On pushing pause a hundred times a day

Sensory People is an interview series about the specific, sometimes unexpected things that help people find comfort & beauty in daily life. It's the questions I always want to ask — and the reminders we all need.

This week: my friend Gabrielle Mirkin, founder of ACTIVIST Manuka. Earlier this year, she lost her home in the LA fires. Watching her find her way back through the smallest things has shown me how important these personal anchors truly are.

What's a feeling you're always wanting more of in life?
I know this may sound cliché, but a feeling I crave more of in life is just to 'be here now' and to slow down my life. Everything moves so fast, especially the older I get. Every day I wake up, and wow, it’s Friday again. I try and push pause a hundred times a day with my kids, because I never want these moments to end. So I suppose a feeling I want more of is 'slow and easeful’; being calm, grounded and fully present. Being in the ‘flow’ and having a happy heart. I become stressed very easily and often feel hyper-stimulated and like I’m being constantly rushed through life.

What are your favorite sensory objects?
My children to cuddle and stroke their heads while they fall asleep every night. My mum's ring which she gave me before she passed away; it’s 7 interlocking bands in different colors of gold and I always find myself playing with it when I’m deep in thought or concentration. Mānuka Honey to taste, smell and put on my face.

What scents instantly comfort you?
The salty smell and feel of the Pacific Ocean in New Zealand when I am at home in the summer time. Walking through the dense native bush in New Zealand after it has rained; green, herbaceous, woodsy and earthy. My children. A cup of earl grey tea – my mum’s favorite. My dad’s Caswell-Massey ’Newport' cologne that he has worn his whole life (reminiscent of the east-coast sea air where he grew up). My husband’s surf wax.

What emotion or memory would you bottle if you could?
My childhood of growing up in Aotearoa and scent memories of a New Zealand summer on the avocado farm I grew up on – sun-baked beehives and native Mānuka trees catching in the breeze. Emily has captured this memory perfectly in our very special new collaboration BEESWAX.

What words, things, people or places bring you back to yourself?
Being in the Coromandel, Aotearoa during the summer time at our little kiwi bach (New Zealand slang for a simple house by the beach). It’s definitely the place that brings me back to myself. Our bach is in a very quiet isolated spot with no shops and hardly any people. Just beautiful green New Zealand bush blooming with Mānuka trees and native bird song. Miles of white sand beach running along the crisp, clear and sparkly Pacific Ocean. There’s no one on the beach and you have it all to yourself. Being there with my children and husband over the summer holidays in New Zealand is my much needed reset at the end of a wild year. It’s my happy place.

What's your favorite BODHA and why?
I’m in awe of everything Emily creates. She has a way with scent that is almost otherworldly; transporting you to somewhere else or evoking deep scent memories. My forever favorite is Ground Incense which I burn every evening religiously when I’m tidying up the house and we are getting ready for bed; this is a ritual I have done for years. Moon is an incredibly unique scent, like nothing I have ever smelt before. But my absolute favorite is our new BEESWAX collaboration perfume. Warm honeyed notes of Mānuka beeswax and incense woods. It’s a rich comforting scent for deep nurturing and quiet strength. The feeling it evokes is a warm hug and we can’t wait to share it with the world.