Miranda, Author at Miranda van den Heuvel

Your Life: a soundtrack

Miranda2022-05-31T15:47:23+02:00July 31st, 2020|

Music is the soundtrack of your life. – Dick Clark The other day, I was sitting on my couch having a glass of wine with a friend. We were talking about music and she mentioned Nirvana. All of a sudden I had this weird time warp experience. I was transported back to the early 90ies, to a room in the McNair barracks in Berlin. I was dating a very kind but wrong for me G.I. and spent many weekends in Berlin listening to ‘Smells like Teen Spirit’, drinking too much Jack Daniels and eating Ruffles w [...]

How a TO STOP list can improve your creativity

Miranda2022-06-01T10:59:52+02:00July 24th, 2020|

Do you have a TO DO list? I am sure you do. I generally have two. One for work and one for family/private things. Sometimes I have one per important project I am working on. We live in a multitasking work and our lists tends to get very long and often contain all sorts of things, big and small, ranging from 'call the dentist/mom/best friend' to 'create a website'. So having a TO DO List is a good thing to focus on what you need. But... Do you have a TO STOP List? Here's why you need a TO STOP l [...]

How to be mindful

Miranda2022-06-03T12:55:47+02:00July 17th, 2020|

What is mindfulness? The most widely used definition comes from Jon Kabat-Zinn, the microbiologist-turned meditation teacher who designed Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), the eight-week mindfulness course, which is favoured by scientists who are interested in studying the effects of meditation. Kabat-Zinn has defined mindfulness meditation as “the awareness that arises from paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally”. By focusing on the breath, the idea i [...]

Rewilding yourself

Miranda2022-06-01T11:00:52+02:00July 10th, 2020|

This year's pandemic obliged almost the entire world to retreat into their homes for several months. Some people, especially in the city, did not have a choice but stay within their 4 walls. Some however, seem to have rediscovered the forests and fields around where they live. When there is nothing else to explore and you are reduced to a few kilometres from home, what you thought you knew, suddenly starts to look different. I used to run at lunchtime at work and sometimes on weekends at home. [...]

Summer 2020 – original vacation ideas

Miranda2020-07-03T09:39:47+02:00July 3rd, 2020|

Due to the pandemic situation, we, like many others, had to rethink our holiday plans. We are no longer going to Florida, but have now booked a house with a pool in the Provence. It feels right, safe and doable in these crazy times. Staying closer to home, driving distance seems to be more important now. So I thought I'd provide you with a few original ideas on where to spend your summer this year, should you still be looking... LUXEMBOURG Trail-inn The Trail Inn hotel is in my vill [...]

A Smart Woman’s (or man’s) Guide to the Universe

Miranda2022-06-01T13:23:30+02:00May 15th, 2020|

Have you ever read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? It is safe to say that it's one of the funniest science fiction novels ever written. Seconds before the Earth is demolished for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is saved by Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised Guide. Together they stick out their thumbs to the stars and begin a wild journey through time and space. Trying to balance work, kids, partner, friends, parents and a gazillion other things, our lives on Earth are regularly de [...]

Can money buy happiness?

Miranda2022-06-01T11:04:17+02:00May 8th, 2020|

Remember when you were a kid and you couldn't wait for school to start? Or summer vacation? Or your birthday? Or Christmas Day? You felt butterflies in your stomach. You couldn't sleep at night. You talked about it all the time. You kept asking your parents how many more nights there were to sleep before it was finally there. All this anticipation is half the fun as they say, although you didn't understand it back then of course! And even as adults, we don't often consider anticipation as half [...]

Miranda’s favorite things – May 2020

Miranda2022-06-02T16:50:30+02:00May 1st, 2020|

I know we've only just had a favorite things post. But one can never have enough favorite things to share, right? AIRBNB's online experiences Airbnb is known as a travel platform that let's you stay in unique places. They already had a sidekick called 'Experiences' where you could book wine tastings or art making sessions with a local. Now that people are no longer able to travel, they have started offering those experiences as online sessions. Cooking pasta with granny, learning tango or [...]

11 awesome videos on the importance of creativity

Miranda2022-06-01T11:07:40+02:00April 24th, 2020|

Ken Robinson on how schools kill creativity: Tim Brown (Ideo) on Creativity and Play Ji Lee: The Transformative Power of Personal Projects How to add some fun to the things you need people to do John Cleese - Creativity in Management Don Norman on how happiness triggers creativity Stuart Brown: Why play is vital -- no matter your age Meet Jen Stark, a young artist who has found a way (by 'accident' or 'chance') to turn cheap paper into art. Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity Daniel Pin [...]

What matters now

Miranda2022-06-01T11:10:16+02:00April 17th, 2020|

Seth Godin, Purple Cow guru named 'America's greatest Marketer' (by American Way magazine), writes a very atypical blog. He writes a post almost every day. And from reading them you can just see him biking to work every morning (I don't know him well enough to know whether he does this or not but he seems that kind of guy to me) thinking about something someone said last night, or about the funny kid he sees in the street or the ad he saw on tv last night. Sometimes his posts are just that, tho [...]

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