Pine Bach Flower: How Many Times Did You Say Sorry Today?

You even said sorry to the table you walked into

Stop for a second. How many times did you say "sorry" today?

Not the real apologies, the ones that were needed. I mean the other ones. Sorry to the colleague who interrupted you. Sorry on the phone, before you'd even said anything. Sorry to the corner of the table. Sorry for asking a tiny favour, the pass-me-the-salt kind.

And then there's the evening. You get into bed and your head opens the ledger: that sentence came out wrong, that message should have been written differently, that thing at home went badly and somehow it's down to you. Even when you had nothing to do with it, you find a way to slip your own share of blame in there.

If you recognised yourself in at least two of those, keep reading. There's a Bach flower that Edward Bach had in mind for exactly this state of mind. And there's one mistake almost everyone makes when they start taking it — I'll tell you halfway through, not at the end, because that's the part that actually changes things.

So: it's a tree that grows where the soil gives nothing

The flower I'm talking about comes from a tree you know very well. It grows on poor, sandy ground, where most plants don't even take root. Straight trunk, bark that flakes off in plates, needles in pairs. It stands upright on almost nothing and never complains.

It's the Scots pine — the same one you'll see up in the Highlands and in old Caledonian woodland. In Bach's system it's simply Pine, number 24 of the 38 flowers.

Bach linked it to a very specific character: the person who works, puts the effort in, does more than everyone else, and still feels they've fallen short. This isn't the insecure person who's afraid of getting it wrong — that's a different story. This is someone who has already done it, done it well, and keeps apologising. Someone who picks up blame that belongs to other people, because deep down "I should have noticed".

It's the same type who apologises for being tired. Who says "sorry to bother you" to their own partner. Who finishes an eleven-hour day and thinks they haven't done enough. The tree standing straight on the sand, convinced it isn't a proper tree: that's the picture, exactly.

Nobody says this: your guilt and borrowed guilt aren't the same thing

Here's the mistake I see most often. People buy Pine and take the drops the moment guilt goes off: something's happened, you feel at fault, you run to the bottle. Like reaching for a plaster.

Except Pine doesn't work on the episode. It works on the habit. On that background voice that opens the ledger of faults even on days when absolutely nothing has happened. If you only use it after the episode, you're asking it to sort out in two minutes a way of thinking you've been carrying for years.

So here's something very concrete to do for 3 days. Keep the notes app open on your phone and every time you say "sorry", "my fault", "my mistake", "that was me", add a dash. Don't judge, just count. At the end of the third day look at how many dashes there are and — more importantly — how many of those moments were genuinely your fault.

In my experience people split into two groups. Some discover they said sorry 15, 20 times in a day for things that had nothing to do with them: that's Pine territory. Others realise the problem is something else — they feel responsible for everyone and everything because they can't delegate, and that's a different character altogether. Counting stops you picking the wrong flower. Two minutes a day, and you already know a lot more.

How many drops, when to take them, and how long a 30 ml bottle lasts

The dosage for Bach flowers is simple and it doesn't change from flower to flower: 4 drops under the tongue, 1 to 4 times a day. Hold them there for a moment before swallowing, and don't drink straight afterwards. If taking them neat bothers you, put them in a little water and sip.

Now, the timing. With Pine there are two moments worth more than the others.

The first is the morning, as soon as you're up, before your first coffee or cup of tea: you start the day with that bit of support already in circulation, instead of reaching midday with the list of faults already long. The second, and for many people it's the decisive one, is the evening before bed — right when your head opens the ledger and goes back over everything you got wrong. If you can only manage one dose a day, make it that one.

Then you can add one after lunch and one in the late afternoon, getting you to 4 times. With Bach flowers, regularity counts far more than quantity: 2 times a day for a month beats 4 times a day for three days and then the bottle disappearing behind the vitamins.

How long does it last? A 30 ml bottle holds several hundred drops. At 4 drops 4 times a day, so 16 drops a day, that covers you for more than a month of continuous use. At 2 times a day you're comfortably past two months. And that's a sensible stretch of time: flowers are judged over cycles of 3 to 4 weeks, not three days.

Alcohol-free or with alcohol: the two 30 ml bottles, in two lines

The choice here is easy, but make it deliberately, because both versions exist.

PINE Fiori di bach 30 ml is the alcohol-free version. It's the one parents go for, because at home anyone can open that bottle, including the little ones. It's the right one if you avoid alcohol by choice, by habit, or because it doesn't agree with you. And it's the one you can take under the tongue without that sting some people really don't like.

PINE Fiori di Bach alcoolici 30 ml is the traditional version, the one with alcohol, prepared the way the classic Bach school did it. If that's what you're used to and you prefer it, it's there: still 30 ml, same dosage, 4 drops.

My practical advice, if this is your first time trying Pine: start with the alcohol-free one. That way you don't have to think about it — no wondering whether you can take it before driving, whether you can leave it on the bedside table, whether it's fine for everyone living in the house with you. Fewer questions, better odds you'll actually take it every day.

One last thing. A Bach flower doesn't change your character and it won't turn you into someone who couldn't care less. Your sense of responsibility stays where it is: that's a quality, not a flaw. What you're trying to lighten is the excess — the share of guilt that isn't yours and that you've simply got into the habit of carrying.

Now tell me yours: how many times did you say sorry today with no reason to? Do the count and let me know, I'm genuinely curious to read your numbers. And if you do try Pine, come back and tell me how it went after three weeks.