Simple ways honey bees nurture inner peace & shatter anxiety

Inside: Find out the real reasons people keep bees, and learn how bees nurture inner peace just by being themselves.

When I first left home to live on my own, groceries were $10 per bag. That’s when bags were twice as tall as they are now. Today, the bag alone costs nearly that much, if you can even get one.

But high prices are just the beginning. I log in to my computer each morning and read threats. “Our attempt to update your WordPress installation failed.” “Your personal credentials may be for sale on the dark web.” “Don’t use your phone before completing this 15-point security checklist.” “The interstate highway near your home will be closed for the next 16 weeks.”

Sometimes I want to run, but there’s no place to hide. Often, I wonder if I’m the only one. Surely someone besides me feels like life is spiraling out of control?

Peace is where you find it

Once I catch my breath, I remember that peace isn’t somewhere far away. Not at all. The most reliable source of tranquility and truth lives in a little box in my backyard.

Inside that wooden shelter, a tight-knit family of honey bees goes about its business. The hive is alive with focused individuals unperturbed by digital messages and pulsating images. Unlike us, they are oblivious to things that others think are important.

Honey bees don’t care if your interior paint is last year’s color or if your hairstyle makes you look old. They don’t care if you split your infinitives or eat food past its pull date. And they certainly don’t care about your vehicle choice or your zip code.

Get a beekeeper alone in a room

Throughout two decades of mentoring, teaching, and writing, I have met thousands of beekeepers. On the surface, they chatter about beekeeping methods, swarming, honey production, and varroa mites. They argue over top entrances, bottom boards, and the best way to raise queens. Opinions, science, and tradition commingle until you can’t tell one from another. Each person knows he is right and you are wrong.

But here’s the thing. If you can separate an individual from the crowd the way a cutting horse chisels an animal from the herd, you will hear a different story. Remove one person from the competitive beekeeping environment and they will leak the truth and explain how bees can nurture inner peace.

What, then, is the truth?

Despite the bravado and one-upmanship, despite debates and innovation, what beekeepers truly love is their bees.

A beekeeper caught off-guard might describe an odor resembling flower stalls, greenhouses, butcher shops, and winter beaches—an aroma so compelling it makes the heart leap. They may explain how the scent of meat, salt, molasses, and soft crayons makes peace out of chaos and acceptance out of fear.

Beekeepers often describe the first sting of the year as a gift, the jolt of a drug they’d forgotten. A painful sting can redirect your thoughts from digital threats and endless emails and bring you back to what matters. In the presence of bees, even the wretched economy seems less gruesome. So what? One more jelly sandwich won’t kill me.

Another beekeeper may describe the shiver that crept up his spine as a bee crept up his arm. Exploring and examining, wondering what the warming weather holds in store, the bees stroll and enjoy. Like us, they crave the outside, the sun, the change of seasons. 

For me, nothing awakens the senses like a dollop of honey straight from the hive. Just a drip on my finger, warm and sweet with the essence of trees and flowers and mountain meadows. A flavor found nowhere else on earth.

How bees nurture inner peace

When I ask people why they want to keep bees, the answers are usually practical. They want honey, they want to pollinate their gardens, or they want to save the bees.

All of those may be true, but that’s not why they stay in beekeeping. They stay because of the bond they develop with their bees. They develop a physical need to see, hear, and touch them and a desire to inhale the hive scent and taste the flowers. Like anything addictive, the craving doesn’t go away. It only grows and matures.

Besides the physical need is the emotional one. Your bees don’t give a rip about you, your plans, or your investment portfolio. Regardless of what you do, they stay focused on their mission. There is no greater joy than being among single-minded creatures who go about their lives not judging, not asking, not expecting.

Your bees will let you be anything you want. In front of your bees, you can be yourself. You don’t need to live up to their standards, speak their language, or imitate their style. You are free to watch, to learn, and to help them along without becoming a bee yourself. It’s all about respect, acceptance, and a love for nature.

And that, my friends, is the real reason people keep bees.

Rusty
Honey Bee Suite

About Me

I backed my love of bee science with a bachelor’s degree in Agronomic Crops and a master’s in Environmental Studies. I write extensively about bees, including a current column in American Bee Journal and past columns in Two Million Blossoms and Bee Craft. I’ve endured multiple courses in melittology and made extensive identifications of North American bees for iNaturalist and other organizations. My master beekeeper certificate issued from U Montana. I’m also an English nerd. More here.