Roxie Nafousi talks to Psychologies about building self-worth and breaking down limiting beliefs, rolling with the highs and lows, and seeking out life’s little pockets of joy
Before she discovered the magic of manifesting, self-development coach, manifesting expert and bestselling author Roxie Nafousi was living a far from happy life. ‘I’d suffered from depression my whole life, but I didn’t know that was what it was, because people weren’t talking about mental health in the same way that they are now. I think if someone had told me I was suffering from depression then, I would probably have rejected the idea and felt very embarrassed.’ Nafousi admits she went through lots of rockbottoms in that time, the last one being in May 2018: ‘I’d been on a yoga teacher training course, because I thought that was the answer and would change my life, but within 24 hours of being back, I was out partying, and woke up feeling helpless. I called a friend and told her I didn’t know what to do, and she recommended a podcast on manifesting.’
Nafousi had never heard of manifesting and her only reference was Rhonda Byrne’s law of attraction book, The Secret (Simon & Schuster, £16.99). ‘I listened to the podcast and something in me just clicked. I realised that manifestation was rooted in self-worth, and of course I had none, so I probably was manifesting – but in the wrong direction.’
Nafousi went straight home and started researching manifestation, and, within weeks, her life began to change. ‘The first thing I wanted to manifest was unconditional love, and I started using different techniques. I began listening to affirmation playlists to fall asleep to, because I’d understood that you could feed the subconscious part of your brain positive messaging. I was listening to mantras about being worthy of true love, and I made a vision board of my perfect partner. Two weeks later, I was contacted by Wade [Briggs] on a dating app, and exactly one year later, to the day, our baby boy, Wolfe, was born.
More than making a wish
‘Manifesting for me, is a self-development practice – it’s a way of living – so it’s not something I dip in and out of,’ Nafousi says. She explains that the seven steps that she developed in her first book, Manifest (Penguin, £16.99), guide and govern her everyday life. ‘I have to account for the fact that this is real life and there will be ebbs and flows; challenging times and great times. I didn’t just discover manifesting and all of a sudden my life has been magically perfect for the past five years – in fact, in January 2023, I had a lot going on personally; I was having panic attacks every day and was at breaking point. But I had manifesting as a way of living. That gave me a toolbox of all these
