the shop
offerings for moving through life’s most challenging seasons with empathy, connection + care
ambika creative studio is rooted in the understanding that the human experience has always unfolded in seasons — loss, transformation, renewal, celebration — and we were never meant to move through them alone.
our empathy card collections, books, journals, and prints are rituals of care and connection, rooted in the fierce, nurturing wisdom that lives in all of us.
as a slow media studio, we create in small batches and release with the rhythm of seasons, not markets. each offering designed to create sustained presence, rather than consumed and forgotten.
a percentage of every sale from the studio supports organizations working for the good of our communities and our planet — because true connection means tending not just individual relationships, but the broader systems that sustain all life.
coming november 1
seasons of caregiving
Caregiving touches nearly every life, and yet the weight of it is often borne by the caregiver alone.
For many caregivers, unacknowledged grief can feel expansive and overwhelming — grief for who someone used to be, a relationship that is changing, a future that may never be. But because these losses are ongoing, there is no funeral, no ritual, no closure. Instead, caregivers are left holding them quietly in the background, alongside other realities of caregiving like exhaustion, compassion fatigue, moral injury, fear, and a loneliness that deepens over time.
Our newest collection of love in action empathy cards are designed to be small rituals of empathy and care, meant to restore the language of connection. Each card offers an invitation to sustained presence between sender and receiver, and a way to walk alongside someone in their season of caregiving.
One box. Six cards. Shared with one person over time.
A living practice of love in action.
join studio notes to be the first to hear when the collection goes live.
the story behind the studio
When my mom passed away in 2019, my sister and I traveled to India to perform her last rites, and being surrounded by family in those early days gave me something I didn't know I needed — a place to set down grief that overwhelmed me.
It was a beautiful reminder that humans have always built ceremony around loss — honored it as a part of life. A way to say this person mattered. This moment matters. We are changed by this.
When I came home, the world had continued turning as if nothing had happened. Many people didn't know what to say, so they said nothing at all. But month after month, a small group of friends kept sending cards and notes — quiet, consistent proof that I hadn't been forgotten. Those cards became a lifeline, and eventually, a calling.
introducing
We know that care professionals are some of the most under-resourced people doing the most important work in service of humanity. We created the care collective because we want to be part of changing that in a small but meaningful way: by making it easier to bring our empathy cards into your work, and by offering a reminder that the people who care for others deserve care too. There is no fee to join.
meet dimple
Dimple Dhabalia, JD | CAPP | ICF ACC is the daughter of Indian immigrants — her mother born and raised in Uganda, her father in India — and a former public servant who spent nearly two decades in U.S. asylum and refugee operations. She is the founder of Roots in the Clouds, author of Tell Me My Story – Challenging the Narrative of Service Before Self, and creator of love in action empathy cards. Her writing, speaking, coaching and art explore moral injury, institutional betrayal, shared grief, and dehumanization in care work, and map pathways back to conscience, care, and sustainable service across mission-driven sectors. Connect with her @dimpstory on LI | IG | FB.
care beyond the box
A percentage of every sale of season-based empathy card sets goes directly to organizations doing the quiet, steady, often unrecognized work of making the world more empathetic, connected, and human.
This is built into the business model because we believe empathy, connection, and care exist inside webs of reciprocity. So, when you buy a box, care moves in more than one direction.
