Live Your Best Life: Emily Quinton

Live Your Best Life: Emily Quinton

 

Live Your Best Life interview with Makeweight's Emily Quinton GabrielleTreanor.com

I’m delighted to bring you the inspirational Emily Quinton for this month’s Live Your Best Life interview.

Living your best life isn’t about having everything figured out or a perfect life. It’s about recognising the good in your life as it is, working to bring more joy into your own and others’ lives and being the best version of yourself right now.

Read how Makelight founder, Emily Quinton, is living her best life:

Tell us about yourself, what your life is like and the path you took to get to where you are today.
Hello! I am Emily and I am a photographer, trainer and a mother of four children. I live and work in London with my husband, Stef. Together we run Makelight, which helps and inspires people to take better photographs with whatever camera they have.
My life is very happy but perhaps a little bit too full at the moment as we are in a real growth phase of our business.
Before Makelight I did lots of things including working in academic libraries, a PhD on plant hunting and I also worked as a wedding and portrait photographer.
Just over five years ago I wrote my dreams for Makelight in a notebook and I have made it all happen! I am now writing in a new notebook in the hope that over the next five years I can make my next set of dreams happen!

What inspirational quotes or mantras hold meaning for you?
As a family we all live by the mantra “Create something every day.” We have it hanging in the wall of our home and we all try our best with it. Some days it will be about creating something big and others just something small. Some days for me it is about creating happiness or tranquility in our home and that can be about putting on some music and dancing around the kitchen or putting some flowers in a vase. On other days it is about all sitting around the art table making and drawing together. And then of course I make images pretty much every day.

How do you recognise when life’s getting on top of you?
I can’t think straight or concentrate on anything for long enough to get anything done. Fuzzy head is what I call it. That is always when I know that I am doing too much or there is just too much going on.

And what do you do to get back to how you want to feel?
Running is always my first thing. Going for a run has a remarkable way of making me relaxed and totally pumped full of positive energy at the same time. It clears my head too. If I am too tired for a run then a swim or some yoga will also really help.
And then plenty of hugs with my children and husband. Followed by happy tunes and dancing in the kitchen!
Once I have my happy back I sit down and do a big brain dump of everything I need to do or that is worrying me.
I then have a clear head to start to tackle life in a calmer, more manageable and achievable way.

What are your plans, hopes and dreams for the future?
I hope to have built a business that completely complements having four children. I want to work hard during term time and play hard with adventures all over the world during the school holidays. I am building my business with my husband, so as much as this feels like a dream right now I also know that we could actually make it happen!
And I really hope that my children grow up happy, creative and full of confidence about living and working in the future.

And finally, Emily, what does living your best life mean to you?
It means waking up with a smile every day and looking after myself all day long. This means I can then give my best to my family and friends.
It means working hard to share my strengths and knowledge with people to help them to live and enjoy life too.
And it means following through on all those dreams and wishes and living life to the full.

You can find Emily @emilyquinton on Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Steller, and as MakelightBlog on Facebook. Emily’s website is Makelight.com.

Emily is super excited to be holding the first Makelight Retreat in September and I’m delighted to announce that I’m going to part of the weekend! I will be running a session on mindfulness and photography as well as a morning meditation. Find out all about the Retreat at Makelight.com/retreat

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