Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my new blog! I’ve been tweaking it and writing post and page drafts since January 2 and am very happy to launch it today!

I’ve spent a good part of my last two decades learning about what makes us healthier and what makes us tick and enjoy our lives more, so this blog will be about that. It will also be about some of my quests at forty-plus for deeper relaxation in the midst of a busy, often stressful life, and for a deeper and more meaningful love of people and nature.

Besides being a reader and a perpetual learner I’m also a writer and a small-time artist, doing photography, graphic design, and, lastly, collages—my go-to artsy technique, aside from making beads and mosaics, that most relaxes me. I won’t bore you with my collages (they’re not that good), but I will share some of my photography and design. I will also encourage you to expand your hobbies and will share a few stories as I do that myself.

Disclaimer: I am not a medical or health practitioner, and no part of This Blog, or the websites and products I mention and link to on This Blog, is intended as professional medical or health advice, and should not be considered as such. Consult with your doctor(s) about starting any course of treatment, taking any supplements, or changing any (dietary, exercise, etc.) routines. Note that natural supplements and even some foods may interfere with certain medications. Here are my Full Terms and Conditions.

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For too many of us, Covid has taken away most of our outlets for relaxation, leaving available mainly passive entertainment like reading or watching movies. But more and more in 2020 I realized, through my own experience and that of friends and various writers and artists, the importance of creating artistic statements ourselves. I, for one, worked on designs for Zazzle, poetry, and some fiction. But then I recognized the need to work with things that had a physical presence in the world, from collage to my body, which now asserted its claim to power with a powerful jab to my awareness. So I started exercising almost daily for a while, and then, when I understood what my body really missed, I started dancing. And once I started, I couldn’t stop. Dancing took over. Dancing that’s both a workout and artistic self-expression. Dancing that connects with parts of my body that want to move a certain way, and with movements that want to connect certain parts of my body. I now take over the kitchen when I wait for things to heat up in the microwave or for water for tea to boil, and I challenge myself to dance in front of the TV as well.

I’m not surprised job interviews always ask about hobbies. (One author I read even suggested that he took up bass guitar in order to have one such hobby.) Hobbies allow us to enter a space where we are borne into the future by our own super powerful and super repressed unconscious, in ways we don’t expect and which help us to learn so much about ourselves and our potential. But more about this in another post, when I’ll review Dr. Stuart Brown and Christopher Vaughan’s book Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul (affiliate link).

We need balance of several key things in order to be healthy, happy, and not feel harried or overburdened. Creating collages, for instance, is a good place to start.

And this is what this blog will be about too. A collage of designs I’ve been making, life lessons I learned along the way, and bits of research I return to in order to save you time on your journey to finding ways to be healthier and happier.

I will bring you thoughts on art and fiction books, and highlights from nonfiction about creativity, along with some very tasty and healthy recipes and choice bits on nutrition—for starters.

Kick back, relax, and then inch a little closer and let me tell you a few stories and share with you a few important bits of research.

To a happier, healthier life,

Mira