Abused from the age of two and left homeless at the age of 14, Kylie Edwards had moved house more times than she had had birthdays and lived with 15 different families before she was 23. In the years since, Kylie emigrated to a foreign country for five years (and visited over 20 more), lived a monastic life in Nepal, and experienced poverty at 40 while re-educating herself, proving to her that everyone had a story and that everyone had a different way of looking at the world. As a young woman on her journey to seek some kind of normality, Kylie’s life was based on one decision: To figure out how to live without hate in her heart. Little did she know that the journey of liberating herself from the past would lead her to extraordinary heights of inner happiness.

While Kylie has always said that being happy is a choice, nobody has ever accepted this simple explanation. She believes it is finding your own true self and being true to your daily decisions that pave the way to happiness. But most people think they are bound by commitments, responsibilities and social norms, however social norms are incredibly fluid under the influence of multiculturalism and boundaries are always being pushed. With mental health illnesses affecting more than half of the western population, it is becoming increasingly more urgent to help people through times of change and adversity by helping them explore the wonder of curiosity and joy.

Kylie is the author of Why Surviving is Not Enough: How to Reinvent Yourself by Embracing Change. Her intrigue (more like an obsession really) of human behaviour finally led her to complete a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology (with a focus on gender) at Wollongong University and a Postgraduate Diploma in Counseling at the Australian College of Applied Psychology, completing her internship at the mental health ward at Mosman Private Hospital.

To connect with Kylie, you can email her at kylie.edwards@unlimitedhappiness.com.au