intention Archives - Miranda van den Heuvel

Tiny moments of magic

Miranda2023-03-17T18:11:05+02:00March 17th, 2023|

All around me I see people going through big shifts at the moment. Can you feel it too? A job gets changed, a partner gets left, a country gets replaced by one on the other side of the planet, a book gets planned, a retirement is started early. Decisions are being made at the moment. Big ones. And while we have made those decisions ourselves, chosen the actions that go along with them, there are certain moments of doubt, hesitation and fear. Is this the right decision? Am I crazy for doing this [...]

Rhythm

Miranda2023-03-17T07:19:24+02:00February 3rd, 2023|

On my walk today, I changed the rhythm of my steps from time to time. Slow, long strides. Fast, powerful steps. Slow, mindful movements. Fast, tiny jumps. It changed not only my entire walk - and whoever saw me might have thought I was crazy - but also my perception during the different sets. Faster movement require attention to the steps, the ground and the breath. Slower movement allow a contemplation of the surroundings. As always, everything I see and experience in the woods is a metaphor f [...]

Colouring outside the lines

Miranda2023-03-17T07:19:44+02:00February 1st, 2023|

Today I had a discussion with my therapist (yes, I have a therapist) about standards. There is a part of me that has learned that the bar should be a certain height for it to be worthy, valuable and noteworthy. That bar has evolved into an intricate system of standards that needs to be upheld. Standards that say how certain things are supposed to be done (by me), by when they are supposed to be accomplished and why I am doing them at all. Obviously, when one of those three elements of such a st [...]

Invitation to make a Visionboard

Miranda2023-03-17T07:19:54+02:00January 23rd, 2023|

What’s a Vision Board? A Vision Board (also sometimes called a Treasure Map, an Image Bank, a Mood Board or Creativity Collage) is a poster board on which you paste or collage images that you’ve torn out from various magazines. The images can be very specific – like a new dream house. Or they can be images that evoke a feeling – like a picture of a woman meditating that makes you feel deeply peaceful. It’s simple. The truth behind this technique is this: When you surround yourself with images [...]

Boundaries

Miranda2022-12-31T13:09:55+02:00December 28th, 2022|

I am participating in @kasiaavery CareDecember Art Journaling project. This is day 9 prompt: BOUNDARIES This is a topic that has come up a lot recently. For myself and for many of my friends. Boundaries are changing as we change and grow. They are not always easy to put up. They are often difficult to uphold. They are also very hard to move as we become more ourselves. They are essential to our sanity, our growth and our true essence. Boundaries protect our time, our values, our sanity, our int [...]

Impermanence

Miranda2022-12-31T13:07:57+02:00December 25th, 2022|

I am participating in @kasiaavery CareDecember Art Journaling project. This is day 8 prompt: IMPERMANENCE I've had quite a few reminders this year of how impermanent things are. So when I think about that word it also comes with ACCEPTANCE. Accepting that things change. Accepting what is. Accepting that it's not always as I'd like it to be... The way the collage turned out, the word is almost a sentence. I'm permanence. Because in all the change around me, I am still here. Changed but here. Rem [...]

Love letter

Miranda2022-12-31T12:57:34+02:00December 21st, 2022|

I am participating in @kasiaavery CareDecember Art Journaling project. This is day 7 prompt: LOVE LETTER I used to write a lot of letters as a teenager. I had pet pals in Germany but also in the US, South Korea and New Zealand. It felt so exotic and eye opening to receive letters from these girls telling me about their lives that were so different yet also felt so much the same. We would also send each other little gifts from our respective countries and I loved to get introduced to such novelt [...]

Cleansing

Miranda2022-12-31T12:49:16+02:00December 18th, 2022|

I am participating in @kasiaavery CareDecember Art Journaling project. This is day 5 prompt: CLEANSING In 2009 I took a coach and part of the program was knowing where your energy went. And the first exercise was going through your house, room by room, with a list and questions that helped you clear out things. The second step was looking at the energy in your different areas of life and answer a set of questions. These two exercises were the most important realization for me of the entire prog [...]

Grow and heal

Miranda2022-12-31T12:46:11+02:00December 17th, 2022|

I am participating in @kasiaavery CareDecember Art Journaling project. This is day 4 prompt: GROW AND HEAL I have always had a tendency to be somewhere else than where I was. Because elsewhere always seemed better or more exciting. I moved out of my parents’ house when I was 17. I moved to Paris when I was 19. I left one party to go to the next. I researched trips endlessly to make sure I had it all covered and wasn’t missing anything. Nowadays I am slowly returning to growing where I was plant [...]

The blank space

Miranda2022-12-31T12:43:04+02:00December 16th, 2022|

I am participating in @kasiaavery CareDecember Art Journaling project. This is day 3 prompt: THE BLANK SPACE It’s so important to leave a blank space when you create art. It seems to fill the rest of the canvas. It’s also so important to have blank spaces in life. Time in your day and calendar to just be with yourself and what you love to do. Space for surprises, serendipity and things to enter spontaneously. Space for curiosity and wonder and amazement at what wasn’t planned. Space for just be [...]