Gorse — Bach Flower Essence for Pessimism, Complete Loss of Hope and Hopelessness

The Gorse plant is an shrub with a healthy green color and distinctive yellow owers. Gypsy nomads used it as a helpful guide. During cold periods of the year, they searched it out because wherever Gorse blossomed meant warm weather was soon to come, warm days were about to replace the cold ones. Gorse has also been called ”sunshine in a glass”. This symbolism would be equivalent to the expression used in my country, Serbia — ”the light at the end of the tunnel”.

Photo by Dawid Sobolewski

What is the main characteristic of the Gorse negative state?

It is not a lack of belief in a new chance, it is a complete loss of hope that things will get better or be different, because Gorse does not think about giving up — he already has. He believes there are no more chances left or reasons to hope, even when a new opportunity is right in front of his face.

A Gorse person can be very courteous and therefore not reject others of help. In other words, he can be persuaded to try again but he does not have a shred of confidence that the new opportunity will be successful. Gorse has no hope in the new opportunity or that this time it will be different.

You can recognize Gorse in a conversation when, for example, a person says ”Forget it, nothing is going to come of that” or ”Don’t bother dealing with my problems, what’s the point, there’s no hope for me”. You will notice a chill in these statements, a cold despair or bitterness.

The pessimism could also be less emphasized, for example ”So far I failed in this exam four times. I’m just wasting my time with this.” The total loss of hope centers on the worthiness of a new opportunity, a new beginning.

Photo by Lydia Harper

What does the remedy do?

”Sunshine in a glass” and ”light at the end of the tunnel” are metaphors that sufficiently explain the effects of a Gorse remedy. The remedy brings light back into our dreariness, pessimism and despair are replaced by vitality and it starts to make sense to try to work on a situation or life in general and to move things on from the usual standstill.

If we walk through life with the notion ” there’s nothing there for me”, then we will not be able to see or recognize an opportunity. This is precisely where the Gorse remedy is of help. It gives us back the ability and motivation to see and appreciate new opportunities.

Continue reading and find more about the remedies, dosing, characteristics, methods of use, emotional and mental states in the book: The Bach Flower Remedies: Floral Pharmacy in Psychotherapy, Description of Emotional and Mental States https://goo.gl/DtmJvs

Psychotherapy and Bach Flower Remedies

Written by

Milena Kostic — Clinical psychologist, psychotherapist, Bach Flower Remedies Practitioner

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