A BLISSFUL LIFE byJenniferKelleher

Pleasure Vs. Joy

As we settle into today’s article, I invite you to reflect: How are your short-term pleasures affecting your long-term well-being?

On his podcast with Dr. Anna Lembke covering the neuroscience of addiction, Rich Roll says, “In many ways our world has evolved from one of scarcity to one of overabundance, and we find ourselves ever-orienting our lives around the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain, and in so doing we set ourselves up to experience the very pain we so desperately seek to avoid.”

Living in a culture that gets rich off of getting us addicted has turned us into a dopamine-driven society. Today, many of the things we recognize as common comforts are actually setting us up for long-term discomforts. Constantly pursuing dopamine can make us feel good and forget about our pain temporarily, but the end result is feeling worse than when we started. Mental health disorders are substantially higher than they were 30 years ago, and they continue to rise. So, my question becomes, how can we call back our natural joy and set ourselves up for a long, happy, healthy life?

In the podcast mentioned above, Dr. Lembke explains what dopamine is and how it works. I found understanding a bit about the science behind our impulses to be incredibly empowering and reorienting. To summarize, dopamine is a “feel-good” chemical in the brain involved in motivation and reward. What makes something addicting is that it triggers the release of a lot

PAW PRINTS byTerriEstes HONEYBEES

Did you know that honeybees are endangered? Honeybees are facing numerous threats and have experienced significant declines in recent years. Several factors contribute to this decline including habitat loss, pesticide use, diseases and parasites. Their decline has raised serious concerns about potential impacts on food production and ecosystem stability.

Certain crops rely heavily on honeybee pollination, including many fruits, nuts and vegetables such as apples, almonds, blueberries, cucumbers and squash to name a few. If honeybees were to become extinct, it would have severe consequences for many crops globally. They are considered one of the most important pollinators for agricultural crops worldwide. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), it is estimated that about 75% of global food crops benefit to some extent from animal pollination. The honeybee, while not the sole contributor to this pollination, is the largest contributor. Efforts are underway worldwide to protect honeybees and their habitats and to promote sustainable beekeeping practices, reduce pesticide use and increase awareness about their importance.

Bees have a bad rap. But that is because they are often confused with yellow jackets and wasps. As a beekeeper, I can tell you that honeybees do not want to sting you. They more dopamine than something that is non-addictive. Our body makes dopamine to maintain a baseline, and when we do something that is rewarding, we get a rise in this chemical and a blast of pleasure. To give you an idea, dopamine levels are increased about 50% from chocolate, 100% from sex, 150% from alcohol and nicotine, and 1,000% from methamphetamines. The thing is, the dopamine/pain scale in our brain wants to stay level, so as soon as you engage in an activity that surges dopamine, your body is working to balance it out by tipping the scale toward equal pain (like a pendulum). This is why often the pleasure from a big dopamine rush is fleeting and followed by an equally intense “hangover” period. During the “hangover”, you are likely to crave more of what gave you the initial pleasure. If you do not engage, your dopamine scale will eventually restore balance and the craving will pass. However, if you do engage, you will create an even larger dopamine-deficit and continuously need more of whatever is giving you pleasure, not to feel exceptionally good, but just to feel normal. When you finally want to be left alone. Unless they feel threatened or their hive is disturbed, they will leave you alone. They are not the pesky insect buzzing around your iced tea or other sweet drink. That would most likely be a yellow jacket. They are very different. Both have yellow and black stripes, but bees have fuzzy or hairy bodies that help them collect pollen while yellow jackets and wasps have smooth shiny bodies. Yellow jackets and wasps can also sting multiple times and tend to be more aggressive than bees. Bees are herbivores and primarily feed on nectar and pollen while yellow jackets and most wasps are omnivorous and can scavenge for sugary foods, prey on insects and even scavenge on human food. Bees pollinate flowers and crops and make honey. Yellow jackets and wasps do not. I am sure that the good Lord put yellow jackets and wasps on this earth for some reason, but I really don’t know what it is.

A beehive consists of thousands of bees working together in a highly organized manner to ensure the survival and growth of the hive. The queen bee is the only reproductive do stop using or engaging, your scale will tip heavily to the side of pain, and symptoms, such as irritability, depression, anxiety, and insomnia, can last a while before leveling out. female in the hive. She is larger than the other bees and her main role is to lay eggs. She can lay over a thousand eggs a day. If a queen gets old, or sick, the hive can make a new queen. The worker bees select a few young larvae and feed them royal jelly, a special secretion that forms a larger female with queen characteristics. Worker bees are sterile females who perform all the tasks of the hive such as collecting nectar and pollen, building comb, tending to the brood and guarding the hive. Drones are the male bees whose only purpose is to mate with a new queen. They don’t have stingers and just hang around the hive eating honey. During resource scarcity, they will be evicted from the hive.

To get off the hamster wheel, remember that what we focus our attention on becomes magnified. What activities or elements of your routine are leading you toward a bright and joyful future?

Yoga, for example, is a practice that provides immediate and longterm benefits. Eating well can also change how you feel pretty immediately and will enhance your overall quality of life. Although it may be uncomfortable at first, unplugging from the dopamine drip and getting into the habit of doing things that are good for you will help you stabilize your mood and regain your joy and good health.

We invite you to Ocean Bliss Yoga Studio for daily classes and monthly workshops. Explore our schedule online at oceanblissyoga.net. Join us for our quarterly book club (“Once There Were Wolves”) on Wednesday, May 24 at 7 p.m. Free, all are welcome.

If you see a beehive or swarm of bees, there are several local beekeepers that will come and relocate them. The Long Island Beekeepers Club has a website with a list of people who will come and remove a swarm or hive in trees or outside the home. There is also a list of questions on the website that can help you determine if, in fact, they are bees that you are seeing, or another insect.