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140. The Healing Power of Flower Essences with Dr. Melissa Crum
122 Plays1 year ago
Time for a little flower power! We're learning about all things flower essences this week with Dr. Melissa Crum, founder of The Flower Remedy and Doctor of Oriental Medicine.
In our conversation, Melissa shares what flower essences are, how they differ from essential oils, and how flower essences help us heal on an emotional and energetic level. We also discuss other forms of classical homeopathy (including arnica, one of my favorites!) and ways to incorporate more self-care into our lives.
Listeners receive 20% off their order at The Flower Remedy using code VM20.
If you enjoy this episode, please feel free to rate and review the podcast on whatever app you’re listening on, and share with a friend!
CONNECT WITH DR. MELISSA CRUM
Website: https://theflowerremedy.com/
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Welcome
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the wellness and wanderlust podcast. We're here to demystify wellness and help you add a little adventure to your life. Tune in for a new episode every week, where we'll hear from incredible guests and talk about ways to be happier and healthier in our new normal. I'm your host, Valerie Moses. Let's get started.
00:00:23
Speaker
Hey everyone, welcome to the Wellness and Wanderlust podcast, your go-to for inspiring conversations and expert insights on holistic wellness and personal
Understanding Flower Essences with Dr. Melissa Crumb
00:00:32
Speaker
growth. I am so grateful to have you join me today as we dive into a topic that was very, very new to me, and this is the world of flower essences. So this week I sat down with Dr. Melissa Crumb, founder of The Flower Remedy and an expert in the field of flower essences. In our conversation, Melissa shares what flower essences are
00:00:50
Speaker
how they differ from essential oils, and how flower essences help us heal on an emotional and energetic level. We also talk about other forms of classical homeopathy and ways to bring more self-care into our lives. This was a really fun conversation. And if you're as intrigued as I was by flower essences, our listeners will receive 20% off their order with the flower remedy using code VM20. All of that is linked in the show notes. So enough for me, let's dive into episode 140 with Dr. Melissa Kram.
00:01:20
Speaker
Melissa, thank you so much for joining us at Wellness and Wanderlust today. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here. I love this podcast and I can't wait to have a conversation with you.
00:01:31
Speaker
Well, thank you so much. I am so excited to chat with you. You work in an area that we really haven't touched on on the show before, and so I cannot wait to learn more about the work that you do. Before we really get into that, I would love for you to first just introduce yourself to our listeners. Yeah, I'm Melissa Crumb.
Emotional Healing with Flower Essences
00:01:49
Speaker
I'm a doctor of Oriental medicine. I've been practicing for 23 years now. I started out doing
00:01:56
Speaker
and still do acupuncture and Chinese herbs and then from there I have really had a lot of time to learn about new things and so I learned classical homeopathy as well as flower essence therapy which I have really found amazing.
00:02:12
Speaker
and really a great benefit to my practice. And they work with the flower essences, work with other therapies, they work standalone. And in my practice, one of the reasons why I sought out flower essences in homeopathy was because in Chinese medicine, in traditional Chinese medicine, most disease or illness comes from, about 90% of it comes from either diet or emotions. Those can impede the flow of your qi and, you know, just having homeostasis in your body.
00:02:41
Speaker
So diet is not always the hardest thing to change, you know, if people are motivated, but emotions can be really hard because sometimes it's subconscious things that are going on in our emotions. Sometimes it's really old patterns that were put there by, you know, from childhood. And so I found that the flower essences would really address in a very specific way, emotional imbalance that might be impeding the healing of the person.
00:03:09
Speaker
I think that's really amazing. I completely agree with you. I think the emotions can often be the hardest thing to change. I love the idea of these flower essences helping to bridge that gap and address that. Now, I'm not very familiar with flower essences. I have some experience with essential oils, but not so much on the flower essence side. I'd love to know what is the difference and what are flower essences?
00:03:34
Speaker
The difference is, essential oils, they actually have a strong scent, right? And they are the oils and the compounds of plants and flowers and they're very concentrated.
00:03:46
Speaker
typically we don't ingest essential oils. They're used for topical use and they're very strong in their scent and they have a wonderful place in all of this.
Safe Use and Preparation of Flower Essences
00:03:58
Speaker
Flower essences, they are actually energetic or vibrational medicine which is in the realm of homeopathy if you're familiar with homeopathy, but the way that they're prepared is
00:04:10
Speaker
the flowers, there are certain specific flowers that address very specific emotions and they are harvested. They're usually harvested wild harvested because of just the purity of them. They are then put into spring water and put in the sun and then it's filtered. In the end, what you have is you have the energetic footprint or the energetic information of that particular flower.
00:04:38
Speaker
These flower essence therapies work on a vibrational level, not on a chemical level like essential oils or herbs or prescribed or over the counter medicines. So the beauty of them too is that they do not interact with other types of medications that somebody may be taking.
00:04:57
Speaker
And the other thing about flower essences is that they are really they're all to address emotional balance. They're not for physical maladies necessarily. But as I mentioned before, you know, when once you start addressing emotional things, it can really help the physical. So for example, when you have an herb or even a prescribed medicine, it's
00:05:19
Speaker
It's got a very general, let's say it's for sadness or depression, right? And it's just very general. That's what it treats. Well, with flower essences, I find that it's never just one thing. Person isn't usually just sad. Sometimes there's anxiety or overwhelm. Sometimes there's shame or guilt. I mean, all of these things can be very specifically addressed with different flower essences.
00:05:44
Speaker
So for something like this where you're not ingesting it, how exactly would somebody incorporate flower essences into their day to day? So flower essences really are for ingestion and it's the essential oils that you don't ingest. Those are the ones that you put on topically and flower essences are for ingestion, but they can also be used topically. They can be used in a bath,
00:06:09
Speaker
They can be used in a room spray, but most often people do ingest them. And how would you decide like what flower essence to use for what particular, maybe situation that you're going through, emotional imbalance that you're going through? Where do you start with that? You know, there are some, there are some ways that, um, there are a couple of ways. I mean, if you want to self-treat, I would definitely really journal everything you're feeling, like not just I'm sad.
00:06:37
Speaker
what else is going on? Why am I sad? What else is accompanying that sadness? Or you can go to a flower essence practitioner who really knows how to talk to you and get you in your own words to describe what's going on and can really hone in on what flower essences are best for what you're describing. But you can do a lot. You can do research and you can find out which flower essences are for what and you can self-treat.
00:07:05
Speaker
And typically, I forgot to finish when I was saying how flower essences are prepared. So the flowers themselves are soaked in the spring water, and then it's filtered. And then they add brandy. So the brandy is the traditional way. So it preserves that water so bacteria and things don't grow in it. So what you do is they have different bottles of specific flower essences. And you take that bottle and you add it to a treatment bottle, which is just spring water.
00:07:35
Speaker
And then you put about four drops of each essence in that bottle, in that treatment bottle that you're making for yourself. And that treatment bottle is the
00:07:44
Speaker
purified or the spring water plus the drops of whatever flower essences you choose. I just find this so fascinating. Again, it's something that I've never used before. I know that there are probably countless flower essences out there just based on the many, many flowers out there. But in terms of people that you work with and the work maybe that you do for yourself as well, what do you find in terms of those flower essences to be the most impactful or maybe the most commonly used?
00:08:14
Speaker
So, you know, the most impactful I think is very individual, but commonly used would be something like gorse and genshin, which are used for a gorse is called the hope flower. So those two are used for sadness or depression. Impatience is
00:08:32
Speaker
you know, just the name of it tells you what it treats. Treats people that are very impatient. It's really helpful for that. I like to use Holley a lot because Holley is a heart opener. And so I always think when you're dealing with emotions and just when you're dealing with anything, if you have an open heart, that makes everything so much better and so much easier to treat and
00:08:56
Speaker
you become more transparent in a way, if that makes sense. Yeah. So when you're working with your patients, can you provide any examples of just like a real life case where flower essence, obviously no names, but we just wear a flower essence has made a significant impact for the person or how, how it's exactly helped them along this journey.
Case Studies and Emotional Adaptation
00:09:17
Speaker
Yeah, I can actually provide a couple of different, just like really general kind of cases that I've worked with. One was a young teenage boy who was having some acne as well as having some typical teenage issues like mood swings and things like that. And I do combine classical homeopathy with my flower essences, but you don't have to. So I did use some classical homeopathy
00:09:47
Speaker
And it was a very short amount of time that that acne cleared and also that his emotions very much leveled out and he became his normal self without that angst and anger. Another one was somebody who was suffering from
00:10:03
Speaker
depression and I'll just say depression on here when you know you have to be careful as far as like if you're treating somebody personally that's fine but sadness and anxiousness I'll say so we did a flower essence formula specifically for her and
00:10:19
Speaker
And her sadness was, you know, general, but also something had happened in her life that made her very sad. And she really just came out of that cycle very quickly within a week to 10 days. And not to say that, you know, it doesn't make all of that go away, right? We can't change sometimes our life situations. Sometimes we can, but sometimes we're given what we're given. But we can change our response and how we adapt.
00:10:47
Speaker
we move through it, if that makes sense. And then one other one, it was a weight loss, you know, because I think many times weight issues have
00:10:59
Speaker
a lot to do with emotional. You know, I think many of us have emotional attachments maybe to food and we use food sometimes to change our state. And so if we can just kind of become more aware and more in our bodies, we can realize when we're full and maybe we don't need as much sugar to try to change our emotional state if we're already feeling, you know, pretty good.
00:11:26
Speaker
So I have seen flower essences work for that as well. That's awesome. And I think it's so cool to see just the different areas, the different variety of how this modality can really help people. And I know that it's not really heavily practiced here in the US, or at least it's not.
00:11:43
Speaker
I don't see it as often in the mainstream. But before we hit record, you were sharing that this has actually been practiced in Europe for a long time.
History and Misconceptions of Flower Essences
00:11:50
Speaker
And I'd love to know a little more about that history and how you picked up on this one and how, you know, how this became a part of your practice.
00:11:58
Speaker
Yeah, so Dr. Bach was a physician in I believe in the early 1900s until the 1930s in England. And he was also a homeopath, which I think was kind of common to be, you know, to be a medical doctor and a homeopath. And of course, they didn't have the same
00:12:16
Speaker
you know, drugs and everything that we have now. So he was doing research and he was a bacteriologist. And so basically he was making these vaccines by homeopathic means for this bacteria, for this gut bacteria. Well, he became ill and I think the diagnosis was throat cancer.
00:12:36
Speaker
Well, he just had, he felt like he had so much to do that he could not afford to die right now. And he had all of this purpose. Well, he ended up living through his diagnosis and he figured it was because he had so much purpose. And then he started being very interested in how emotions affect our physical health. And that's when he discovered the flower essences just by trial and error. So because he was
00:13:06
Speaker
English, it became much more common in England for them to use flower essences because that's where it was introduced. So that's why I think they're more common there and maybe a little more common in Europe. I believe that Europe is much more open to homeopathy.
00:13:24
Speaker
and flower essences are considered to be a part of homeopathy. And the way that I came to flower essences was actually by many years ago, my daughter's kindergarten teacher was really into flower essences and she was a practitioner and would do treatment bottles for me and for my daughter.
00:13:44
Speaker
And I saw how wonderful and powerful they were. And I would ask her for things even for my pets. And so this is a way that I describe because somebody asked me, how do you know it's not just a placebo effect, right? Well, the way that I know is because how do my cats know that they're taking flowers?
00:14:06
Speaker
and what they're for. So this one particular one that it was vine was the one that she had suggested to me because I had a cat that I loved, but he would get angry and urinate in the house. And he was a kitten at the time, like about one or so. And so it was going to be a habit of his. And I gave him that. And you know what? He totally stopped. He was the best cat.
00:14:42
Speaker
And it really calms down that whatever he's doing to bully her. That's so funny. And that's, that's a great point. The animals really don't know. And that does make me think about, you know, with essential oils, there's often the warning that certain essential oils can be poisonous for your dogs or for your cats and they could, or they could be, they could be harmful for our pets.
00:14:55
Speaker
He never did it again.
00:15:05
Speaker
Are there any risks with flower essences either for our pets or even for us in certain contexts? Or is it something that we can kind of pursue without that risk? That's the beauty of it. It really is safe for everyone, safe for animals, for small children because of the fact that it's energetic medicine. And so it's not working on that chemical level. And yes, it's true when you talk about, I don't want to mix these two, but when you talk about essential oils,
00:15:35
Speaker
you have to be so careful with animals because so many of them are very toxic even just to smell them to animals and that's the beauty of the flower essences. So for humans, animals, children, they're all very safe and there are no contraindications because again there's really not any
00:15:55
Speaker
part of the actual plant left in the remedy, it's just the blueprint. It's the energy, the vibration that works with your body to bring it to a higher level of vibrational level of healing.
00:16:10
Speaker
That makes sense because, yeah, you always have to worry about, you know, is this something that, yeah, that could impact my pet. You know, I'm growing out of plants right now and I don't have pets at home personally. But the first thing I see when I'm researching kind of how to care for them is keep this away from pets. This one's okay with pets. And so many folks listening who may have a curious pet running around, you want to make sure
00:16:33
Speaker
Of course. And so that is really good to know. And, you know, as someone with a lot of sensitivities myself, knowing that this is something that I could use and not really, yeah, experience those risks that you sometimes can. Are there any misconceptions around flower essences that you typically see when you're working with people or just in this space in general and anything you'd like to clarify? Yeah. I mean, I think the biggest one is that people do, like you said, they get them confused with essential oils. So we've really
00:17:03
Speaker
I think cleared that up. That's a big misconception. And then there's the misconception that, well, it's just a placebo effect.
Vibrational Medicine and Personal Experiences
00:17:11
Speaker
And it's really not just a placebo effect. It is, I have seen them work time and again on
00:17:17
Speaker
small children who don't know what it is. So how do they know that it's helping? And then the other thing is, well, there's no research behind them and there's no medicine left in there so they can't be effective. Well, vibrational medicine is very effective and I just feel as if
00:17:37
Speaker
science hasn't caught up to vibrational medicine, so they don't have a great way of measuring these nano or smaller particles that are left from these substances that actually will heal your body.
00:17:52
Speaker
So with vibrational medicine, because that's an area I'm also not, or maybe I am familiar and just don't know, but it's one that we don't really talk about that often. And I'd love to know what are other modalities of vibrational medicine that listeners might be kind of aware of that we can kind of, you know, visualize when we're thinking about this. Oh, yeah. So acupuncture is energetic medicine. Some people use Reiki as a, I don't know if that's very common for people, but it's, it's energetic healing, you know, touch. There's,
00:18:22
Speaker
There's therapeutic touch that people use. A classical homeopathy, so a lot of people may be familiar with arnica. Arnica is a classical homeopathic remedy. It's good for bruising and muscle soreness. That is actually energetic or vibrational medicine. Any kind of classical homeopathy is vibrational, energetic medicine.
00:18:45
Speaker
Well, it turns out that I think a lot of us actually are somewhat familiar with vibrational medicine. That is too funny. Last year, I was, I don't know if it's my anemia or what it was, but I was bruising a lot. And I was using arnica pretty regularly. And that was the one thing that was kind of helping other than just healing and trying not to bang into anything, I guess. It really good. Arnica is very powerful. Yeah. And I had no idea that that was on a vibrational level.
00:19:12
Speaker
Did you use the pills that dissolved under your tongue or did you use the topical? I used a topical. Yeah. You can also buy them. A classical homeopathy comes in little pellets usually that you put under your tongue and let them dissolve. I don't know if you've ever tried any of that. Not with arnigas. I'm definitely going to have to look into that. Yeah. There's also a really good flu remedy that some people may be familiar with called osilococcinum.
00:19:42
Speaker
It's a mouthful, but it's pretty amazing. That's homeopathic and vibrational in nature. And it works really well for flu. That's amazing. And I think it is so important for us to kind of broaden our sense of what's going to work for different imbalances that we're experiencing. We had an acupuncturist on the show probably about a year ago and hearing about with the vibrational medicine, really like how pain that people were experiencing in the body and
00:20:12
Speaker
other physical ailments that they had, how it was tied to so much on an emotional, spiritual level that we don't give credit to a lot of the time. And you're so right, I think it is really hard to quantify that from a research perspective. Now, is there any kind of research that's currently going on in terms of the flower essences or anything maybe more for us to adopt it more in the US?
00:20:36
Speaker
Yeah, so there aren't a large amount of studies, but I have found some studies. Now, also, I think a lot of studies are empirical, right? So that's just experiential. And those can be really useful to practitioners, but sometimes it can, you know, people can be skeptical of that. So there is a man named Jeffrey Cram, C-R-A-M, and he did, I believe he was a psychologist and a researcher.
00:21:03
Speaker
and he actually did a couple of double blind studies on flower essences where he was in the one study, one of them he exposed them to basically an irritant which was I think it was bright fluorescent lights and he actually measured specific areas of the back and he measured like muscular
00:21:25
Speaker
I don't know if it was contraction that showed that those taking the flower essences that were specifically for stress had much less reactivity than those not taking. And I do believe brainwaves were also measured in that. And there have been a few studies in Cuba that were done for depression, very favorable studies. And I believe there was one more study on depression and where they used a scale. It was like a self-report where the person
00:21:53
Speaker
rated their depression. And it was a small study, but it was also very favorable to the flower essences as opposed to the group that did not have them. The ones in the flower essence group did much better with making progress in making their depression better. So there are some really small studies. And again, you know, there's not a lot of money to do this type of research. So I think that's part of the reason why you don't see it.
00:22:22
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's not some profitable pharmaceutical that, you know, yeah. Millions of billions of dollars to be made, right? So it's worth it to do studies.
00:22:36
Speaker
Absolutely. And now you talked about, you know, you can go the self-treatment route or you can work with a practitioner and uncover the types of flower essences that might work for whatever it is that you might be experiencing. For someone that's new to this and is getting started, how do we incorporate them into our wellness routine? Is this like a once a day or how do you recommend using them?
00:23:01
Speaker
Yeah. So typically what you do is you make your treatment bottle and you would take the four drops under your tongue or in, you could put it in water four times a day at least. If you're treating something, you know, let's say you're treating something like feeling anxious or fears or even phobias, you may need to take it more often as that arises. Right. But I would say four times a day, kind of minimum.
00:23:26
Speaker
So you could do it as kind of a preventive or as more of that, like in the moment, almost that rescue in a sense. That's right. And, and it's best to, you know, so what happens is you, you.
00:23:38
Speaker
maybe take a treatment bottle and you may finish it. You may actually get better and forget that you may not need it, or you may need to go on to something else, a little different. It really is peeling back layers, if that makes sense. There's always
00:23:57
Speaker
you take this layer away and then there's something underneath and you just keep working. And sometimes, you know, you take it for a while and you leave it and it seems okay and then it may pop up again and so then you may need to proceed with another bottle or a little bit different bottle of different remedies.
00:24:14
Speaker
That makes sense. And in order to really figure out, is this working for me or is this not working for me? Is this, and I know it could kind of differ depending on what people are going through or, you know, maybe how acutely they're going through these things, but typically how long would it take to start to see a difference to understand that, Hey, this is, this is a flower essence that really seems to work for me, or I need to try something else.
Blending Homeopathy with Flower Essences
00:24:38
Speaker
Yeah, so you're right. You said it just right. If it's an acute problem, you can notice something in a few days and not everybody does. But if it's a long-term problem, you might need a couple, two to three months to really notice a difference because those chronic long-term conditions just take so much longer. They're just kind of
00:25:00
Speaker
really have established themselves inside of you that they need some time to get better. I would also say with younger people, like children, for example, they don't take as long because they have a lot of vitality. They also haven't been on this earth as long, right? And so they may not be holding on to the patterns like we do as adults, if that makes sense.
00:25:26
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. You know, I don't think they have that skepticism that sometimes we see, I think with a lot of adults too. And so I think sometimes they're so pure.
00:25:35
Speaker
Yeah, that's really it. Yeah, no, I think that's so interesting. And I'd love to know you have gotten into flower essences and you have a company called the flower remedy where you provide these flower essences. And I'd love to know a little more about that and what sets them apart from what's out there and what we should know about that.
00:25:58
Speaker
Yeah. So what I did was when I formulated my, I have four remedies for internal use that I've made that my company makes. And they're kind of things that I've identified clinically that it seems like people have the most complaints about or most need of help. So I have one formula that's for stress. One is for mood support is a good one. One is for sleep.
00:26:25
Speaker
and one is for energy or mental energy. So these are already premixed and then you don't have to think about it. You can just try one that's I've identified the flower essences that are most used and in these conditions. But what I do that's a little bit differently.
00:26:41
Speaker
than most, I haven't seen anyone actually doing this, but I add classical homeopathy in with the flower essences. So that's what's a little different about what I do and also that I've kind of come up with these four remedies just knowing that's kind of what people are most, it's kind of one of their top health complaints, their top four health complaints.
00:27:07
Speaker
I was going to say, I think they're all my health complaints. I mean, most people are to live in this world. There's a lot of stuff to deal with. And then I make them in very small batches. And so they're fresh. And I have my my company is I'm in the process of doing a good manufacturing practices.
00:27:28
Speaker
certification. It's a really long process, but I've been working with a consultant and so I follow the good manufacturing practices of, you know, just so that I have a consistent product and so that everything is clean and, you know, it meets the highest standards.
00:27:45
Speaker
I also make a couple, I make a room spray that has rose hydrosol water and then it has flower essences in it to kind of cleanse your space, to kind of elevate the energy or vibrations of the room. I also put some semi-precious gems, so I have
00:28:04
Speaker
I have rose quartz and amethyst in there. And then I have a couple of body products too, and in all of my products I use flower essences. So I have one for the face, it's a vitamin C serum, and I add flower essences into that. And then I have a body serum as well.
00:28:18
Speaker
That's amazing. I am such a fan of rose water. It's part of kind of my little self care kit almost. And when it's so funny, cause I'll go through something stressful at work and then you'll see me just spraying it at my desk. But I find that it just, it calms me. It kind of puts me in a better head space.
00:28:36
Speaker
So I love the idea of Rose really to cleanse a room. I think it makes so much sense just intuitively. And all four of those remedies are really, those are things that we are all experiencing at different points, sometimes all at once. And I think being able to have these already premixed so that we can take some of the guesswork out, I think that's so helpful.
00:29:03
Speaker
When you mentioned the classical homeopathy that you use in these essences, can you touch on that a little bit, like what you mean by that and how that's incorporated? Sure. And I also wanted to say you do know intuitively about rosewater. You just knew to use that. Rose has one of the highest vibrations, if not the highest vibration of any essential oil. And so rosewater is not essential oils, it's the hydrosol. So it's, you know, it's when they're making the oil process, they use water. And so it's the water that they don't use for the oils that they
00:29:33
Speaker
they use for the hydrosol, but you actually did know that. You should really trust yourself. And that's why I use rosewater. I use it in my facial serum as well as my body serums because I think it works so beautifully with the flower essences. And then classical homeopathy is, arnica is part of classical homeopathy, aconite. There are different homeopathic remedies. It's a complex but very
00:30:00
Speaker
healing system. And so the thing about classical homeopathy is you do an interview with people and classical homeopathy also treats, you know, physical symptoms. But the most important thing as a homeopathic practitioner
00:30:17
Speaker
is the emotional aspect of this person's imbalance. So, you know, maybe they're coming to you because they're dizzy. The dizziness is fine, but the most important thing is how do you feel about it? So that's why I included classical homeopathy
00:30:37
Speaker
in the flower essence therapies. So aconite is in my formula that's for stress because aconite is just really good for stress and anxiety. So that's how I came to use the classical homeopathy. Another classical homeopathic remedy that I use in my flower essence formulas is Ignatia. Ignatia is really good for stress.
00:31:03
Speaker
and for sleep issues especially due to stress. So it's really good for acute stress. And there's one classical homeopathic remedy that I use in the
00:31:14
Speaker
And the mood support formula called Natmer. And Natmer is really good for retained sadness. Not like acute sadness, but things that you're kind of holding on to. Wow. I had not heard of that one. And which one was that in? The Natmer is actually in the mood support one that I call Happy Heart. That's the formula that I make for mood support. I love that name. Thank you.
00:31:42
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's something I think, again, all of these are areas where I mean, stress, we all experience stress in some way or another. I'd love to think that I've gotten past it, but we all do. And sometimes you need that extra boost. And between that, I think stress
00:32:01
Speaker
and the emotional and mood can impact the sleep, it can impact the energy. I think they can all kind of piggyback off of one another and it's almost the chicken versus the egg. And if you can find a remedy like this that can take some of the edge off and get you to that point where if you are feeling that much better, then you are sleeping better and then you have more of that energy. And there's just, I mean, I think there's a really nice compound effect with that.
00:32:27
Speaker
I love that and I love that you're pursuing that good manufacturing practices too. I think that anytime we are ingesting anything, we want to make sure that it's of the best quality and that it's really serving up. I say that and then have I gone to get fast food in the last month? Probably.
00:32:47
Speaker
But for the most part, we want to ingest the right things. And if we're using something for a restorative purpose and for a healing purpose, we want to know that it's being lovingly created and manufactured in a way, again, that really has that attention to detail and that attention to quality. So I love that you're pursuing that.
00:33:08
Speaker
Well, thank you so much. And it's true. I also do testing of all of my products to make sure there's no bacteria and things like that. So that is important. You're right. And when you say about the fast food, well, don't beat yourself up. It's all about moderation, right? And we can't all be perfect all the time. So I think that's kind of what the flower essences do too.
00:33:32
Speaker
They help you to not be hard on yourself, to not be critical and not saying that you were doing that, but that's what I love about them because they can. They work so well with other things. They can work with therapy if you're doing therapy. They can work with other things that you're taking, herbs, whatever.
00:33:50
Speaker
And I think they just put you on that path of healing and maybe they'll bring you to the next thing that you need. So I think their effects are subtle but profound in what they do for people.
00:34:04
Speaker
That's amazing. Well, I'm definitely excited to try this out for myself and see how this impacts my own healing journey and my own wellness. So I'm very excited to learn more about that. As far as flower remedies go, what do you see for the future of flower remedies in this country, especially where it's still, I think, gaining some awareness? And yeah, what do you see for the future of that?
00:34:28
Speaker
Well, I mean, it's my hope that I can introduce more people to the flower essences and the power of them. So I really hope that they become much more mainstream. And it's hard to say because we're different in this country how we value, you know, vibrational and energetic medicine and even homeopathy, but it really is my hope to see it become much more of a
00:34:55
Speaker
a normal thing that you might reach for to assist you in your healing.
00:35:00
Speaker
and your healing journey. Absolutely.
Holistic Approaches to Emotional Wellbeing
00:35:03
Speaker
And I do want to know, in addition to the flower remedies, you have your doctor of Oriental medicine and you're practicing in this holistic space. Are there other holistic practices or tools that you recommend for us to maintain our emotional balance? I mean, I always love acupuncture. Acupuncture is so helpful for stress, for emotional balance, and it's helpful for physical ailments, great for digestion.
00:35:30
Speaker
I personally for a while during the pandemic, you know, I kind of got, I was doing very regular acupuncture, having it done for myself by another practitioner. And with all the stuff that the craziness that happened in the pandemic, I just really got out of the habit actually for a few years. And I've recently come back into the habit and I just feel my health is so much better.
00:35:55
Speaker
When I go regularly, you know, when I say regularly every two to four weeks for acupuncture, I think there are so many healing modalities that are helpful. I mean, I'm a huge fan of herbs. I'm a huge fan of a good diet and finding what's right for you. Huge fan of supplements, but I think everybody is so individual.
00:36:17
Speaker
And so what diet works for me may not work for you. And so I think it's just exploring that and finding what your body really likes, what speaks to you and what makes you feel best. I think massage is great. It's great for lymphatic drainage. I like Rolfine. It's really great too. Or I think they call it neuromuscular reeducation. I think that's fantastic. And of course, you know, I'm not somebody who doesn't believe in the Western medical system,
00:36:46
Speaker
I just think that in alternative therapies, we kind of do a better job of prevention. It's kind of what we do best, maybe.
00:36:56
Speaker
Yeah, I love that and I think, you know, there's so many areas that I haven't explored. I love massage. I had more or less an injury that I'd gone in just to get a massage once and it was such a great experience that I'm now going every few weeks to the same practitioner and it's been so restorative for me. I feel so much better doing it and it's something that
00:37:18
Speaker
I really prioritize it now. It's something that has to be a part of my budget. It has to make its way into my schedule somehow. And I've found it again, just to be so restorative. But yeah, I think that bio individuality and really figuring out what works for you is really empowering. And it helps you take back that control of your health and, you know, take back that ownership. And I think that that's so beneficial and something that
00:37:44
Speaker
I know I'm constantly experimenting with that and figuring out, cause I think our bodies change over time as well. And those are really, really great tips and tools. And it's great to hear. I'm so happy that you do massage for yourself because I do think self care is so important. And I think it's something that we kind of leave out. We're really so focused on, on work and you're so, I mean, you know, work is important, but we are important and our health is important. And if we don't take care of that,
00:38:14
Speaker
We really don't have anything, right? I think self-care, you know, when you talk about like modalities, oh my gosh, yoga, Tai Chi, meditation, whatever speaks to you, whatever feels good to
Personal Self-Care Practices and Future Plans
00:38:27
Speaker
you. Yeah. Well, that actually takes us into one of our, I'd love to take us into our rapid fire questions and it takes us into our first one about what is your favorite self-care practice right now?
00:38:39
Speaker
my favorite self-care practice right now is that I found a dance class that I go to, you know, sometimes two or three times a week. And I just I love that so much. It makes me so happy. Oh, cool. What kind of dance? It's just a mix of different, you know, it's cardio and just a mix of all different types of dance. So it's just all women. I have my instructors amazing and so inclusive and sweet and
00:39:04
Speaker
It's just such a, it's very lifting to my spirit when I go. That's awesome. Oh, that sounds so fun. And I think it's, it's such a nice, it, I think dance is a great healing modality too, but you're also getting, you're getting the exercise, but you're also, I think getting that energy moving in a sense.
00:39:24
Speaker
Oh, so true. It really does get energy moving. You're right. And it's great for your heart and for not only your physical, but your emotional heart. Yeah, that's so true. You can't be angry when you're dancing. It's so true. You're right.
00:39:41
Speaker
Now, if you had a one word theme for this year, what would that be? It would be kindness. So when I do meditation, I try to think of a word and that's just always the word that comes up and it's not just obviously it's kindness to others, but kindness to self because that's where it really starts. So kindness to self and to others.
00:40:00
Speaker
Absolutely. I love that. I think that that's such an important focus and you're so right. If we're not being kind to ourselves, even if we're putting ourselves out there and doing and doing and doing, we're ultimately not being, we're going to snap at the loved one. We're going to eventually that, that is going to run out if we're not filling up our own cup and taking care of ourselves in that sense too. So I think that really is so important.
00:40:25
Speaker
That's right. And we'll deplete ourselves. You know, you can be kind to other people and maybe not even concentrate on yourself. But after a while, it gets very depleting if you don't look inside and try to, you know, do those self care things and, and care for yourself. Yeah, definitely. Well, that is a great word. And in general, what are you most looking forward to right now?
00:40:47
Speaker
Wow. I'm looking forward just to, I'm always looking, I'm always excited to see how everything is going to unfold. I'm excited to see, you know, how my business is going to unfold, but I'm looking forward to, I do have a, I'm going on a yoga retreat in June with one of my really dear childhood friends. So I'm looking forward to that. I'm looking forward to going to see my daughter in California.
00:41:11
Speaker
also in June. So there's a lot of fun stuff coming up and I'm just looking forward to seeing how everything unfolds. That sounds so nice. And like just getting the time with loved ones, I think is so restorative and so great. And yeah, I'm excited for you. That sounds wonderful.
00:41:31
Speaker
Thank you. Of course. Now I would love to know, you've shared a little bit about the Flower Remedy.
Engagement and Conclusion
00:41:38
Speaker
How can our listeners connect with you, connect with the Flower Remedy, learn more, order these amazing products, where should they go? So my website is just theflowerremedy.com and my Instagram is drcrumsflowerremedy.
00:41:58
Speaker
that's my Instagram and Facebook is just the flower remedy and I can do a promo code for 20% off your order and I'm just going to do VM for Valerie Moses 20 so VM
00:42:15
Speaker
capital V capital M 20 and that will be your promo code for 20% off. Well, thank you so much. I'm going to link that in the show notes. I'm going to take advantage of that myself and I'll share that. And I'm just so excited to try this out for myself and to hear how the listeners what they, what they end up using, how it benefits them. And I want to thank you for coming on for sharing this important modality with us, something that I think many of us did not know about before. And just sharing your time and your energy with
00:42:44
Speaker
us today. Well, thank you. And thank you so much for having me. And thank you for having this podcast that introduces all of these different concepts to people. I think it's wonderful that you're doing that work. So thank you. Thank you all for tuning into our conversation with Dr. Melissa Crumb. I loved learning about the healing properties of flower essences, and I'm excited to try them out for myself. I personally have the get up and go for energy support and the Serenity Room Mist, which
00:43:13
Speaker
you may have guessed, has rose water, which is my absolute favorite. So as Melissa mentioned in our conversation, listeners can get 20% off their order using code VM20. So if you're interested in incorporating flower essences into your own life, be sure to check out all of Melissa's information in the show notes, go over to her website and pop over to her social channels for more.
00:43:36
Speaker
Now, if you enjoyed this conversation and found value in the episode, I would so love to hear from you. Please take a moment to leave a rating interview on your favorite podcast platform. It helps me continue to improve and bring you valuable content. And it also helps other people to find the show. So as always, remember to share this episode with your friends, family, anyone you think might benefit. I want to thank you again for being a part of this incredible community and I cannot wait to talk to you next time. Take care.