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Pink Monkeyflower: Opening the Portal of the Vulnerable Heart

by Richard Katz

Finding Pink Monkeyflower blooming in Californias Sierra Nevada mountains is always such a joyful and uplifting experience. It grows by gurgling snow-melt streams, where tall conifer trees glisten in the summer sun. The tender pink-and-yellow radiance of this gentle wildflower invites us to slow down, still our minds and soften our feelings, so that its quiet voice can reach our inner ears.

The Pink Monkeyflower Plant: A Study in Sensitivity and Openness

Pink Monkeyflower, also known as blushing monkeyflower or Erythranthe erubescens, is a native California wildflower, found growing along mountain stream banks, shaded by conifer trees. Although it is a herbaceous plant (not a shrub), it is perennial, growing each year from rhizomes that survive beneath the earth during the winter dormant season. It can spread vegetatively by its rhizomes (underground), by stolons (runners along the ground) or by seed. The vegetative propagation accounts for the clusters of plants found in the same locations from year to year. 

Each plant has a single main stem, round with fine hairs, with a ladder of pairs of opposite leaves running up the stem. The leaves are also hairy and ovate in shape, ending in a pointed tip, with slightly toothed edges and several longitudinal veins that originate at the stem, and meet again at the leaf tip. Multiple slender pairs of flower stalks originate at the axils of the leaves with each one ending in a single flower. The flowers start as nodding green elongated buds with ribs clasped closed at the ends. As the pointed ends open up, the green enclosure becomes the outer tubular calyx of the flower from which the flower emerges. The corolla begins as a pink tube, but quickly opens wide with five tongue-like pink petals. The center is white with bright-yellow hairy ribs. The fine hairs that cover the stem, leaves and parts of the flowers glisten when illuminated by the sun, conveying a sense of gentle radiance to the surrounding environment.

Unlike other mountain flowers that cling to sun-exposed cliffs, or spread in wide-open meadows, Pink Monkeyflower stays contained along shaded creek banks, flourishing in the moist ambiance of the snow-melt flow. Not only does it grow close to the flowing water, but its ability to spread vegetatively expresses a strong flowing life force, a characteristic of the water element.

Like many other monkeyflowers, the flowering gesture begins with a closed tubular interior, and then opens quite widely when fully in blossom. It is a movement from containment to openness. 

All of the monkeyflowers teach a lesson to not hold back out of fear but rather to surrender to the flow of life. With Erythranthe erubescens, the blushing pink color is an expression of delicate heart feelings, which is where the wounding lies for the person needing Pink Monkeyflower essence.

"Pink Monkeyflower allows and encourages a gentle unfolding of the client's story. I am always touched with joy and love and the great honor of witnessing this unfolding."


The Healing Gift of the Monkeyflowers: Facing a Wide Spectrum of Fears

Pink Monkeyflower, Erythranthe erubescens, is native to California’s Sierra Nevada mountains and is a botanical sister to Erythranthe guttata (formerly known as Mimulus guttatus), the flower used for Dr. Bach’s Mimulus essence, . Often called the “seep spring monkeyflower,” Erythranthe guttata is also a California native wildflower, naturalized in England in the nineteenth century. It is found along streams and in moist meadows from the Pacific coast to high mountain meadows. Dr. Bach found that Mimulus is the flower essence for overcoming everyday fears and worries, for those who hold back and need to have the courage to take the risk to enter into life’s flow.

For a discussion of recent Monkeyflower botanical name changes, please see this essay.

Fear is such a multi-faceted human experience, that this one word can hardly do it justice. It is said that Inuit people have dozens of words for snow. We need to increase our emotional vocabulary to understand fear, and one way to do this is through a wider range of flower essences, specifically other monkeyflowers to address fears. These follow a spectrum of colors, which we can associate with the human chakras. The yellow Mimulus of Dr. Bach relates to our solar plexus, and the basic fear of acting decisively in life. It addresses shyness, withdrawal, and unhealthy introversion. 

The following additional monkeyflowers have been researched by FES for many decades:

The orange Sticky Monkeyflower (Diplacus aurantiacus, formerly Mimulus aurantiacus) addresses fears related to sexuality and intimacy, the domain of the sacral chakra.

The bright red Scarlet Monkeyflower (Erythranthe cardinalis, formerly Mimulus cardinalis) addresses fear of deep emotions such as anger as well as fears related to survival and self-assertion, which are concerns of the base chakra.

The Purple Monkeyflower (Diplacus kelloggi, formerly Mimulus kelloggi), is indicated for fears around spirituality and the psychic realm of the upper chakras. 

Pink Monkeyflower (blushing monkeyflower) is correlated with the soft, receptive quality of pink in the heart chakra, the fear of being exposed, and the fear of showing vulnerability, often associated with past abuse and feelings of shame.  

Pink Monkeyflower Essence for Heart Healing

Pink Monkeyflower essence gives us the courage to open our hearts and be vulnerable to emotional connection. It is often indicated when there has been physical or sexual abuse in childhood, or other trauma that has caused fear of exposure and for which we have created a protective shell. When people have deep psychic trauma that has not been faced, they have difficulty expressing a wide range of emotions or receiving the warmth and emotions of others. They often suffer from a profound feeling of shame, a sense they are harboring a terrible secret about themselves that they dare not reveal to others. Out of fear of exposing themselves and being vulnerable, they shut out those who are closest to them, and miss out on deeper connection and intimacy. 

Pink Monkeyflower essence helps such people reach a level of self-acceptance where they can soften their defenses and let others in. It instills the courage to risk vulnerability. In this way they develop greater emotional freedom to express their true warmth and sensitivity to others that had been hidden behind a protective barrier.

Besides using Pink Monkeyflower for cases of childhood trauma, practitioners report it can be helpful for clients beginning flower essence therapy. It may help them to be less guarded about exposing their feelings and pain to a therapist, a necessary condition for making therapeutic progress. 


        Comments from Practitioners Using Pink Monkeyflower


        "I have used Pink Monkeyflower with patients who have sexual trauma, and it has helped release some of the trapped emotions."

        "I observe that many Highly Sensitive Persons hide their true Self because of physical and/or emotional abuses in the past and thus need Pink Monkeyflower." 

        "With women who are having mothering issues, as well clients with a fear of failure and blame or shame, Pink Monkeyflower helps these individuals lessen their fear of making mistakes and being judged. It also helps them to trust their inner knowledge and wisdom."

        "My experience with Pink Monkeyflower is that it allows and encourages a gentle unfolding of the client's story. For people who are reticent to tell their story, Pink Monkeyflower can be a wonderful flower to give early on. It soothes the heart and seems to create trust for the person in their own story—and the value of sharing it. When I give Pink Monkeyflower and then I am privileged to hear the next layer of a person's story, and I am always touched with joy and love and the great honor of witnessing the unfolding."


        View this enchanting video to learn more about the qualities of the Pink Monkeyflower as it grows alongside the snowmelt streams in California's Sierra Nevada mountains.

         

         

         
         

        Pink Monkeyflower Helps a Middle-Aged Women Suffering from Depression

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         Pink Monkeyflower, Buttercup and Borage

        An in-depth case study submitted as part of the FES Certification Program involved a woman in her mid-forties with three grown children. At the time she started with flower essences she had been treated for severe depression with an antidepressant. Key essences she used included Pink Monkeyflower, Borage and Buttercup. The practitioner noted that the essences seemed to give her a new view on life.

        Her behavior shift was so marked that  her family members clearly noticed the change in her. She became "lighter" and laughed a lot. She also became very assertive, and claiming her needs and also expressing them more readily than before using essences.

        Working with the Pink Monkeyflower essence, she was then able to take another step in her therapy, revealing to her therapist an incident of childhood sexual abuse that she never previously spoken about with anyone, including her husband of thirty years. It became apparent that letting go of her shame in hiding this “unspeakable” event was crucial to fully lifting the veil of depression from her life.


        Pink Monkeyflower Helps a Young Boy with Extreme Fear

         A three-year-old boy had speech and learning difficulties, and was extremely shy, with profound fear of the unknown. When he was scared by anything his heart raced and felt like it would “jump out" of his chest.

        After taking the Pink Monkeyflower essence he became less fearful and stopped dreaming of monsters. He was happier and feeling more confident in himself. He drew a picture of himself with a big smiling face.


        Pink Monkeyflower Helps an Adolescent Girl Feel Comfortable with Herself


        We received a case study of a thirteen-year-old girl from a practitioner in Brazil. The girl reported that she was very afraid of being home by herself, and she was “ashamed of everyone and everything.” She had difficulty saying “no.” 

        Pink Monkeyflower was chosen to help her with her feelings of shame and fear of exposing herself. Other essences used in her therapy included Mimulus for shyness, Centaury for assertiveness, and Shooting Star and Clematis for grounding. 

        While taking the Pink Monkeyflower, she drew a cell phone with an eye and described her artwork this way, “The eyes see the soul. I am photographing the soul through the eyes.” This drawing demonstrated her deep sensitivity relating to how she sees others and how she is seen.

        At the end of the therapy, the child wrote her therapist a thank you letter:

        I used to have relationship problems. I had a huge fear of being by myself or even to be with other people. I was very insecure, closed and ashamed. I was easily controlled by others and seldom was able to say “no”. Some people would say I was a pleaser or maybe they would say I was naïve.

        I was very happy, funny and cheerful, but something disturbed me deep inside. Whatever it was it disappeared while I was taking the flower essences remedies. Plus, the fear went away. Nowadays, my family goes out and I stay home by myself feeling OK about it. The shame went away as well as the difficulty in saying “no”. Now, I feel comfortable to say what I feel. I am friends with almost everyone in school and this relieved me profoundly.


        Pink Monkeyflower in the Sacred Heart Formula


        The Sacred Heart flower essence formula contains essences from six pink flowers plus the Holly, as a heart balm for opening the heart in human relationships. The Pink Monkeyflower essence helps build trust and overcome an overly guarded tendency due to prior experiences of heart wounding.


        Comparisons with Other Flower Essences

        Baby Blue Eyes is a key remedy for those who feel self-protective. They can appear cold, cynical and even hostile as a way to hide their feelings of vulnerability. Often their emotional wounding comes from the absence of, or hostility of the father in childhood. At the heart of their suffering is a feeling that there is no support in this world or from the spiritual world.

        Pink Monkeyflower is frequently associated with healing from traumatic events such as physical or sexual abuse that has resulted in the protective response of closing down the emotional heart. Those who need Baby Blue Eyes typically present a hard shell that hides their vulnerability, whereas those who need Pink Monkeyflower often show their vulnerability and shyness. We can characterize these two essences with the key words mistrust for Baby Blue Eyes and shame for Pink Monkeyflower.

        Both deal with the need to soften the heart and to feel comfortable with intimacy and vulnerability. They are often used together synergistically.

        Baby Blue Eyes

        Violet is for those sensitive people who are genuinely introverted and feel more comfortable being alone. They fear not being seen by others for who they are, and perhaps losing their own sense of self. Like the Pink Monkeyflower person, they may appear aloof or cold, but it is not out of a sense of shame or past trauma, but rather their delicate sense of self.

        Violet

        Pine helps those who feel guilty about their actions and tend to blame themselves excessively. They may also feel shame, as does the person needing Pink Monkeyflower. However rather than trying to hide their feelings, the person needing Pine can become stuck in their self-criticism, which can exert an emotional pull on others for sympathy or validation.

        Pine

        Pink Yarrow, like Pink Monkeyflower, is for those who are highly sensitive to the feelings of others. Unlike the person in need of Pink Monkeyflower, who retreats behind an emotional wall of protection, the person in need of Pink Yarrow does the reverse and absorbs the emotions of others as if they were their own. These two essences seem to be opposites, with the Pink Yarrow personality needing to establish healthy emotional boundaries and the Pink Monkeyflower personality needing to remove defensive emotional barriers. However, both stem from a similar need for emotional self-acceptance and confidence.

        Pink Yarrow

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