LESSONS ON ACCEPTANCE FROM THE LION KING
Hakuna Matata
What a wonderful phrase
Hakuna Matata
Ain’t no passing craze
It means no worries
For the rest of your days
It’s our problem-free philosophy
Hakuna Matata
......sorry, I know the song is going to be stuck in your head now (for the rest of your days!) but after re-watching The Lion King for the umpteenth time, I saw there was a very important lesson related to mental health and coping. As a psychotherapist I can’t help but look out for mental health lessons in most of my life experiences but as I watched the movie it was like an “a-ha” moment when I realized that Rafiki was really just a really well trained ACT counsellor!
For those who are not aware ACT stands for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. We have a blog post about ACT from the fall if you want to learn more about it. In a nutshell, the goal of ACT is in its name, it teaches clients how to reduce the impact and influence of painful thoughts and feelings (acceptance) while taking action to build a life that’s full, rich and meaningful by developing an understanding of your personal values (commitment). Rather than challenging negative feelings, ACT encourages individuals to allow space for difficult emotions and learning not to overreact to them or avoid them.
In the movie, Simba runs away when his uncle Scar tells him to that everyone will blame him for the death of his father. Terrified and ashamed Simba leaves his home and meets, Timon and Pumba, who quickly become his best friends. They impart on him the wisdom of “Hakuna Matata”, which is simple to not worry about anything, to push away any negative thoughts and just be happy. On the surface that sounds lovely, but if you think about it even for a second it is terrible advice. When we are upset, hurt, or sad, receiving trite advice like “don’t worry about it” or “just be happy, you’ll be fine” rarely help and you see this in the movie.
Simba tries to live worry free, and it sometimes works (just like in real life), but he can’t escape his sadness, he just isolates himself when himself when he is sad. The pain and shame he feels is still there but he can’t talk about it.
When he runs into Rafiki he offers these words of wisdom “The past can hurt but the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQd22F5onyM
Now this doesn’t apply to all pain, there isn’t always a lesson when we experience pain but running from our pain or pushing it away rarely ever work. We need to make space for the pain because if we try to push it away or forget about it, we only fall further into that pain, kind of like quicksand. The more we struggle and fight, the deeper we fall. If we can learn to acknowledge our pain, allow for it to exist, and accommodate for it, we can connect with our lives in a more meaningful way that feels closer to our core values and goals. A therapist can help you just like Rafiki did with Simba, although we won’t torment you and hit you with a stick, those less traditional methods are best left in the animal kingdom!
