GNM, Dreams and Bach Flowers for Chronic Pain
For years, I’ve been experiencing chronic neck pain and headaches that are almost always on the right side.
Since I found Homeopathy and German New Medicine they’ve become far less frequent and less intense as well. I’m talking one occurrence every several months! And even though it’s still uncomfortable for me, I now feel acceptance — and even a little excitement — because I know it’s an opportunity for me to practice decoding the messages my body is telling me. It’s my way of learning how to listen.
This time, the headache and the neck pain arrived on a Monday and it lasted for several days. What made this time particularly interesting is that I was even gifted with dreams (nightmares, really) each night. I have a feeling that I’ve always had dreams like this while conflict active, but this is the first time that the pattern became crystal clear to me.
You see, our brain is always attempting to find a resolution for our conflicts because finding a resolution is how we can finally complete the biological program and stay in good health. This is why when we have unresolved or hanging conflicts, they will often show up in our dreams, albeit in a cryptic way.
In my case, there were four completely different scenes:
A car crash
Someone attempting to set me on fire (thank goodness Archer woke me up right before it happened!)
My childhood dog choking and dying in my arms
A conflict with a friend
Four completely different scenes and yet each dream had the same basic plot: I would make a mistake and pay the price for it.
It was 5:30 in the morning on Day Three when I woke up from one of these dreams. I shot up in bed and thought, “Feelings of guilt for making a mistake. Pine!”
Pine Bach Flower Remedy is the classic remedy for guilt, and I knew there was a feeling of guilt in each of these dreams. I got up, applied the remedy to the associated acupuncture points and then went back to bed.
It wasn’t until I woke up later that I realized there was a different feeling to my dream, something beyond just guilt.
I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, so I went back and re-read the biological conflict associated with the cervical spine — an intellectual self-devaluation conflict.
Skull and cervical spine: intellectual self-devaluation conflict. The conflict could be triggered by failing an intellectual task (at school, at work), by having made a mistake, or by condescending remarks of teachers, coaches, employers, colleagues, a parent or a partner, making a person feel “slow” or “stupid”. People who have an occupation that is intellectually demanding (scholars, academics, writers, and others), whose self-worth is built on their intellectual achievements, or are academically overambitious are more susceptible to experience the conflict. Self-talks (“I am an idiot!”, “I am not smart enough!”) can generate a self-inflicted loss of self-worth. The fear of failing might already activate the conflict. Unexpected injustice (“This is not fair!”) also affects the skull and cervical spine.
John Holleduer describes conflicts of the cervical spine in this way: “The world’s injustice. Why is this happening to me? Why am I being blamed for this, I’m innocent!”
The pain that I experience happens to extend to other areas as well, sometimes moving into my upper back and shoulder.
When pain occurs under the scapula, it relates to a betrayal.
And when the pain extends to the shoulder, there is a relationship self-devaluation going on as well.
Relationship self-devaluation: Having failed as a partner, parent, son, daughter, colleague, friend, or teammate) often in association with guilt and blaming oneself; also, not being able or not being allowed to hold, embrace, or hug someone. A poor performance, let’s say, in sports (baseball, handball, golf, hockey) also affects the shoulder, as the “joint of action”.
In all of this, the word that really stuck out to me was “injustice”. This is exactly how I felt in my dreams! Most of the mistakes I made were accidents and yet I was being harshly punished for them. There was a feeling of guilt and a sense of injustice, victimhood or “this isn’t fair".
This immediately sparked a thought of Willow. (The whiny victim remedy, lol.)
I pulled out our Floral Acupuncture book and flipped to the Willow page. Here’s what it said:
Willow is a remedy for feelings of resentment. The willow state accumulates bitterness when you are unable to galvanize fire to stand up for your own best interests. By harboring what you perceive as external insults or injuries, you internalize these experiences, causing stones of locked energy to accumulate that may lead to arthritic conditions. Applying Willow accesses your ability to release these hardened accumulations and joyfully accept your own power.
(Floral Acupuncture by Deborah Craydon and Warren Bellows)
Amazing, huh?!
“Stones of locked energy”, “hardened accumulations”…
This is exactly how my neck and the surrounding areas felt!
I put Willow and Pine on their corresponding acupuncture points and did three treatments that day. The pain was 70% improved after the first treatment and I felt even better as the day progressed.
And you know what’s interesting? The dreams stopped completely! I had clearly received the message and I slept peacefully from that point forward.
With the help of these dreams and my understanding of German New Medicine, I now know the Bach Flowers that are associated with the original conflict — the conflict that is at the root of this chronic neck pain. I still don’t know exactly what that original conflict is, but I’m enjoying the process of uncovering it. And who knows, maybe the Bach Flowers will be enough on their own.