This little tale is for me a great reminder to never, ever ignore my gut instinct. I am talking about those little nagging feelings, way deep down, most of the time telling you that something is not quite right.
These little, barely noticeable, funny feelings are so very easy to simply ignore or, with a little bit of creative reasoning, push aside as nonsense. But every time I do I end up just like the princess: with a black and blue bruise.
Most of time this will be a little mental bruise but a few times I ended up with an actual physical bruise after not listening to that vague uncomfortable feeling that I wasn't looking after myself properly.

I have no idea if this was indeed Hans Christian Andersen intended message or moral. However, I do know that for me his little tale not only serves as a continuous reminder to listen to my gut feelings but also that it gave me the strength and will power to do so in the first place. This immediately improved my life in so many ways that those little nagging feelings although sometimes uncomfortable quickly became a valuable and indispensable guide in my life.
And the strange thing has always been that whenever my gut told me something was right I never, ever had any problem listening to it at all!