The new movie African Cats, released a few weeks ago on Earth Day, follows the story of two families struggling to survive on the African savannah—one, an aged mother lion named Layla and her daughter; and two, a strong mother cheetah and her five cubs.
There’s a lot to commend about this movie, mostly the amazing footage that captures all aspects of the lives of these incredible animals. We witness their failures and triumphs, and through it all, see that it’s the bonds of family love that keep them going, compelling them to hang in there above all odds.
In a way, this story is not all that different from any human story of struggle, survival, and family love.
There’s one trait that these animals have, however, that many of us humans have lost: the ability to blindly trust their instincts, or intuition.
Trusting that Inner Force
Since a lion doesn’t take the time to sit down and logically think through a problem, she is left with only one alternative, and that is to trust that inner force that compels her to act.
In one scene, for example, two aggressive male lions strut toward the pride, set on taking it over. The pride’s leader, Fang, turns tail and runs. Strange for the great protector to leave the lionesses unguarded, but his instincts tell him there’s no way he will win the fight.
It seems the two males have reached their goal, and their next step will be to kill all the young lions in order to make way for their own offspring.
Layla, however, will have none of that.
Against All Odds
As head lioness, she carries a lot of clout, but she’s also old and injured. Still, in a desperate attempt to save her daughter, she leads a charge against the two males.
It seems a fool’s errand. Initially, she takes a hard beating, but then the other females, inspired by her strength, join her in the effort. Together, they set the males running for the hills, tails between their legs.
Now if Layla had been human, she might have gathered her female friends around her to fret, and they might have all bemoaned their situation, and wondered how they were going to protect their children, and maybe tried to reason with the two aggressive males, and when that failed, tried to convince Fang to come back and do his job, and when he refused, maybe gone out and had too many drinks because it was just all too much to deal with, and then when Layla finally presented the idea that the mothers could fight off the intruders themselves, the others would have expressed their fear and trepidation at such an action, and argued about the wisdom of it all, and then Layla would have doubted herself, and wondered in her own mind if such was the right course of action, and then asked her other friends what they thought, and maybe called her mother too, and then finally, she might have asked the pride: If she were to step forward, would they would support her? And they would have talked amongst themselves about the idea and each would have given her opinion of Layla and her emotional health these days and mused about her needing to get on some anti-depressants and…
Of course I’m being silly. Human mothers are just as protective of their young as animals are, and rarely do they take the time to think through the situation when their children are actually in physical danger.
But the amazing thing about animals is that they never think. They just act. Sometimes we humans have a tendency to think and analyze and debate things to death, and in the meantime, all we do is delay actually doing anything about our problems.
In the process, we take ourselves further and further away from our inner instincts, which are just as powerful as those of the animals—we just don’t pay as much attention to them.
Are You Overthinking It?
“I sometimes think there is some kind of wish when overthinking,” writes Henrik Edberg on The Positivity Blog, “that thinking will somehow replace action. A wish that if you just think enough you can find some easy way out or get what you want without having to actually do something. Without taking action you’ll most likely not get what you want. Thinking is however seldom as scary or uncertain as taking the leap into the unknown and taking action.”
Lions, cheetahs, and other wild animals just leap. They don’t think. They just do. Talk about following the inner voice without question!
If you’re trapped in an endless circle of indecision in your life, try channelling your inner lion, or lioness. Taking on her persona may be just what you need to get a jumpstart on your goals.
Grrrrrrrrr!
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