Before the book, I wanted to start here
A little about me, and the work I’ve been building around what it means to live well in a hyperconnected world
If you’ve just landed here, you might be wondering what this is, and who I am to be talking and writing about pleasure, food, joy, movement, technology, and what it means to be human in the middle of all of this.
It feels right to begin here.
My name is Rani Sheilagh. (Rah-nee Shee-la)
I’m a Cyberpsychologist and a Wellness and Lifestyle Futurist, which I know can feel a little made up at first, but at its core, my work is about something quite simple.
I spend my time exploring how we live, how we feel, how we connect, and how easily we can drift away from ourselves in a hyperconnected world, often without even noticing.
And more importantly, in this age of technology, how we find our way back to what feels good.
The path here wasn’t exactly straightforward
I didn’t arrive here in a straight line.
I started my earlier days in art school, which led me to first work as a graphic designer, and then to complete my first Masters in Interactive Technologies and Media. That experience shaped me in ways I only fully understand now. It taught me to think about how people move through digital spaces, what captures attention, what holds it, and how experiences are quietly shaped behind the scenes.
In many ways, it was my first introduction to human behaviour in a digital context, long before we were all living so much of our lives online.
At the same time, I spent decades immersed in yoga, mindfulness, and the wider world of wellbeing. Teaching and experiencing that work grounded me somewhere very different, in the body, in presence, and in a slower, more considered way of being.
Over time, I also began to notice something else. Much of the wellness space, while incredibly well-intentioned, had started to drift into something that didn’t always serve us. It could become another layer of pressure, another place to get things right, another judgment and a quiet sense that we were somehow falling short.
So I found myself moving between two very different worlds. One focused on attention, design and digital experience. The other rooted in presence, awareness, enquiry and human connection.
And somewhere in the space between those two, I began to see a bridge, and questions started to form that I couldn’t ignore.
What is all of this actually doing to us? What does it mean to be human today?
Why cyberpsychology
These questions are what led me into cyberpsychology (and yes, diving into another Masters degree). Cyberpsychology is essentially the study of how technology shapes and influences human behaviour, relationships, and wellbeing.
Once you start looking at life through that lens, it changes how you see almost everything.
You begin to notice how easily attention fragments, how often we reach for our phones without thinking, how we present curated versions of ourselves online, and how quickly we can slip out of real moments.
But at the same time, you also start to see the positive potential. Technology is not the problem in itself. It can support connection, creativity, learning, and even wellbeing when it’s used consciously.
I’ve never been interested in telling people to switch off or step away from modern life entirely. That doesn’t feel realistic, it misses the point, and it isn’t useful. Technology is part of how we live and can be a beautiful one at that.
What interests me is how we live well within it. How we stay human in the middle of it.
And then, unexpectedly, food
This is usually the part that surprises people.
Somewhere along the way, food became a central thread in my work. Not just because I love it and has always been part of my life, but because it became clear that it holds something many of us are quietly searching for… a way back into presence, into connection, into ourselves.
Not in a prescriptive or nutritional sense, and not as another thing to optimise or perfect, but as something deeply human and often overlooked.
Food is one of the few places left in our lives where we can naturally slow down, where we gather with others, where we experience pleasure in a way that doesn’t need to be justified or explained. I see food as one of our most ancient tools and technologies, and a delicious one at that.
It has this quiet ability to bring us back into the moment, even when everything else is pulling our attention elsewhere.
And in a world that constantly fragments our focus and is full of distractions, that matters more than we might think.
What I’ve come to believe
Over time, through all of this, one idea has settled quite gently but quite firmly for me.
Living well is not about fixing yourself or constantly trying to do more.
It’s about remembering.
Remembering how to be present in your own life, how to feel what you’re feeling, how to experience moments as they happen rather than always being slightly elsewhere.
And learning how to stay connected to yourself, and with others, in a world that is, quite literally, designed to pull you away.
That’s the space I find myself working in.
Between the digital and the deeply human. Between modern life and something more grounded. Between striving and actually living.
And this is where the book comes in
Over the past couple of years, I’ve been quietly bringing all of this together into a book, Live Life Yummie: A Delicious Rebellion. And to be honest, it has been percolating in me, and through my notes and journals, for decades.
Not as a system to follow or a set of rules to get right, but as a different way of thinking about how we live.
Something gentler, more human, more rebellious, and a little more honest.
A way of leaning into pleasure, presence, and connection, rather than pressure, perfection, and performance.
This is the thinking behind the work.
But for now, it felt important to start here, to give you a sense of who I am and why this work matters to me.
Because this isn’t something I’ve just studied.
It’s something I’ve lived, questioned, and come back to again and again.
So if you’re here reading this, there’s a good chance some part of it resonates with you too.
And you’re very welcome here.
Read more in The Yummie Letter on my Substack: https://ranisheilagh.substack.com
