Essence of the Week:Oak

OAK (Quercus Robur)
strong, unwavering, steadfast and with tremendous faith but not knowing when to pull back and rest ...





"For those who are struggling and fighting strongly to get well, or in connection with the affairs of their daily life. They will go on trying one thing after another, though their case may seem hopeless. They will fight on. They are discontented with themselves if illness interferes with their duties or helping others. They are brave people, fighting against great difficulties, without loss of hope of effort." - Dr. Edward Bach

"Oak Flower Essence:Positive qualities:
Balanced strength, accepting limits, knowing when to surrender.
Patterns of imbalance:
Iron-willed, inflexible; over-striving beyond one's limits.

Oak flower essence addresses many positive masculine soul traits of endurance, strength, and perseverance. These are the admirable qualities of the Mars-like hero, but they become a source of illness and dysfunction when they are not balanced with Venusian grace and gentle surrender
The Oak personality presses the limits of endurance; such persons are capable of enormous achievement. They are able to truly serve and help others because of their tremendous wellspring of willpower. However, this very strength can also become too rigid the unrelenting demands and expectations which they have for themselves eventually take a toll in the physical health and inner happiness of the soul, until finally the individual is forced by circumstances to acknowledge that he/she is not all-powerful.

Oak flower essence teaches such persons the positive attributes of surrender and acceptance of limitation. Through Oak flower essence, the naturally strong capacities of the soul are balanced with the inner feminine Self, which learns to yield and to receive help from others when necessary."[from the 'Flower Essence Repertory', by Patricia Kaminsky and Richard Katz.]



This is a masculine/yang energy. Strong and steadfast but also stubborn and unbending. Indeed the positive qualities are qualities to embrace, but when an Oak energy pervades and becomes unbalanced, then despondency and despair, and even feelings of being taken for granted, can be prevalent.

Oak releases the need constant striving and unyielding strength.

Try this ... Take a deep breath and hold it. Keep holding it. Feel the pressure in your chest? Keep holding! Feel the urgency to release, but you are not releasing ... hold for one more second!! ... is there slight panic? Now let it out with a long sigh ... phew! You feel so much better and the relaxation that comes with that release, blessed. It's rest. It's a moment of peace. It's balance.

"How does it feel to let go of something you have been holding onto for so long that no longer serves you?" - davidji/the chopra center

As part of this exercise, I am taking the Essence of The Week and noting the effects and the 'pings' that hit the chords. Oak ... I slept for 2 and a half hours this afternoon. Deep sleep. It ht me rather suddenly but, do you see it as the letting go? Releasing the held breath? The body's reaction to stress is to shut down and pull you back ... it we fail to listen to that call the tension and stress builds to higher heights. muscles tighten and even our thinking becomes ridged.

Oak not opens only our bodies to rest from the stresses and over striving in our lives, but also calms our thoughts and emotions offering newer ways of thinking through the issues.