There is a bird, often known as The Honey Bird, that thrives in a symbiotic relationship. Though not with bees.
It thrives in partnership – with humans.
Tens of thousands of years ago, the Honey Bird realised that humans were becoming pretty adept at raiding bee hives.
The bird itself was great at finding bee hives but would surely die if it tried to feed on them.
So it probably evolved as a scavenger, waiting for humans (or maybe it was Winnie the Pooh!) to raid the hive, eating whatever fell to the floor, away from the bees.
But one day it must have thought, “These humans are pretty rubbish at finding hives at the kind of frequency I need to survive. Why don’t I give them a hand!”
So it started calling whenever it found a hive, and soon, humans realised what it was doing and followed its call to food.
Even to this day Honey Birds thrive all over the wilderness, from Africa to South America, where wild humans still live in natural habitats as hunter gatherers.
Why should this story be interesting to you?
The interesting thing about this plucky little bird is not the bird at all.
It’s the humans.
Honey Bird Humans
What does it take for a human being to recognise that a single bird song, out of thousands going on at the same time, was trying to communicate… with THEM?
Just think about that for a moment.
What state of mind would you need to get into to realise that a wild bird was talking to you?
Well, let’s see.
If you can, right now, go outside and listen to the sounds around where you live.
If you live in the countryside, try to focus in on a single bird call.
If you live near a busy city, then try to pick out a bird from all the other noise.
If you’re deep in the city centre right now, then try to pick out the faintest city sound you can hear and focus in on that. Like the beeping of a distant lorry reversing.
To help, close your eyes and open up to just your sense of hearing. Try to broaden it as much as possible to bring in all the sounds, then narrow down on just one.
Really concentrate on it.
Quiet even your breathing to a gentle breath in and out of your nose. So gentle that you don’t make any sound. Like you’re stalking this animal.
Just listen to the sound for a moment.
How do you feel inside now?
Relaxed yet alert? Maybe even a bit heavier in your limbs?
That’s the feeling of being more dominantly parasympathetic for a moment. A relaxed state in your nervous system that is hard to find in burn-out.
It’s the feeling of being relaxed, free from tension, yet alert.
That’s the “Honey Bird Human” inside of you.
The Clever Honey Bird
The clever Honey Bird evolved because humans were able to be in this state that you just experienced, most of the time.
Humans were able to slow themselves down and pay attention to their environment at any given moment.
It’s well documented that modern day hunter gatherers will be walking along, then suddenly stop, because they picked out the call of a Honey Bird from all the other noise in the environment.
To do this their nervous system is relaxed, free from tension, yet alert to what’s important.
Just the way you probably wish you could live your life right now – Relaxed, free from tension, yet alert to what’s important.
This struggles to happen when the nervous system is sped up and chaotic, the way we live our lives today.
(It also can’t happen if you are trying to numb out all the things you need to be alert to, because you feel stressed or overwhelmed by your internal or external environment. More on this another day though.)
Instead, try to be more “Honey Bird Human” each day.
Take a moment to slow down and just listen. Even if it is to the chaos of your modern environment.
You might just pick out the sound of something that wants to lead you to the solution to your problems, like the clever Honey Bird did for your ancestors.
