Better Life Archives - Page 5 of 14 - Miranda van den Heuvel

Connection

Miranda2022-12-31T12:11:37+02:00December 3rd, 2022|

Day 3 of #artjournaladvent2022 Every day, I receive a prompt to create a page in my advent art journal. Today's prompt was CONNECTION I have been on a journey of inward connection for about a year now. My body has been communicating with me loudly and so I was 'forced' to listen. I crave baths, walks in the woods, creative me-time where I just make things with my hands, massages, time to read a good book and relax on my couch. My inner child, that girl with the flower dress is popping up asking [...]

View outside your window

Miranda2022-12-31T12:09:27+02:00December 2nd, 2022|

Day 2 of #artjournaladvent2022 Every day, I receive a prompt to create a page in my advent art journal. Today's prompt was VIEW OUTSIDE YOUR WINDOW It's Friday and I have the day off. I love Fridays off. And looking out my window it feels like it's going to now today. I love nature and often bring in flowers, plants and sticks. I used a dried one to add to today's collage. I'm lucky to live in a village in the countryside so that I can just step outside and be in the woods or surrounded by soot [...]

Enthusiasm

Miranda2022-12-31T12:07:05+02:00December 1st, 2022|

Today is the first day of #artjournaladvent2022 Every day, I receive a prompt to create a page in my advent art journal. Today's prompt was ENTHUSIASM It immediately made me think of myself as a little girl. A time without worries, where cutting, pasting and creating was a daily activity, just for fun, no pressure, not even an expected outcome. I loved paper back then and still do. I loved creating back then and still do. I had so much ENTHUSIASM back then. And so much less nowadays. I want to [...]

Recede

Miranda2022-12-31T12:03:14+02:00November 27th, 2022|

RECEDE A weed grows in my garden nothing else just a weed It looks pretty in the morning fairy like almost freed It shows me where I haven’t tended neglected not paid heed It grows despite my indifference unnurtured what if I concede? I walk over and stand next to it grateful for its seed The garden is not lost I can let it grow if I recede [...]

Not knowing

Miranda2022-11-13T11:03:09+02:00November 13th, 2022|

We like to have a certain control over our lives. That’s why we plan, make to do lists, create projects. Everything in our society is set to reduce uncertainty. The pandemic brought a certain shift in that. We realised that control is really very flimsy and that we have no grip at all on anything. Slowing down, waiting, not knowing, postponing, patience. These don’t sit well in our busy and fast paced lives. But worrying, pushing and pulling and controlling do not prevent chaos and disaster. Ev [...]

Measure

Miranda2022-11-12T23:47:24+02:00November 10th, 2022|

Every day there is something we seem to measure. 🌟How many things we ticked off our to do list. 🌟How well that presentation went. 🌟How successful our day was in terms of parenting. 🌟How much weight we’ve lost or gained. 🌟Whether we’ve reached that bar yet that we or someone else set. 🌟How we measure up to… well to what? Or to whom? And why? And who defines what the right measure is anyway? And what difference does it make, in the big scheme of things? I’m done measuring. Small or big. High or l [...]

Monotasking

Miranda2022-11-12T23:47:44+02:00November 4th, 2022|

I used to pride myself on my multitasking skills. I can still be a highly functional multitasker 🤯 The thing is: it's so damn exhausting!!! It's also so bad for you. Studies have shown that multitasking lowers your IQ and that chronic multitasking decreases grey matter density.😱 That's no small thing! Multitasking is really just task switching (we don't really do all the things at once) and it kills productivity. And your peace. So let's all switch to 👉 MONOTASKING! 🌟Eliminate distractions 🌟Def [...]

Radiance

Miranda2022-11-12T23:47:59+02:00October 24th, 2022|

My grandmother was a wondrous woman. She lived through two World Wars, bore 15 children, lost her husband and plottered through life without complaining: "niet kniezen, niet zeuren", which is Dutch for "no moping, no moaning". I am looking at a picture of her standing in my parents' garden behind a wooden wheelbarrow serving as a flower pot, courtesy of my mother's creative gardening. She is holding the stems of two tall sunflowers, peekabooing through them with a cheeky smile. That picture has [...]

Intuition

Miranda2022-11-12T23:48:18+02:00October 20th, 2022|

I am taking a @bethkempton class called AUTUMN LIGHT A seasonal writing sanctuary I am so inspired by the daily lessons that I take early in the morning before I start to work. Today I want to share my musings about INTUITION and how it is invisible, intangible yet its evidence can be felt. 🦋How does your intuition manifest itself? 🦋 AND LISTEN When there's a shiver down my spine it is a light trying to shine I hear you When there's a tightness in my chest there is a clue to be guessed I hear y [...]

Impermanence

Miranda2022-11-12T23:48:43+02:00October 17th, 2022|

I am taking a @bethkempton class called AUTUMN LIGHT A seasonal writing sanctuary Today was our first assignment. I felt very inspired by it as autumn is speaking very loudly right now. It's a season of reatreats, of letting go, of resting, of collecting thoughts and things to live on during winter so that things can hatch in spring. The assignment made me think of the impermanence of all things. And how there is great lessons and beauty in that. Humility too. I wrote a poem. And took some colo [...]