Life Calls Us to Move Beyond Our Comfort Zones

Disney’s Tangled places a new spin on the Grimm Fairytale Rapunzel. We meet Disney’s Rapunzel just before her 18th birthday. She has a spirit of adventure. Every year on her birthday, she has seen lanterns light-up the night sky, and her heart is telling her to follow the lanterns. She is anxious to do so.

But Mother Gothel stands in Rapunzel’s way. Mother Gothel is vain, selfish and manipulative, and as a codependent I can unfortunately relate to her need to control someone to ensure her own happiness. Gothel kidnapped the infant Rapunzel because she (Gothel) is able to retain her youthful beauty by simply touching Rapunzel’s golden, radiant hair. So she is determined to keep Rapunzel a prisoner in the tower by infusing her with fear concerning the dangers of the outside world.

Fear becomes the major obstacle that stands in the way of Rapunzel’s quest for adventure and freedom to live her own life. She has developed a comfort zone in the tower with Mother Gothel. Part of her wants to stay put, but a larger part of her knows that she must somehow move out beyond her comfort zone so that her life can truly begin.

When lovable rogue Flynn Ryder appears, he becomes the unlikely support that Rapunzel needs to break free from Gothel. Flynn provides her with the companionship and courage she needs to leave the tower and move out beyond her comfort zone. She is then able to live the dream in her heart by seeking out an answer to the mystery of the lanterns that are launched every year on her birthday.

Like many of us, Rapunzel ends up trapped in a personal battle within herself over having left the tower and having “betrayed” Mother Gothel. One moment she is giddy rolling around in the grass screaming she’ll never, ever go back to the tower; and the next moment she is condemning herself as a horrible daughter for having deceived and left Mother Gothel behind. I can relate well to this situation because I had a very controlling mother, and I realize that her concern (read “control”) was really for herself and not for me. Whenever I tried to break free and be my own person by living my life as I chose, I felt guilty as if I was betraying my mother because I knew she didn’t approve. She feared how my choices would reflect on her.

Taking a risk is always a struggle. We all fear change and we all tend to cower in the face of the unknown. We want to remain safe and yet there is a world outside that was designed for us. We all have our essential part to play in the larger world around us. In many ways the entire world is like a large puzzle. Each one of us is a necessary piece to the puzzle. As long as we are too afraid to follow the callings in our hearts and to move out into that world that beckons us, the world will remain incomplete. So it’s necessary that we break free of anyone who is trying to live our lives for us by controlling us.

Neale Donald Walsch says “life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” So true. Disney’s Rapunzel gathers the courage to move beyond her comfort zone, to discover the joys and dangers of life she had been missing out on, and to fulfill her purpose in life. You see, as she ventures into the kingdom to experience the floating lanterns, she learns that she herself is the missing Princess that the lanterns celebrate every year on her birthday. She thus discovers that Mother Gothel isn’t her true mother and that she has been manipulating her (Rapunzel) for her own selfish purposes.

Are you allowing someone to manipulate you into being what they want? Or are you busy about manipulating someone else into being what you want? In what ways have you been missing out on being the true Prince or Princess of your life’s story? How have manipulation and fear kept you in your comfort zone?

Dear Lord, help me to face my fears and to bravely move beyond them. For many years, my fear of the unknown has kept me trapped inside my own personal tower. I have trapped and kept myself from living the dreams in my heart.  Help me each day to move beyond my fears, beyond my comfort zone and into the Light of life. Amen.

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