How Ember & Bloom came to be

Today I thought I’d share a story with you, the story of how Ember & Bloom came to be, and the moment I realised something needed to change in my creative practice.

Lately, I’ve been reflecting on how I arrived at this point, and all the little moments that quietly stacked up to bring me here, the beginning of Ember & Bloom, and I like to think, something pretty special.

We all know the creative journey isn’t always smooth sailing, and that’s definitely been true for me. One of the first major turning points came a few years into freelancing when I was feeling exhausted, uninspired, and completely burnt out. I had taken on way too much work in an effort to grow my business and build my portfolio. I had no boundaries, no real connection to a community, and no life outside of work. I was completely consumed by it.

I wasn’t charging enough for my services, so naturally I had people lining up at the door, but I had no idea who the right clients were for me. I just took everything. It got to the point where the work I used to love, the stuff that had me bouncing out of bed in the morning, started to feel like a chore. The spark was gone. I felt unmotivated and disconnected from the creative work I once felt lucky to do every day.

I started to feel resentful. I knew I wasn’t getting paid enough for the time and energy I was putting in, and I definitely wasn’t working with the right people. Our house was constantly a mess because I had no dedicated space for my gear. Most weekends I was still working, but on the rare occasion I wasn’t, I had to clear a path through the dining room just to move around the house, and I couldn’t face dragging it all back out again come Monday.

I had no space for myself. No catch-ups with friends, no movement routine, nothing to balance out the constant feeling of being overstimulated and on edge. Something had to change.

So I stepped back and reflected on what was working and what wasn’t (spoiler alert, pretty much nothing was). The biggest issue was that I had no balance in my work-life rhythm, and I really wanted to change that. I just wasn’t sure if it was even possible.

I started to get clearer about the kinds of clients I wanted to work with, what my creative style was, and what types of projects I wanted to add to my portfolio. That clarity helped me filter future clients more intentionally and choose the ones that actually felt like a good fit.

I began reaching out to others in my creative community, people who truly understood the freelance life. I interacted more with my social media audience and tried to build genuine connections so I felt supported and less isolated.

I also carved out time for movement during the day, even if it meant waking up super early (which is how I became a morning person). I added yoga and meditation to my routine, which helped me manage anxiety and reconnect with myself.

I set boundaries. One of the first was no more weekend work. It was a game changer. Suddenly I had time to be in nature, catch up with friends, and enjoy creative hobbies that had nothing to do with my job.

I used to think of those things as nice to haves. You know, if I had time to exercise, that would be amazing. But work would always get busy, and they’d be pushed aside. What I’ve learned since is that those things aren’t luxuries, they’re essential. If you want to live a balanced, consistent, focused, and sustainable creative life, wellbeing isn’t optional.

These days, I try to prioritise those things first, and then build my workday around them. Does that mean I stick to them perfectly every single day? Of course not. Sometimes I miss days. Sometimes an entire week slips by. But the difference now is that these habits live in my toolkit. I know how good I feel when I come back to them, and I do come back, again and again.

With that shift came something else. I started to feel inspired again. Free to reconnect with creativity, the way I used to.

For a while, I was lucky to work on some amazing projects that felt creatively fulfilling. I had more balance, more freedom. And on the surface, things looked great. I was proud of the work I was doing and grateful to be using my creativity every day. But even then, deep down, I could feel that something was missing.

At first, I ignored it. I told myself I was lucky to do what I love, surely that should be enough? But the feeling didn’t go away.

Then in 2023, I made a brave decision. I signed up for yoga teacher training. It was well outside of my comfort zone and honestly, pretty scary. But it turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I met incredible people, I connected deeply with myself, and I got to immerse in a practice that had supported me through some of the hardest seasons of my life.

During that training, we did a values-based exercise, and something clicked. I realised I was craving deeper connection, not just in my personal life, but in my creative work too. I also saw how important health and wellbeing were to me, and how much of a difference they made in my life. It didn’t feel like a massive lightbulb moment at the time, but looking back, I can see it clearly now. That was the first spark of Ember & Bloom.

That experience has stayed with me, and those values, creativity, connection, and wellbeing, have become my guideposts ever since.

After the training, I slowed everything down. I gave myself space to explore, to notice, to wait for whatever was next to unfold. I had a lot of ideas for expanding my business, but none of them really landed. Some of them I’d been trying to force into existence for years. Of course they never happened, they weren’t the right path.

Then I joined a business course, and early on we came back to, you guessed it, values. That conversation sparked a new question. If my top values are creativity, connection, and health, how do I bring all three into my work? I was already covering the first two, but where did wellbeing fit in?

That was the beginning of a different way of thinking. I didn’t see myself as a coach, but I started wondering if there could be another way I could bring people together, celebrate creativity, and create a space that supported others in the way I had needed support.

That’s when the idea of a membership started to take shape. It took a few different forms in the beginning, but slowly I refined it until it became what you now know as Ember & Bloom. If I hadn’t had the encouragement from my coach, I might never have taken that step.

We’re still in the early days, and I have no idea exactly where this journey will take me. But what I do know is this, it feels right. I’ve created something rooted in purpose, something designed to support freelance creatives in adding more wellbeing to their daily lives, and in building the kind of supportive creative community I so desperately needed at the beginning of my own journey.

Creating Ember & Bloom has given me the depth I was missing, not just in my work, but in my life. And I hope it becomes that kind of space for you too.