I hold my head erect
And whistle a happy tune
So no one will suspect
I’m afraid.

While shivering in my shoes
I strike a careless pose
And whistle a happy tune
And no one ever knows
I’m afraid.

The result of this deception
Is very strange to tell
For when I fool the people
I fear I fool myself as well!

I whistle a happy tune
And ev’ry single time
The happiness in the tune
Convinces me that I’m not afraid.

Make believe you’re brave
And the trick will take you far.
You may be as brave
As you make believe you are….

Does This Scene, Along With Its Song, Convey A Wise Philosophy?

Anxiety is the experience of fear that occurs when we think about dealing in the future with a fearful situation. In the scene, Louis learns his father would not like it if either he or his mother ever experience fear. Perhaps his father might have conveyed the attitude that to experience fear is cowardly. This is a common lesson that children are taught by their parents, and consequently, these children may grow up to feel guilty when experiencing anxiety, and then take steps to avoid experiencing it.

In actuality, even people who have done the most heroic acts, and therefore are viewed as brave, do experience anxiety and other forms of fear as well. Their anxiety had prodded them to prepare for the situation in which they had acted bravely, and their preparation was essential for them to act bravely even while fear was present. Moreover, the fear that they experienced while carrying out the brave act kept them highly alert and provided the burst of extra energy required to deal with the highly stressful situation they had encountered.

Louis’s mother, Anna, admits that she does experience fear, but whenever this happens, by acting fearless and whistling a happy tune, she claims that it prevents people from suspecting she is fearful. She also claims that these actions even convinces her that she really isn’t afraid.

The fear that Louis is experiencing is about what might happen when those in the approaching royal barge arrive at his ship. Because the fear is about something that is not yet immediately present, we distinguish this type of fear by calling it an instance of anxiety.

In the scene we are discussing, we see that the anxiety being experienced has the potential to serve a useful function. Louis expresses his anxiety to his mother when he says with tension in his voice, “They look so cruel, Mother.” Upon expressing this, it leads to a discussion between Louis and his mother about fear, and he ends up learning a strategy to deal with fear–whistling a happy tune.

As the scene continues, the king’s men come on board to escort Anna and Louis to the king’s palace, all of them looking mighty scary. Now Louis is directly in the presence of what he had feared. His anxious fear that he experienced at the approaching of the barge has now changed to the type of fear we experience when we are actually in the midst of a fearful situation.

Judging from Anna’s face, not only is Louis now experiencing fear, she is as well. To deal with their shared fearful experience, both of them begin whistling a happy tune. Despite employing this technique, judging from their faces, the whistling is not entirely eliminating all of their fears.

One of the characteristics of anxiety and other fearful experiences is that we often can delay attending to them for a limited period of time so we can engage in other tasks viewed by us as having higher priorities. When we put off dealing with the concerns connected with our fears, they don’t just go away; they come back again and again reminding us that we have to adequately address them. Despite our efforts at putting them off, as our fearful concerns begin to accumulate without being fully addressed, it becomes harder and harder to delay dealing with them. Our memory begins to remind us of them more frequently and more intensely until we reach a point at which we must attend to them, like it or not. If we put off taking time to process our fears for too long, our functioning for dealing with many aspects of life can begin to deteriorate, and at some point, we may end up having what some people refer to as a mental breakdown.

Some people who learn to feel guilty when experiencing anxiety and other forms of fear can often find ways to distract themselves from these types of feelings. As their fears begin to build up, they have to try harder and harder to distract themselves. They may begin to eat far more than is healthy, binge watching suspense movies, begin to talk and talk about anything other than their fears, etc. Alternatively, they may try to suppress the feelings by consuming more and more alcohol and other drugs.

It is not just feeling guilty that can lead to problems dealing with anxiety. Some have incredibly demanding jobs along with many other pressing obligations. With no time to take an hour a day to be alone so they can let their fears arise into their consciousness and then figure out what to do about them, these people find that their functioning begins to deteriorate just like those who have learned to feel guilty for experiencing anxiety and other forms of fear.

With this understanding, we now return to our earlier question, Is whistling a happy tune a wise strategy?  Part of the answer, is this: There are times when it does makes sense to put aside for a while our anxiety in order to better deal with some other pressing experience. If you find that whistling a happy tune in such situations helps, that’s fine.

So, when Anna and Louis saw the approaching royal barge and they began to experience some anxiety, if they had a good reason to put aside their anxiety for a while then it made good sense. For example, let’s say there were people aboard the ship who might report to the king how the new teacher handles herself during challenging times. If she had given them the impression that her fear can easily overcome her, the king might take advantage of this. He might think she can easily be pressured to do things she might not wish to do. Better to give the impression to him that she is a force to be reckoned with in order for her to be in a stronger bargaining position. If this was her reasoning, then attempting to put off her feelings of anxiety until she can process them in private makes good sense.

That said, before any of you might jump to the conclusion that singing a happy tune whenever we are anxious is always a good idea, let’s look at another scene in Anna’s story.

Another Scene

As the movie continues, we soon learn that when Anna meets the king, he informs her that he has arranged for her to live in a room within his royal palace. Anna objects to this, explaining assertively that she accepted the teaching position in part because of a clearly stated condition in her contract indicating she must be provided a cottage off of the palace grounds.

Now, I won’t reveal the outcome of this conflict in case some of you haven’t seen the movie, but the issue of wanting a place separate from the palace serves for us a powerful metaphor for my next point. Anna requires a place where she can set up a boundary separating her work responsibilities from times when she can have some peace and quiet.

Likewise, all people need to put time aside to deal with their anxieties, frustrations, and griefs. Therefore, whistling a happy tune at times makes sense. In such cases, it is crucial to make sure you put aside some time to welcome some alone time so those fears are adequately addressed at a more convenient time.

The wise make friends with their anxiety experiences. They find time to be with them, and from those times comes wisdom.

Meditation, prior to breakfast and the evening meal each day, is an especially ideal habit to get into. You can learn a simple form of meditation for free by clicking HERE.

When we meditate, we find a quiet place, thus eliminating outside distractions. This allows us to focus on our internal issues such as our stored up anxieties. A wonderful aspect of meditation is you end up discovering that you don’t have to try to work on your anxieties while meditating. Instead, each of them at various times during your meditation float up into your consciousness quite effortlessly, and when they do, your thought processes begin the work of tossing around plans to address them, also quite effortlessly. At some point, you end up selecting a promising approach to prepare for fearful situations.

Taking walks, especially in nature, is also ideal for working through our anxieties. It is also a wonderful way to keep your heart healthy.

I often hear people say, “I would like to meditate and take walks, but I have no time.” Then I hear that the average person in America watches TV from 4 to 5 hours every day. I well understand that modern society has indeed found ways to distract people from acting in healthy ways.

So, in conclusion, I hope all of the above manages to answer any questions you may have had about the value of whistling a happy tune when experiencing anxiety. And I also hope you consider including in your daily life two sitting meditations and a walk, or taking time in other ways to process your anxiety, for if you do, you will find yourself becoming ever wiser at dealing with fearful situations.

——————————-

Some people will enjoy reading this blog by beginning with the first post and then moving forward to the next more recent one; then to the next one; and so on. This permits readers to catch up on some ideas that were presented earlier and to move through all of the ideas in a systematic fashion to develop their emotional and social intelligence. To begin at the very first post you can click HERE.