First experience: I ventured into therapy (oh lawwwdd – as an eldest daughter of an immigrant family on top of it, this was a huge step)…only to immediately have a terrible experience. After I came home from that session, I had a 2 part epiphany: 

1. Because of COVID, with ALL of the isolation and NONE of the distraction, people started to see their unhealed traumas come to the surface. As a result, the demand for therapists increased everywhere and many people were not able to get the help they needed. 

2. No matter how healthy a therapist is, they have their own judgements, biases and at the end of the day, will never know you better than you can get to know yourself. 

Second experience: After realizing that talk therapy was probably not for me, I proceeded to dive into the search for an alternate way to work on myself. In this phase I bought SO. MANY. JOURNALS. Ya’ll when I say I bought them aallll, I mean I BOUGHT THEM ALL. And I just couldn’t find one that worked for me. (missing things I needed in a journal: leading to results, guiding through unfamiliar territory, breaking things into manageable steps, geared towards eldest daughters, reasonable price point, and most importantly fun. I needed that last one ’cause working on yourself is not always a hoot and a cackle.)

Struggling to find the right fit, (and honestly just wanting a fresh start), I dreamt of starting a stationary business that solved all these needs nestled in a cozy beachside town like some classic Hallmark Christmas movie (I mean don’t we all?). At the time I was between jobs, and in this newfound creative space, with my advertising experience and Psychology degree in my back pocket, I allowed the idea to slowly take shape. I envisioned a brand that offered clean, feminine, aesthetic, and most importantly effective journals that created space for eldest daughters to drop their responsibilities for a minute, focus on themselves and step into their healing and self care in a way that was FUN. So in that moment, Self Care Capsule was created to be the brand I couldn’t find. From that day in late December in 2020 until the summer of 2023, the concept, materials, and journals were meticulously developed and marketed as a “side hustle” in the bits of time I could find between work, weekends, and life’s general chaos.

The summer of 2023 marked a significant turning point. I leaned into my feminine urge to start my beachside stationary company, AND my eldest daughter urge to move away and start fresh somewhere else. So as a family of four, we made a bold move from our long-time home in Montreal, to Toronto. This move, driven by a desire for a more authentic life and a fresh start, was a leap of faith inspired by dreams long held but never pursued.

Shortly after settling into our new city, we started witnessing the genocide in Gaza unfold through social media. (Yes, like many others, we get our news from TikTok.) Watching my children become passionate advocates for the Palestinian people during this time profoundly impacted me. Driven by a desire to make a meaningful difference for them and others suffering around the world, I decided to finally launch the business I had been quietly nurturing on the side for years.

During our first Christmas break in Toronto, in our tiny basement apartment near the water (the small beach town dream DID come true!), I gathered all the materials I had painstakingly created over the past three years and launched Self Care Capsule online – ready to take my labour of love global. (‘Cause if you want to help in a BIG way, you got to go BIG!). The venture (I’m happy to say), was funded entirely by the money we saved from boycotting corporations that profited from the genocide. From that moment on, we vowed to be a business that always stood on the right side of history. Today through our #Freepeoplefreepeople movement, we donate a portion of our profits to those suffering in war-torn countries so we can do our bit towards helping the world heal. 

For us, Self Care Capsule is more than just a business. It is a commitment to personal growth, ethical practices, and making a positive & fun impact in the world of emotional healing. Join us on this journey as we continue to create journals and other gorgeous printable materials that inspire and empower eldest daughters everywhere to step out of survival mode and into the healed and best version of their lives!