Overcoming Adversity and Mindfully Manifesting with Efia Sulter

Today, I'm talking with Efia Sulter, a Manifestation & Mindset Mentor and NLP Practitioner based in Australia, about going from overcoming adversity and mindfully manifesting. She'll share with us how she came to this work, going back to childhood from being a child of the system and being adopted only to be orphaned by age 14, to growing her confidence through solo travel in her twenties. She's pulling back the curtain on the anxiety, depression, and grief that have shaped her into the person she is today and the blessings these experiences gave her. We're talking all about authenticity, inclusivity, living your truth, and feeling comfortable and confident with yourself.

What to Listen For:

How Efia came to this work
Being adopted at 3
The anxiety started at 10 when her mom became very ill
Carrying a desire for a more typical life from age 10
Working hard to break out of that pattern and to choose and decide for herself what she really wants
Losing her mom at 14

"The day that I found out my mom passed away, I never took any time off school. I even went to school that day because I was like, I can't fall behind. I can't fall behind in school because then what's going to happen?

With a parent passing away when you're already adopted as like, okay, well, am I going to go back into the system? Or how is my life going to play out now? So I really felt that while at the same time, I wanted to have the same as everyone else. I also had this innate knowing that I was going to have to work harder than everyone else to get to the same place."

Living with a family friend until leaving for university
Pushing herself extra hard to do well in school, work, and volunteering to get a small amount of praise that she desperately needed
Not giving herself time to be or to connect with who she truly is
Asking her doctor about solutions for insomnia and realizing this was a side effect of depression

"I remember when I was younger, going to the doctor and being like, I have really bad insomnia, so could you just give me some medication so I can sleep? And she was like, okay.

She was then asking me how this is manifesting for me and what other symptoms are coming up. And she's like, I don't think it's just insomnia, I think this is a side effect of depression. I was like, depression? Like, what's depression?"

Thinking that everyone experienced life in this way for a long time
Realizing she's not supposed to be feeling this way, but having trouble getting help
Spiraling into a deeper depression when she felt no one was taking her seriously
Growing unease in her last year of university

"It was just an overarching feeling, especially in my master's year of university. When I went back to uni, I knew from the first month or so, I knew that I didn't really want to be continuing with that course. And I had just done that course because I wasn't really sure what to do next.

And I had a lot of fear and anxiety around finishing uni and being out in the world on my own. Because if you are in the care system, you have support workers, and they support you from the age that you're no longer a minor while you're still in here.

But after you finished university, like that's it, no more emails, no calls, no more support, nothing."

Feeling at war with herself while forcing herself to do something that didn't feel right for her
Realizing she needed to make some changes in her life and diving deep into her journey
Setting out a vision for what she wanted the next year of her life to look like
Understanding that she needed to get comfortable with herself before those things could happen

"People often see moving abroad as like an escape or a solution or a fix to their problem. But I knew that if I didn't address everything that was going on first, it wouldn't make any difference. I would get there, and I was still feeling miserable and anxious and depressed.