In Autumn 2022, I hit burn out. I was deeply tired of chasing my dreams.
Ever since the age of 16, I'd been relentless in trying to ‘make it’ as an artist, actress, performer. I had always wanted to be someone. I wanted to be a star 🌟
But as my Saturn return approached, my highly sensitive nervous system was starting to protest. Despite all the progress I had made (training at my dream drama school, landing some amazing opportunities, and writing three musicals) I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was constantly behind, that I didn’t truly fit in any industry, and that time was running out.
So I gave up.
I decided to give myself a whole year of not trying. Like how some people give themselves one year to pursue their dreams? I gave myself a year to quit. I was terrified of what it would mean - chasing dreams was my whole identity. But I used the same logic: if it doesn’t work out, I can go back to how I was before. It’s just one year.
My soul (and nervous system) were craving softness. Sweetness. Beauty. Peace. Space to breathe.
After a burning ritual on Halloween 2022, my new year began. And with it came a deep, instantaneous peace I had never experienced before. An acceptance and surrender to faith in a bigger plan I couldn’t control. Something in me knew: this was the most creative choice I could have made.
I called it my Year of Aesthetic Pleasure. The rules of the year were simple:
Carry on tending the jobs and responsibilities I already had (working as a facilitator in youth theatre, nannying a 2 year old, singing at weddings)
Do not actively try to make anything happen, except…
Actively seek and create beauty in every day life, as my top priority. Live as art. Squeeze every drop of pleasure out of the ordinary and the mundane.
I started an instagram account to collect these beautiful moments - just for me. I called it @decafbubble.
The decaf part symbolised stepping out of the race and the hustle, slowing down to enjoy life. The bubble was about existing in my own world, a bubble of peace where my imagination could take me anywhere.
[Side note: you can still scroll back to my instagram in 2022/2023 and see it documented. The peak of decadence was my 28th birthday spent solo in Paris, sipping ‘déca’ in cafes, preparing beautiful snack plates and wandering around Pere Lachaise cemetery.]
SO WHAT HAPPENED?
Short answer: that was the year that changed everything.
Unexpected opportunities started to flow to me in a very natural way.
I experienced the exquisiteness of life that was the true art my soul craved.
I cared less about ‘becoming someone’ because I was actually present in my own life, as beautiful as it already was.
I began to access the abundant flow of creative energy that was naturally available to me - when I had created the right conditions.
I realised it had been there all along - my grip on life had been pinching it off.
Exactly one year after I ‘burned’ my dreams, the idea for Cocoon, a 6 week creative reset for artists, fell into my lap fully formed and ready to go…
The Decaf Bubble became a community. A business. A sanctuary for artists.
Since then, the Decaf Bubble has expanded into a multi-dimensional creative universe where sensitive artists of all backgrounds have landed, healed, found soulful community and sparked their inspiration.
🦋 Cocoon has now run 7 times (and is currently enrolling for an 8th round starting 8th September)
🫧 The Bubble membership was set up in early 2025 as an on-going community for artists to stay connected and accountable
🎧 I started the Decaf Bubble podcast all about my life and philosophy as a highly sensitive artist
and much more.
Thank you for being here, and welcome.
choose your next adventure ⤴