchange.

[00:12:51] Deb Sharpe: And it actually what you're left with, you know, with the water that's left is the vibrational signature of the [00:13:00] flower. You know, it's healing potential. Because when a plant flowers the flower holds the highest amount of energy. It takes so much for that little flower to actually reach that peak and burst into, into flower.

[00:13:15] Deb Sharpe: And then it's sharing that high frequency energy with us when we When we do have that interaction with them, yeah, when we're taking them. So they work on the subtle bodies of our energy system. It's got a lot, well, the foundation of it really is related to vibrational energy. vibrational medicine.

[00:13:40] Deb Sharpe: And the concept of that, the key concept is that human beings are multi dimensional beings and there's more to us than just simply a physical body and a brain. 

[00:13:52] Amy: So would it have anything to do with, you know, direct impacts on the chakras? Are there particular flower essences that would [00:14:00] correspond to each chakra?

[00:14:02] Deb Sharpe: They, they all correspond to individual chakras. Chakras, yeah, they're classified, I mean according to, each of the, each of the seven major chakras. . And they're activated through that interaction via the meridian system of the body. 

[00:14:19] Amy: makes sense if they're quite vibrational. It brings me back to I'm thinking about just the process you explained of creating the mother tincture That itself must be very therapeutic and very grounding and, you know, just being in nature while you're doing that and accessing all this vibration. 

[00:14:36] Deb Sharpe: yeah, that's right. Well personally I haven't had the opportunity to do that. But we do get the opportunity to see and do that firsthand. 

[00:14:46] Deb Sharpe: So I've actually got that on my wish list. Ha ha

[00:14:49] Amy: Can manifest that one.

[00:14:51] Deb Sharpe: Yeah, and during that workshop, you actually have the opportunity to go on a bushwalk.. And you can watch him actually [00:15:00] do that process. . And, and be involved to that degree in making the 

[00:15:04] Deb Sharpe: flower essence. 

[00:15:05] .

[00:15:05] Amy: So every single one of these essences that one would purchase are all made by Ian.

[00:15:11] Deb Sharpe: Yes. Yes. Yeah. He travels Australia. Yeah. And, and across the world teaching, you know, but and as I said, the first flower essence that he has created overseas was released last year and it's called Sedum in Corsica. 

[00:15:27] Amy: I'm really intrigued by these and I can't wait. We're actually going on a bushwalk tomorrow So I can't wait to go out. I'm going to can you access the Flowers themselves online to see which ones are us. Yeah. Yeah, I'm gonna have a little peek later 


[00:15:40] Deb Sharpe: yeah, there's all information about all of the individual remedies and all of the blends educational workshops online and in person that are coming up. 

[00:15:48] Amy: And anyone who wanted to get started or ask more questions about this, is this something that You do consultations on how does one get, you know, [00:16:00] further information. 

[00:16:01] Deb Sharpe: Well, you could you could either email myself for any assistance or, and look up my website, Reminiscence Natural Therapies. I'm willing to answer any questions that I can. And really the other option is to make contact with Sharon. The, she's the coordinator at ABFE. 

[00:16:21] Amy: Okay, great. And I'm going to actually share all those links in the description of the episode. So all of you who are listening and are as intrigued as I am by this, just reach out to Deb or reach out to Sharon. Comment on the video if you're watching on YouTube, 

[00:16:37] Amy: but yeah, definitely ask those questions and see how these could potentially help you Through any transition periods or any issues that you or your family may be going through. 

[00:16:46] Amy: Dev, thank you so much for joining us today. And before we go, I just want to make sure There's nothing else that you wanted to add or you know, there's something else we should cover.


[00:16:56] Deb Sharpe: No, not, not particularly. Really just [00:17:00] to say too that the flower essences work on an emotional level quite powerfully. So, you know, they're worth considering in that respect, but also realizing too that you know, emotions are there to be felt, you know, they're not to be to cover it up or anything like that.

[00:17:20] Deb Sharpe: But yeah, these, these complimentary therapies are there to support us through anything that we're dealing with. 

[00:17:27] Amy: it can be incredibly challenging working through our emotions, but the result tends to be a lot better than when we bottle them up. I'm sure

[00:17:35] Amy: we can all relate to some sort of experience with ourselves or someone we know who bottled up our emotions and it, it 

[00:17:41] Amy: tends to overflow pretty quickly.

[00:17:43] Deb Sharpe: it does. Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity, Amy.

[00:17:46] Amy: Thank you, Deb. It was really, really nice to talk to you today and thank you for sharing Australian bushflower essence information with us.

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