Somewhere there may reside a person who has never fallen into a negative White Chestnut state. But if there is, I haven’t met them.
This is the state that occurs when your actions or ideas have come under attack – or even when your personality traits have received a negative review. If the attack came from someone whose opinion you valued, you’re especially vulnerable.
Sometimes it’s an attack you launch on yourself… so it comes from the person whose opinion you value most of all! Think of a job interview or a conversation with a client when you
know you said the wrong thing. Think of a time when you said something insensitive to a friend or family member and wished you could snatch those words back just as soon as you said them.
In the negative White Chestnut state you dwell on the hurtful words that were said to you, or you criticize your own words and actions, wishing you had said something different – or that you had stayed silent. You re-run the damaging conversation over and over in a continuous loop – feeling over and over again the pain of the attack.
You can’t let it go, and it even interferes with sleep.
Then your brain adds another element to the loop: “Why didn’t I say this?” “Why didn’t I say that?” It just goes on and on.
Fortunately, for most of us the state does fade away after a day or two. But for some it becomes chronic. At this point, the sufferer wants nothing more than to escape from his or her own thoughts.
Children are especially vulnerable to this state, because they are often not allowed to speak up in their own defense. They’d love to say “You were wrong,” to a parent or authority figure, but they know that would get them in big trouble. So they stuff it inside, where it grows in importance and pain.
Parents whose children begin to withdraw and avoid social interaction are well advised to find out if the child has suffered from a verbal attack that is causing a “negative thought loop.”
Remember, sometimes kids are afraid to tell – especially if it’s a parent who has done the damage.
The outward sign of a White Chestnut imbalance is, not surprisingly, facial tension. But then it becomes accompanied by chronic frontal headaches.
Treatment with the Bach Flower Remedy White Chestnut allows the mind to settle down and release the impulse to replay negative conversations. It lets the mind discriminate between thoughts that are helpful and those that are not. In essence, it allows the individual to once again connect with and accept guidance from his or her Higher Self.
One of the practices in learning to use the Law of Attraction to your advantage is to “think a better thought.”
White Chestnut aids in that practice by allowing you to release the negative and replace it with something better.
To see an overview of all Bach Flower Essences and their benefits, visit
FeelBach!
Then come to
www.bachflower.org for a more detailed explanation of each.
