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©1997 by Barbara Mazzarella

An Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from Bach Flower Remedies for Children; a Parent's Guide, by Barbara Mazzarella. It is reprinted with permission of Healing Arts Press.

Larch children have no faith in themselves; they feel like losers from the start and so take no risks. They will never take a part in the school recital or compete in the high jump because they're convinced they can't do it.

This sort of profound discouragement occurs frequently during the school years for a number of reasons. Take care to examine your own negative attitudes towards the challenges your children are faced with, as well as those you harbor toward yourselves. If children become accustomed to thinking things will turn out poorly, they are apt to go from bad to worse. Help them not to program their failures in advance. Larch is an antidote to the sense of failure, so use it whenever you desire success.

Encourage them with lots of positive, affirmative statements (they're free after all) and involve them in activities devoid of competition and confrontation. Try ones that bring out their skills and creativity: abstract painting, for instance, freeform watercolors or collages put together with paper and found objects.

Positive thinking actually works, so encourage them to throw themselves with confidence into whatever they take on, even the smallest and most insignificant tasks. It could be a major victory for them to just work the toaster by themselves and serve you the best toast of your life, but only if you allow and encourage them to do so in a completely natural way. It's no problem to keep an unobtrusive eye out to make sure that things go smoothly.

Even in play, Larch children must be reassured that all is well and a game is only a game. Entrust them with responsible tasks, authentic ones, not little tricks that end up making them feel like half-wits. Saying to a pupil, "Would you please take care of roll call for me while I go to the principle's office?" is very different from saying, "How clever you are, you know how to throw the paper right in the wastepaper basket!"

Take care not to undermine the self-confidence of these children, as they already live in fear of making a mistake. Self-confidence is the foundation of any enterprise. Thinking that something will turn out badly means that it probably will. In our society, Larch should flow from the faucets, so prevalent is the fear of failure. School, with its system of grades and competitive premises, certainly doesn't help matters.

Larch is particularly helpful in cases of great hesitation and withdrawal. All too often a child in need of this remedy performs poorly in school, and so draws back from trying new things or developing new interests. Don't be deceived by the kind of false self-confidence that manifests as impudence, arrogance, or superiority; you will often find lurking behind it, an inferiority complex, masquerading as its exaggerated opposite.

It never hurts to add Larch to other preparations, so it's always better to use it than to leave it on the shelf. Some helpful affirmations to use with this remedy are:

I act with complete confidence.
I always expect a successful outcome.
I am excited by every new challenge.
I act with courage and determination.
I express myself in a creative way.

ABOUT THE BOOK AND AUTHOR: In addition to her extensive study of the Bach flower system, Barbara Mazzarella has worked in nursery and elementary schools for more than twenty years in Milan, Italy. This excerpt was drawn from her book, Bach Flower Remedies for Children: a Parent's Guide, which is published in English by Healing Arts Press, a division of Inner Traditions. This parent-friendly guide to the Bach remedies contains wise and valuable parenting advice, as well as charming fairy tales for the children about the remedies they need. To learn about their series of books on the Bach remedies and aromatherapy and to order a copy of this book, visit their web page.

DESIGN CREDIT: The art on this page came from a large collection of free education-related clipart made available online by Hoxie High School. The boy by his locker at the top is from Country Clip Art.

The World Wide Essence Society does not mean to imply any recommendation of nor give certification to any individuals or companies above. This article is provided purely for informational purposes. We ask consumers to make their own determination as to quality of the services and products offered above. This article is not meant to be advice, and the information is not meant to replace medical or psychological treatment.

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