Why the Bee Kind Challenge is good for your mental health.
“Spending time in green space or bringing nature into your everyday life can benefit both your mental and physical wellbeing.”- Mind
“Kindness strengthens relationships, develops community and deepens solidarity. It is a cornerstone of our individual and collective mental health” Mark Rowland, Chief Executive, Mental Health.org
Philosophers and poets have been talking about the healing power of nature for centuries but it is only in recent years that researchers have begun to investigate how this ‘natural magic’ works.
Here are some of the ways in which connecting with nature by supporting the bees can help our feelings of well-being, from lowering anxiety to increasing self-esteem.
1 The Power of Flowers
How flowers can help us to recover from psychological distress.
Recent research published in The Journal of Environmental Psychology showed that looking at images of flowers acted as an antidote to psychological distress and helped to lower blood pressure and cortisol levels.
In this fascinating study researchers set out to examine how viewing flowers promotes recovery from stress. Participants were shown a sequence of images whilst having their cortisol ( the stress hormone) blood pressure and emotional responses monitored. They were first shown distressing images e.g. of a car crash scene. These images were shown to raise cortisol as well as blood pressure and evoke negative emotions. Participants were then shown ‘antidote’ images’ including a white daisy flower, a pattern of daisies, an empty chair and a blue sky. The results of the study showed that looking at flowers does indeed act as an antidote to psychological distress.
Viewing the image of the white daisy promoted the fastest decrease in blood pressure, and the biggest decrease in cortisol and negative emotion.
An ox-eye daisy, a favourite with the bees and other wild pollinators.
2 The impact of planting and growing seeds on children’s’ self-esteem and confidence
How Growing seeds could boost self esteem.
In her book, The Well Gardened Mind, psychiatrist Sue Stuart-Smith demonstrates extensively the positive correlations between gardening and mental health, drawing on years of clinical practice and her own family experiences. One study she discusses, conducted by the RHS, examined the impact of planting and growing pumpkin seeds on 7 year olds and found that it had lasting effects on both their confidence and self-esteem.
Planting borage seeds for bees with one of our local primary schools.
3 The impact of natural light on our mental and physical wellbeing.
How sunlight can help us to be happier.
Sunlight helps us to produce vitamin D, which is crucial to our overall health and well-being. Low levels of vitamin D have been linked to fatigue and depression most notably in the form of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) which attributes low levels of light in winter months to lower mood and lower energy.
Sunlight also helps us to produce serotonin which helps regulate mood and is sometimes called ‘the happy hormone.’ An Australian study involving 101 healthy men found that their levels of serotonin increased in direct relationship to their exposure to sunlight.
Exposure to natural light also helps us to produce melatonin which regulates our sleep cycle.
4 Combatting eco anxiety with positive action
How action can help to diminish anxiety.
Eco anxiety and concerns about climate change and biodiversity loss are having an increasing impact on us all, especially on teenagers and children. According to The Royal College of Psychiatrists “Over half (57%) of child and adolescent psychiatrists surveyed in England are seeing children and young people distressed about the climate crisis and the state of the environment”
Eco anxiety can include fear and anxiety for the future and evoke feelings of grief, sadness, anger and helplessness.
Experts from The Royal College of Psychiatrists and The Climate Psychology Alliance agree that eco anxiety is not a mental health disorder but a healthy response to the problems we are facing. They encourage taking positive action to combat eco anxiety “Empowering young people to engage with constructive, positive action, should absolutely be supported” (Dr Bernadka Dubicka, Chair of the Child and Adolescent Faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists )
The Bee Kind Challenge shows you how to take action in simple but powerful steps that can help you to shift from feeling helpless to being helpful. No individual created the problems we are facing today, we collectively created them. Likewise no individual can solve these problems, but we can collectively start to create something different through our small actions. Planting flowers is a great place to start.
Not only will you be supporting bees but your actions will also help other pollinators and boost the biodiversity of your local area.
When you plant seeds for bees there are great rewards to be found in:
watching your seedlings grow and flower
seeing the bees find your flowers
connecting with others who are doing the same
helping create a greener, kinder tomorrow in your part of the world.