Following My Dreams

One of my favorite scenes from any movie is the scene from the movie Tangled that I have posted above.  I love this scene so much because I can completely relate to it.  I'm sure that most people can.  In this scene, Rapunzel has just escaped from the tower where Mother Gothel keeps her hidden.  Mother Gothel has convinced Rapunzel that the world is a terrible, scary place and that, in order to stay safe and happy, Rapunzel needs to stay in the tower and never leave.  However, Rapunzel yearns to leave the tower.  Each year on her birthday lanterns are set afloat in the sky and Rapunzel, unaware that the lanterns are actually meant for her, has a longing to see them up close.  They are her calling and she cannot shake the desire to see them.  After a series of event, Rapunzel convinces Flynn Rider to take her to see the lanterns.  Leaving the tower puts Rapunzel on an emotional roller coaster ride.  She wavers between being euphoric and being overcome with fear and guilt.

This scene is a great depiction of the difference between how we feel when we act from within our loved-based narrative and empowering belief system and when we act from within our fear-based narrative and limiting belief system.  In the scenes in which Rapunzel is running and laughing and declaring that its the best day ever, she is elated.  She is so excited that she is no longer in the tower, seeing news things and on her way to follow her calling - seeing the lanterns.  She feels alive and euphoric - like there is nothing she can't do.  Her empowering belief system is in overdrive.  In the scenes in which she is huddled on the floor crying, her fear-based narrative is controlling her thoughts and her emotions.  She feels guilty.  She is scared that her mother will be angry.  She is desperate for her mother's love and approval and she fears that this action will cause her mother to reject her.  Her limiting beliefs make her feels as though her self-worth is contingent upon following her mother's orders rather than following her own heart.  Flynn Rider picks up on her fear-based narrative and tries to exploit it in an attempt to get himself out of the commitment he had made to Rapunzel to bring her to see the lanterns.  Ultimately, though, the calling of Rapunzel's true purpose, her loving narrative, is able to silence her fears.  Rapunzel finally sees the lanterns, discovers that the lanterns ARE meant for her and that she is a princess who was kidnapped by Mother Gothel, returns to her parents, and lives happily ever after.

Recently, I've been doing a lot of thinking about my own purpose and truth and my own limiting beliefs.  Through meditation, reiki, reading and writing, I have come to realize that the things that we think about that cause us to be filled with the sense of elation and euphoria that Rapunzel experienced when she left the "safety" of the tower in pursuit of her dream, are not random, fleeting sensations.  They are our calling.  They are pointing us in the direction of our life's purpose and truest self.  The feelings that we experience when we think about them are a positive energy vibration that is in alignment with the energy vibration of the love of the Universe.  We feel excited and inspired and elated because we have discovered our truth.  However, fear is strong.  And we are conditioned to be fearful.  We are afraid to leave our own tower - the safety of the familiar that we have built around ourselves to create the illusion of security and happiness.  Fear fills us with all sorts of limiting beliefs - that we may fail, we may be rejected, we may risk our security, we may lose love.  Those feelings make us feel anxious and stressed and angry and jealous and unfulfilled.  And so we stay in our tower and choose, either consciously or subconsciously, to ignore our truth and listen to fear.  We stay in our tower.  We live in our tower.  But we are not experiencing the fullness of life.  We are ignoring the empowering beliefs that our possibilities and opportunities for love and fulfillment and meaning are limitless.

I have decided to escape from my tower - to follow my own personal lanterns.  Last week I enrolled in a course to become a Certified Professional Coach.  My empowering beliefs and loving truth and purpose are calling me to become a Coach, a writer and a speaker who will help individuals and organizations overcome their own limiting beliefs and to follow their own lanterns in order to promote sustainable growth and fulfillment.  I feel as excited as Rapunzel did when she left her tower.  I can't wait to finally see my lanterns close up!