Bach Flower Database

Botany: Lonicera caprifolium
Preparation: Sun Method
Represents: Adaptability

Honeysuckle corresponds to our ability to adapt to new and changing experiences. It also relates to our ability to move on after a significant life event such as a marriage, divorce or death. In a positive state, honeysuckle personalities love to revisit old memories and find a comfort in reliving past experiences.

Positive honeysuckle personalities also enjoy studying the histories of others. They make great researchers, archeologists and librarians. They love making history "come alive" and often devote their careers to teaching history to others.

In the negative honeysuckle state, however, the joy of revisiting the past is replaced by an obsession with it. Negative honeysuckles find themselves stuck in the past, unable to move forward. People who hoard things that others would throw away in an instant are most likely in a negative honeysuckle state, as are the mothers who have saved every single scrap of paper from their children's school years.

Imagine a woman whose children have long since grown up and left home. Our woman talks endlessly about her children as though they are still just that--children. In conversations to others, she'll reminisce about long-forgotten camping trips and special family get-togethers. To her now-grown children, she frequently asks, "Do you remember that time when?"

But her fondness for the past doesn't end there. Our woman still wears the same clothing she wore twenty years ago and her hairstyle and makeup have changed little. Like other women trapped into the 1980s, our woman has shoulder pads that are a bit too wide, hair that is a little too "big" and makeup that is a little too bright.

She also drives around town in the same type of SUV she drove when back when she was ferrying scores of kids to soccer games, baseball practice and band try-outs. It may be a newer model than the one she used to drive, but it's still a vehicle that's far bigger than what she really needs at this stage in her life.

Our woman is trapped in a negative honeysuckle state. She is romanticizing her past and finds those memories so pleasant that she simply can't let go and move on.

The Positive Honeysuckle State

The positive honeysuckle state brings with it a sense of immediacy. Souls in this state are fully engaged in the present. They do not deny or try to escape the past. They've simply integrated those experiences and used them as opportunities for personal growth.