Miranda, Author at Miranda van den Heuvel

Life is one big improvisation

Miranda2022-06-01T11:12:14+02:00April 10th, 2020|

If you have ever watched improvisational comedy, or have done creative brainstorming, you might know what the 'Yes, and...' principle is. "Yes, and...", also referred to as "Yes, and..." thinking is a rule-of-thumb in improvisational comedy that suggests that a participant should accept what another participant has stated ("yes") and then expand on that line of thinking ("and"). It is also used in business and other organizations as a principle that improves the effectiveness of the brainstormi [...]

Daily ritual during difficult times

Miranda2024-06-15T12:13:30+02:00April 3rd, 2020|

Last week we were talking about creating habits. Today I want to help you create an easy one that will boost your happiness and be less stressed. Sound good? Let's go! Some time ago, I wrote the 'What I love list' which contains little things that make me happy and remind me in busy times to add these into my daily life when I get overwhelmed. At the moment, we live in a different kind of overwhelm and I would like to introduce you to a daily practice that I have that helps me focus on the now [...]

21 days to create a habit. Really?

Miranda2022-06-01T11:24:30+02:00March 27th, 2020|

Today I want to talk about habits. We all have them. Ed Buryn describes them very well: “Routines and habits are the Known, protecting us from the Unknown. Habits are also called home. Habits tame the raw wilderness of existence into the civilized comforts of everyday life. Unfortunately, as we all know, habits gradually domesticate all the wildness and energy out of life. So much energy gets bound up in routines and habituated patterns, keeping them alive, that your life goes dead instead. Thu [...]

Miranda’s favorite things – Spring 2020

Miranda2022-06-02T16:52:31+02:00March 20th, 2020|

It's almost spring! The weather is definitely gorgeous. So it's time for another post on my recently discovered favourite things. I thought I'd keep them all to the online category considering that most of the world is currently in lockdown. Also, if you have any tips that may fall into this category, I'd be happy if you could share them with me via email or in the comments below! Let's share our favorites! ART CLASSES Flora Bowley introduced me to intuitive painting. And it changed my art [...]

A comfortable margin

Miranda2022-06-01T11:25:49+02:00March 13th, 2020|

My friends say that I am well organised. That I like to plan ahead - way ahead! They also call me punctual. I call that 'having a comfortable margin'. I don't like stress (who does?). So I plan. I ask myself: what do I need to do or put in place so I don't get stressed? Leave 10 minutes earlier for example. Sometimes that gets me to my appointment 10 minutes earlier (which allows me to have a coffee or revise the topic of my meeting), sometimes traffic is bad or something else happens and I'm j [...]

The positive side of negative emotions

Miranda2022-06-02T17:23:40+02:00March 6th, 2020|

Two years ago almost to the day (don't you love the universal mystery of time?), I wrote this post. And man was it an eye opener. So many things started shifting after that. Have I gotten rid of all my anger? No, but I got rid of the parts that were standing in my way. Emotions are there for a reason. They usually alert us that something is wrong, dangerous, out of balance, that we need to protect ourselves. They happen when we step out of our comfort zones we enter new situations we meet new [...]

Attention – why it makes all the difference

Miranda2022-06-02T17:25:14+02:00February 28th, 2020|

I recently talked about Attitude being everything. The very next day someone I will call Melissa told me I was completely WRONG! That got me thinking. Was I wrong? Is attitude really working EVERY time? Melissa said that she was under stress and pressure at work and wished she had stayed at home that day. I told her that changing her attitude could make a difference in how she felt. That’s when her big WRONG was fired back. So what do I do when I’m under stress and pressure? I sure am no Wonder [...]

Are you in control of your life or is your attitude?

Miranda2022-06-02T17:39:13+02:00February 21st, 2020|

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” – Maya Angelou Your company is restructuring. Some people are laid off. Some are promoted. People are tense, out of their comfort zones and motivation is sneaking out the back door. And you are in the middle of all this. What do you do? jump on projects, work constructively and pro-actively, take change as an opportunity, share your enthusiasm, go out of your way to make it happen. quietly work according [...]

A mess is a message

Miranda2022-06-02T17:08:56+02:00February 14th, 2020|

The other day I wrote a post about the power of slowing down, because when we're at full speed, we don't hear life's messages anymore that we are supposed to hear. Let's dive a little deeper into those messages. What do messages look like: You yell at your kids more often than you should. You do not sleep well. Your back hurts a lot. You get a lot of headaches. You get up in the morning feeling less than excited about going to work. All you want to do is sit on your couch and watch television. [...]

This is it!

Miranda2020-01-17T09:45:27+02:00January 17th, 2020|

This is it! - Flip This quote is from Flip, who used to be my massage therapist. It's a quote that's bigger than life. It's one of those A-ha moments. In 2011, we were sitting in my living room discussing my very first retreat for which I had 'hired' him to provide massages to the participating women and he asked me what my vision for the retreat was. I was a bit baffled. Of course I had a vision for the retreat. It was just the first time that anyone had asked me that. So I went on to explain a [...]

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