A Founder's Note

My first name means crocus in Turkish. A flower I've been living up to ever since.

I hold a degree in film and media studies, with a focus on writing and directing. In my mid-twenties, I joined the American Board in Istanbul, where I worked in education and publishing for nearly two decades. When that 185-year institution closed in 2010, I moved to the United States and began again.

Over many years of teaching, writing, and making alongside creative people, I noticed a recurring need: for tools that invite calm, awaken curiosity, and restore a sense of ease in how we live and work. In 2013, I founded Peaceful Triumphs LLC to create those tools and experiences. In 2015, I renamed the business and continued to teach, publish, and consult under the name Mindfulist.

My work has taken many forms: consultant, writer, award-winning translator, publisher, entrepreneur. What connects these roles is a lifelong interest in how creativity unfolds, especially when it's supported by the right structure and space.

In recent years, my work has become more distilled. I've moved away from instruction and toward practice; away from strategy and toward the conditions that allow meaningful work to emerge without strain. My focus has shifted from how people produce to how they remain—with their attention, their bodies, and the longer arc of a creative life.

Mindfulist is not a personal brand. Rather, it's a shared dwelling, designed for curious, creative people who feel less drawn to optimization and more drawn to work that can be inhabited over time. It was shaped deliberately outside the cult of personality, so attention can rest on the work itself. A friendly, human-scaled place where what you make matters more than how loudly you announce it.

I live in central New Jersey with my husband and our black cat Mochi, surrounded by woodlands, ponds, and the quiet charm of old Victorian towns.

The crocus appears at the edge of winter, carrying the promise of spring, and of what's next. That spirit of return, renewal, and beginning again is what I hope you'll find here.