Hi

I am back from my holiday and back to my usual once a week blog post. I will probably be officially writing up about my holiday in the next few weeks so I won’t bore you now but I had an amazing time and I probably overloaded you all with photos on social media.

After posting on Instagram about a quote from the film Moana it made me think about what quotes I’ve kept with me from Disney. Now I know many of you might roll your eyes as Disney isn’t your cup of tea but there is solid advice given in kids films! Keep reading to find my top 10 quotes from Disney and their other named studios that they own. Thought I might need to add that disclaimer.

1. Moana – “The journey may leave a scar,
But scars heal and reveal just
Where you are
The People you love will change you
The things you have learned will guide you
And nothing on earth can silence
The quiet voice inside you
And when that voice starts to whisper
Moana, you’ve come so far
Moana Listen
Do you know who you are?”
This is from a song that her Grandma starts to sing to her when she is about to give up on her quest. It reminded me that we all have scars and the journey that they are part of. You have to keep going because scars heal, lessons are learnt and you have your gut instincts to trust.

2. “You control your destiny -you don’t need magic to do it. And there are no magical shortcuts to solving your problems.” — Merida (Brave) I love Brave so much as Merida isn’t your traditional Disney Princess she is outspoken and fearless. There are no shortcuts in life and if it is easy then it probably isn’t worth your while.

3. “When life gets you down, you know what you gotta do? Just keeping swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.” Bless Dory from Finding Nemo -we have such a lot in common, short-term memory loss and sometimes being super annoying. Just keep swimming could be the spoonie anthem because you have to keep going. Life doesn’t stop, it changes but it never pauses. Even if it feels like it does.

4. “Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgement that something is more important than fear; The brave may not live forever but the cautious do not live at all.” ― Meg Cabot, The Princess Diaries. Life is hard and sometimes you feel the fear more than you feel the logic or even excitement of what is ahead of you. Being ill has taught me how to be brave. I have had to be so far out of my comfort zone that I wanted the ground to swallow me up. Courage is hard to muster up sometimes but even if you fail what’s the worst that can happen?

5. “My expectation in life is to be invisible and I’m good at it.” –Princess Diaries When I was a teenager I was gangly tall and so shy that I lived by this quote. I wanted to coast through life under the radar without scrutiny, funny how life turns out. Even though people play the game of not seeing me in a wheelchair, there is more scrutiny and with illness sometimes your privacy is not existent, people want to know all about your health. Being invisible isn’t actually possible, would you want no one to check how you are and feel even more unheard than you do with an invisible illness?

6. “You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think and loved more than you know” — Winnie the Pooh.

My lovely sister got me a print of this for Christmas a few years ago off of Etsy it hangs on my wall by my bed. It’s something we all need to be reminded of sometimes.

7. “The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all.” —Emperor of China, Mulan. I love Mulan for its independence and going against tradition, even if Mulan has to be disguised in the army. Being you in the face of adversity is the bravest act in my opinion. Many of us for various reasons face adversity and it’s easy to lose yourself or feel like what you can offer isn’t enough. It is enough and everyone has something unique they give to the world even if it’s from a bed.

8. “Have courage and be kind. For where there is kindness there is goodness, and where there is goodness there is magic.” –Cinderella
Need I say any more about this quote? I truly believe that kindness and courage are vital for general success in life.

9. Frozen. Besides telling us to LET IT GO and be open instead of suppressing emotions and feelings, there is the lesson of “Love is putting someone else’s needs before yours, like you know how Kristoff brought you back here to Hans and left you forever.” – Olaf It was historic for the fact that the lead was saved by a girl *gasp* for the first time, I’d say it was a little later than most would’ve liked but it was groundbreaking for Disney.

10. “Think of the happiest things. It’s the same as having wings” – Peter Pan. I loved Peter Pan as a child and was convinced one day I would have a dog like Nanna to put my children in the bath.
I love this quote because especially in this film there is a focus on the magical elements of Disney with boys who never age, to a Pixi who sprinkles her Pixi dust to make others fly. It reminds me that we all have magic in our lives in happiness and memories. I think at most ages, we take the amazing events in our lives for granted and they lose their magical quality.

So what are your favourite Disney quotes and films? I’d love to hear from you! I have had a lot of fun with this blog post and I know it’s a little different but it was fun to put together.