Three years of blogs...
I’ve been writing my health blog for over 3 years now (this is my 140th article!) and it’s evolved over time as many projects do. Originally, I planned to write about hormones, a rather narrow topic but, when several men subscribed, I expanded to general health topics that would interest everyone. Often I wrote about information I was asked when working in a pharmacy or about questions that readers suggested by email, using the “Questions/Comments?” button on my webpage. Over time, I started writing more about health-related topics that I found interesting as I read emails from pharmacy websites, or that I thought would interest people who joined my mail list or who followed me on Facebook, Linkedin or Pinterest.
Sometimes the topic was something I knew plenty about from my pharmacist experience, but I also based blogs on new research or unusual ideas… subjects I learned about and then shared if I think others would be interested as well. The questions I've received from readers were often on subjects I knew nothing about too, so I read about them and shared what I learned.
But this week I realized something…
I had read an article about "how to improve your blog" that suggested a writer really should know why she blogs and exactly what she is blogging about - what the purpose is. And with the contents of that article rumbling around my brain, I then read the introduction to a book about curiosity. It struck me that my blog is really about curiosity – my curiosity about ways to stay healthy, controversies in the health world, and what’s being discovered in health research. It’s also about your curiosity around health matters you want to understand better.
So, while I initially started blogging to improve my writing and to connect with others who might be interested in learning how to stay healthier, I began to follow my curiosity – learning about new treatments and ideas to maintain health, reading about controversies that questioned beliefs I had held for years, learning more about how the mind and body work and how we can help both to function ideally until old age.
I guess I’ve always had a curious mind but, now that I’m retired, I can really indulge my curiosity. Curiosity is what pushes us to learn more and try new things: Could I learn to do that? How does that work? Why does that happen?
As children, we are curious about everything in the world around us, asking questions that sometimes frustrate grownups caring for them. But sometimes as adults (especially if we’re busy or don’t know the answer), we discourage children’s curiosity or don’t bother to pursue answers to questions, theirs or ours. Many adults have lost their curious nature.
Curiosity is an excellent cure for boredom...
I used my curiosity to make my work more interesting, researching subjects that interested me, whether for myself or for a client, and trying new activities to see if they worked in a pharmacy setting. Curiosity is what led me to learn about hormones and, eventually, as I shared what I’d learned with women who were looking for this information, it resulted in the development of a specialty hormone consulting service in my pharmacy – one of the first of its kind in Canada. I guess that’s what I’m doing now with my health blog… exercising my curiosity, trying out new ideas and sharing them with you!
So, what are you curious about?
If it’s health related, I’d love to help satisfy your curiosity and expand your horizons! Click on the “Questions/Comments?” button to email me your burning questions related to your health! (Please note that the identity of those who pose questions is always kept confidential…)
