We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Christina Bulkilvish. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with christina below.

Christina, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

I am a mission driven company. My mission is me, telling my stories to inspire others to get out of their own way to go after their dream life.

Hi, I am Christina. I am a domestic violence survivor that has learned time and time again the importance of resilience. Through the years, I have had many obstacles in my life that I needed to overcome; (divorce, restraining order, PTSD, being locked out of bank and stock accounts, living in a windowless basement just for a fresh start, just to name a few, there are much more). I speak on the importance of cultivating a positive mindset and how that can impact everything in your life from better communication skills, strengthened relationships, a more desirable work life balance, improved self love, a stronger pursuit of your happiness to go after your dreams. When you make having a positive mindset a priority, it teaches you to become more resilient, to go after your goals and not let those obstacles stand in your way.

For years and years I wanted financial freedom to be able to travel the world. I knew one day I’d get there, but I did not know how. I was constantly working on saving enough money, and never felt like I had enough. In 2022 I bought a giant world map and pinned all of the places I wanted to go. It was exciting to see all of the locations but again, it still seemed like an inevitable thing. I realised that as long as I was working my current job, I would never be able to get to some of these locations. On December 20th, the year was almost done and I was rear-ended in a car accident and got a concussion. I woke up in the hospital on christmas day and the day after not able to feel my face or my back. I knew I’d recover, but I couldn’t help but think of all the things I wanted to complete/do before I die. I realized how badly I wanted to see the world. I was out of work for weeks and my boss said unfortunately by the state law you are out of sick time, so I will need to start using your vacation days. If it was not bad enough that I already felt that I was missing out on life, now they were taking away the thing that made my life even better.

I knew then and there that life was too short to make my bosses dreams come true, while I ignored my dreams. I made a promise to myself that once I got better I would focus on my dreams. So in September 2023, I quit my job and started traveling. I traveled for a month to get to Thailand (a thing that I would have never been able to do if I was still working for my boss). I had no plans after Thailand. All I knew was there was a school in Thailand where I could become a certified English teacher. I figured if I ran out of money while I traveled, at least I now had a way to make money in whatever country I was in. Fast forward to now, I am still traveling. I am not just alive, but I am tuly living my life and I am so greatful for that.
I may be figuring it out as I go, but ever since prioritizing myself and my dreams, my life has gotten immensely better. I have faced whatever obstacles came my way and I have overcame them all.

So many times we stand in our way, not knowing the what-ifs. letting the fear of failure paralyze us. I believe that this world would be a better place if we were all happier with our lives. I am living proof that when you work on your mindset and teach yourself to become resilient, you can accomplish great things. I want to teach others how to become resilient so they can overcome their obstacles to go after their goals and their dreams (without them needing a concussion to get them to that point.)

Christina, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Growth Empowered Mindset is a personal development brand that specializes in teaching you how to cultivate a mindset of resilience so you can rise above your obstacles and live the life you were always meant to.
I am here for people who have big dreams or goals deep inside, but no idea how to even begin chasing them. They may feel stuck, overwhelmed, or like life just keeps handing them one setback after another.

As an international inspirational speaker and mindset coach, I specialize in helping people rediscover their strength, purpose, and dreams. I’m not just teaching theory—I’ve lived it. As a domestic violence survivor, I know what it means to rise, rebuild, and reclaim your life.

I offer:
🔹 Keynote speaking engagements – that allow me to inspire and motivate through my stories
🔹 1:1 coaching (3- or 6-month programs) – that are personalized for each individual
🔹 Real guidance from someone who’s been there

I have been in the dark, and put in the work to get myself out of it and I would like to help others do the same so that they too can go after their dreams and live more fulfilled. I am currently living my dream and it is such a great feeling. I want to share that feeling with others. I believe the world would be a better place with more happiness and people living their purpose.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In my continuous process of growth, I realized I wanted to pursue my love for yoga, So in 2025, I eventually left Thailand where I had been living for the past year and a half, to go to Indonesia to pursue Yoga teacher training. Yoga teacher training presented its own challenges for me. The main one was I got pneumonia from staying in moldy rooms at the yoga school. I came to Indonesia with 2 intentions. One was yoga teacher training and the other was for Mt. Bromo. My friend Kim went to Indonesia in 2 years before me. She showed me pictures of a tour she was on at Mt. Bromo in indonesia. I was obsessed, sunrise over a volcano was one of the coolest things that I could think of. So 2 years later when I finally booked my tickets to Indonesia and joined the small group for this tour, I was stoked. It was 3 days of hiking and seeing 3 volcanoes up close and personal. For the first 2 days, me and the 3 others on the tour got to see the most amazing waterfalls, sunrise overlooking volcanoes from the top of a mountain and we even got to go look inside of a volcano.
For the final day, we had to wake up at 12am to then drive 2 hours in the car to start hiking at 2am. I woke up feeling awful from the days before. I had a migraine, body aches and I’d been battling Bali belly for days (yes, I eventually got Bali belly) which had really gotten the better of me by that point. I wanted nothing more than to stay in bed and rest, but I knew I couldn’t. For 2 reasons, the first was because I was on a tour and they’d be leaving with or without me and if they left without me, I’d be stuck and the other reason is I had come that far already and I knew that if I did not at least try, I would be so disappointed in myself.
So I did what anyone battling a parasitic infection while hiking up a volcano would do…. I did this hike on an empty stomach in hopes there’d be no Bali belly issues on the way up (there wasn’t 🙏) On the journey up, I was having trouble breathing due to a combination of having Pneumonia and having asthma. I confessed to the group what I was currently dealing with and they were concerned about the issues I was battling. They asked If I wanted to stop and I told them, “ I acknowledged at the start of this tour that my health issues may prohibit me from completing this tour, but I was going to keep trying, so let’s go.” So the 4 of us kept going.
The whole way up, I kept thinking, “I am so proud of myself, look how far I have come. This has been an awesome trip. If you stop right now, I am still proud.” But I kept going. I told the group they could go ahead because I knew I was slowing them down. They went ahead and I kept going at my pace. To my surprise, they were waiting for me inside of the volcano. We were reunited and we began climbing to the top together. The other girl in my group was also not feeling well, so we were pushing each other to keep climbing. And the payoff was this amazing view! A volcano with blue fire and a blue lake inside 🌋💙🔥🤯

This literal mountain I was climbing with all my struggles was an actual metaphor. That sometimes when we are uncomfortable and push ourselves through our struggles, we find the most beautiful endings.

Don’t let being uncomfortable hold you back! Do it anyway, the outcome may be better than you think!

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A time that I had to pivot in life and unlearn started on March 4th 2019, when my husband of 5 years told me that he had cheated. On that day, he told me that he loved me, but he also loved someone else. I knew that I would never trust him again. Maybe it was the fact that he had waited for 6 months to tell me of his deceit, but I knew how my mind works, that I would constantly replay all of the little details leading up to it. Or that every time he went out later than normal, I would not believe him. The truth is he had been going out late unexplained for years and now I would re-question all of that. So I filed for divorce. He never thought I would leave him. He never wanted me to leave him, so he started getting violent and trying to forcibly keep me there.

I said goodbye to a husband, best friend, dreams of starting a family with him, dreams of conquering whatever came our way together, dreams of growing old together, and our biggest dream of becoming rich together and much more. My world as I knew it was imploding and now I was no longer looked at as a friend, but rather an enemy. He became increasingly violent as well as verbally abusive when I did not drop the divorce like he told me to. I was faced with the decision of whose life is more important, mine or the life that we were trying to create together which had now been shattered. He was holding me down so I couldn’t scream for help. He pushed me, shoved me, told me how I was worthless, locked me in a car, almost hit me with the same car. Finally, the night that broke the habit was when we went out, and one of the neighbors that I had never met before came up to me and said, “Is it true that he has been beating the shit out of you?” My first thought was who is this woman and how does she know. My husband heard her talking to me, he caused a scene and said we had to go. He would not let me sleep that night. He could feel himself losing the control over me that he once had, so he buried my phone in the backyard so that I would be forced to listen to him and only rely on him. Home was feeling less and less safe each day. I knew I could not continue any further. He was trying to make it so I could not go to work because I was too tired from him not letting me sleep. He thought that if he did this, I would have to rely on him to support me.

In the morning I managed to sneak out and get to the neighbors. With their help, I filed for a restraining order. I was scared. I did not know what was coming next, or what would become of me, our money or the house that we owned. All I knew was that I needed out and mental healing. I was craving peace, and that became my new priority. I was dealing with the PTSD of the violence as well as constantly going to court to fight the restraining order, which meant I was still re-living it. I could not continue to pay to go to court as well as to pay for the house. I went to court 8 times to tell my story, but the lawyers confessed that they were just after the money. Nothing was getting accomplished, So I moved out of the house, dropped the restraining order and let my ex move back in.

I moved in with my uncle for a year and a half in his windowless basement, while I waited for everything to get settled so I could move on. I spent 35 thousand United States dollars and gave my ex the house for free just so i could start getting peace. Through all of this, I learned that I had to let go of what I thought my life was supposed to look like. I learned that mental peace is so important. I learned to shift my mindset from being money focused to happiness focused. I learned the importance of cultivating a growth mindset. They were definitely hard and expensive lessons, but even till this day my life remains happiness and peace focused over money.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://gemmastery.com
• Instagram: @growthempoweredmindset or for my travels @immetraveling
• Facebook: Growth Empowered mindset
• Youtube: @happymindsettravelgirl
• Other: Hello, I am currently working on building my social media presence. Just like life, it’s a work in progress. I am also on tiktok @happymindsettravelgirl