The Rise Is Painful: A Rebirth in Bali

A season of surrender and sacred transformation

I didn’t come to Bali to be transformed.

I came for the summer of my 40th, a quiet rebellion. A prayer disguised as a plane ticket.

I told myself I needed rest. I said I was there to breathe, to soften.

But beneath that, I think I knew: something needed to break.

What I didn’t expect was that the breaking would be so beautiful.

Grief in Paradise Is Still Grief

There’s a strange tension when you’re in a place so full of life, while carrying your own quiet death inside.

Bali is lush. Sacred. Saturated in ritual. You feel it in the land, in the people, in the offerings left on doorsteps every morning.

But no matter how much beauty surrounded me, I couldn’t outrun what was surfacing.

I cried under mosquito nets. I woke up in the middle of the night with my chest tight, my skin humming.

My body knew what I wasn’t saying: you’re not just tired, you’re unhealed.

And still, the island held me. Not with comfort, but with clarity.

It whispered, If you want to rise, you’ll have to burn first.

The Scent of Becoming

What I remember most from that time is the scent of frangipani, sweet and sharp, always lingering.

Burnt sandalwood from temple smoke. Cacao cracked open under the sun.

Those fragrances weren’t just smells. They were messages. They told me when to release. When to grieve. When to come back.

I began creating blends in my notebook, not to sell, not to share. Just to process. To honor the version of me that was dissolving. To welcome whatever was rising in her place.

How Bali Changed My Practice

When I returned from Bali, something fundamental had shifted in how I created. My candle-making was no longer about aesthetics alone, it became ritual. A form of story, of recovery, of reclamation.

I redesigned my custom experiences to reflect this. To make space not just for scent, but for meaning.

Now, many of my workshops begin with intention-setting, quiet reflection, and an invitation to create a scent that holds memory, emotion, or transformation.

I no longer try to create perfect fragrance. I try to create honest ones. Bali gave me that.

Let It Burn

This episode is not about travel. It’s about becoming, the in-between place where you’re not who you were, but not yet who you’re becoming.

It’s uncomfortable. It’s sacred. It’s the rise. And yes, it’s painful. But it’s also the beginning of everything.

✨ Watch Episode 3

With ash, fire, and memory,

Mélanie