Frozen II spoilers ahead, so read at your own risk!

As you all know, I’m fully and totally obsessed with Frozen II. I’ve been listening to the music since November, I’ve seen it in theaters twice, and I can’t stop thinking about it. Oh, and I sing All is Lost at bedtime for my kids’s lullaby (at their request and I love them for it).

If you want to know why I love Frozen II, check out this post detailing the why. But another reason is that it is chock full of life lessons for adults and kids alike. Here are some of my favorites.

• “These days are precious/ Can’t let them slip away/ I can’t freeze this moment/ But I can still go out and seize it’s day,” Elsa’s line during Some Things Never Change hit me, and likely all parents, like a ton of bricks. Granted, there are some moments I don’t want to freeze (ahem, potty training). But there are so many I wish I could keep in a box and take out and look at after they’re in bed. While we can’t freeze this special moments, we can seize the day and live in the moment.
• “Do the next right thing,” Anna’s grief filled song, is my mantra for 2020. Don’t know what to do? Just do the next right thing. It’s a wonderful guiding phrase, even if it can be hard to discern what the next right thing is sometimes.
• Trauma isn’t magically healed. Anna and Elsa are both traumatized by elements of their childhood. Elsa is still insecure and fearful of letting anyone down, while Anna is codependent and her greatest fear remains losing Elsa. These wounds aren’t fully healed by their reconciliation at the end of Frozen, and we see the ripples of their healing process. This is such an important lessons for anyone with past trauma: you will always be actively working to be healed, and some days will be harder than others. But it’s always worth fighting for.
• Hatred is fear talking. When Elsa discovers the truth, she says to the memory, “That’s just your fear talking.” When faced with an unknown, her ancestors acted out in fear and caused tragedy for all. Especially with a divided country and social injustice’s current abundance, it’s vitally important for everyone to learn that hate is just fear put into words.
• “Or are you someone out there, who’s a little bit like me…who knows deep down I’m not where I’m meant to be?” Whew, this is a hard one. We all come to a point when we have to make hard moves, from leaving our family home to go to school to moving across the country for the right reason. Elsa gives a voice to our inner fears with these changes.
• “When I’m older/ Absolutely everything will make sense.” (Pause for laughter). This song led to me teaching my kids that there will always be things to learn and we may find ourselves confused at any age. Now at the end of it my four year old laughs and says, “no, it doesn’t!” But the crux of it is that we can find joy even if everything doesn’t make sense.
• All of Lost in the Woods is a life lesson. As a mom of boys, I’m deeply indebted and grateful to Disney for giving Kristoff a love song. Boys have feelings and need to process them too, and this song shows that process is normal. My son loves this song, and sings it all the time. It’s wonderful. Plus, “Sven, why is love so hard?” Relationships are hard and take work, and that isn’t something kids are often shown.
• Anna recognizing her codependency and apologizing to Kristoff for not prioritizing him. Taking responsibility for your actions is shown both here and with Elsa admitting she shouldn’t have gone off alone, and that is vital. Making mistakes is normal. Taking ownership of them should be too.
• “My love is not fragile,” Kristoff is confident in his love for Anna, and that overrides all. This goes back to my last point and how mistakes are human, and Kristoff exhibiting forgiveness and grace is just beautifully done.
• Love is wanting what’s best for those you love. We see this in many ways and its a main theme of the film. Elsa and Anna embark on this adventure to do what’s best for Arendelle, and then Anna is forced to do what is best for the inhabitants of the Enchanted Forest by sacrificing Arendelle to the breaking of the dam. Mattias is disappointed his love left behind in Arendelle never married. Elsa abdicates the throne because Anna has always done what is best for Arendelle, making Anna queen. We see it throughout the film, and it’s a strong message.
• All of Show Yourself.  “I’m here for a reason, could it be the reason I was born?” “You are the one you’ve been waiting for.” We all have a purpose, and it is inside us. We can’t find the answers anywhere else. There is no gallant rescue- we are who we’ve been waiting for.

Once again Disney is teaching us to do life better, and in a beautiful way.

Frozen II is out on digital today and on disc February 25. No release date yet for Disney+, but I’m estimating it will be April or May based on their theater to Disney+ timeline for Endgame, The Lion King (2019), and Toy Story 4.

What’s your favorite life lesson from Frozen II?