MindCraft

03/02/2026

It was really good to be back for our monthly Calm with Katerina session last night, the first of 2026. I love creating and holding spaces to help others unwind, deeply relax, find calm and connect back to themselves, creating an inner sanctuary and peaceful space inside...

We met the day after Imbolc and Snow Full Moon, their energies still very much present. It was lovely to welcome new faces as well as those returning.

My favourite part was guiding the attendees through a meditation which created a safe space for them and led them through a forest to meet their own Horse 🐎, in preparation for year of the Fire Horse, a new lunar year starting mid February 😊

We also spent a moment sending our thoughts to the family and friends of the young man who died tragically this weekend in Chippenham 🙏🕯️St Andrew's church, which is right next the venue, had its doors open for those wishing to come and light a candle...

We will be back on Monday 2nd March at 7.30pm at Platinum House. Do join us 🙂
You can book your place now. The link is in the comments.

PS: I'm inspired to create a meditation to guide others to meet their own horse 🐎😊 If you'd like to have the recording comment or PM me. 😁

03/02/2026

What is your and your child's 'thing' that will allow them to use this superpower?

02/02/2026

For the young people in in need of support today.
and are at the Ruze (next to Cousin Norman's)

We're so sorry to hear about the terrible tragedy in Chippenham today. For any young people who need a safe space to visit and have a drink and snacks (free) we're at the Ruze, next to Cousin Norman's from 2pm.

We'll also be here Tuesday 3rd 3.30-5.30pm

Just sign in on entry - see you there

01/02/2026

How does your teen feel about GCSEs?

There’s a shift in Years 10 and 11.
Suddenly, everything becomes about GCSEs 😫

“These are the years that matter.”
“This will affect the rest of your life.”
“You must pass these.”
“ If you don’t pass these you’ll end up …”

To schools, this is often framed as motivation.

But to many autistic and neurodivergent young people, it lands as fear😥

One young person shared with me a teacher had told her class:

🗯️”If you don’t pass your GCSEs, you’ll end up homeless.”

That is not motivating ❌
That is terrifying 😰

Autistic young people often:
👉Take language literally
👉Think in black-and-white outcomes
👉Have nervous systems that already work overtime just to cope with school

So their brains don’t hear “try harder”.

They hear: Danger. Your whole future is at risk ⚠️

And that has real consequences.

That young person stopped being able to attend school 😢
She never sat her GCSEs😢
She’s 19 now- a capable young woman, who’s still deeply affected by that teacher’s comment 😢

This is what fear-based messaging does.

It doesn’t create effort.

It creates anticipatory anxiety 😥
Fear of failure 😣
And in some cases shutdown, avoidance and burnout 🤯

Not because they don’t care.

But because they care too much 🙏🏼

So to schools and teachers, gently but clearly:

You do not get better results from a frightened nervous system.

Yes, GCSEs matter.
But so does mental health ✅
So does trust ✅
So do teachers who show young people they’re supportive and believe in them ✅
So does a young person believing: “Even if this is hard, I will still be okay.”✅

There are many paths. Many futures 🙏🏼

Please stop using fear as a tool🙏🏼

Our job isn’t to scare young people into trying. It’s to help them believe they can. And to show them over and over, that we believe in them too 🫶🏻

Patsy x💜💙

29/01/2026

It's time to re-think the notion that 'comfort is the enemy of growth'. This approach misunderstands the way our nervous system works.

Discomfort for the sake of growth doesn't work if your nervous system isn't sufficiently regulated and you suffer from chronic stress or similar.

I can totally relate. It is only in the last couple of years when I've been able to successfully regulate my own nervous system that I was ready to work on my growth and put myself in positions of discomfort and stretch my comfort zone.

This is particularly important for highly sensitive individuals who experience high levels of stress on a daily basis.

I wonder what your thoughts are.

The idea that “comfort is the enemy of growth” misunderstands how human nervous systems actually work.

From an Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) lens, growth, change, and learning do not happen by relentlessly pushing past comfort alone. They happen when the nervous system is regulated enough to tolerate challenge.

If someone is chronically stressed or dysregulated, forcing them into discomfort doesn’t produce growth; it overloads their system, shuts down connection, and strengthens survival adaptations instead of adaptive learning.

True growth arises in the window of tolerance, a space where the nervous system is alert but not overwhelmed, engaged but not terrified. The place that yoga instructor Lilias Folan calls "sweet discomfort."

Comfort isn’t the enemy; unsafe or unsupported experiences are. Comfort provides the relational and physiological safety needed to explore, integrate, and expand. Without safety, discomfort becomes trauma, not growth.

So the mantra that we must suffer to improve is misleading. From an IPNB perspective, sustainable growth is about balancing challenge with attuned support, predictable environment, and embodied regulation, not glorifying hardship for its own sake.

The “comfort is the enemy of growth” idea feeds directly into a culture that separates us from ourselves. When society glorifies pushing past discomfort, it trains people to ignore their bodily signals, emotions, and relational needs to override the nervous system’s cues. We disconnect when we stop listening to ourselves. We numb or rationalize, and mistake endurance or achievement for mastery.

In this culture, stress is a virtue, and internal signals of overwhelm are considered weakness. People learn to dissociate from their own sensations, feelings, and rhythms, which weakens self-awareness and regulation. Growth becomes something imposed externally rather than arising from attuned engagement with your own system.

The nervous system can’t integrate experiences or develop resilience when we’re chronically ignoring its feedback; instead, it stores tension, fear, and fragmentation.

The myth of “comfort is the enemy of growth” isn’t neutral. It’s a tool of a culture that prizes hierarchy, achievement, and productivity over embodied presence and connection. Real growth happens not by rejecting comfort but by creating environments where our systems feel safe enough to explore, tolerate challenge, and reconnect with ourselves.

28/01/2026

Have you taken up the invitation to re-parent yourself when you became a parent?

Our children provide us with an incredible invitation: to grow ourselves.

Their arrival awakens the narratives that hibernate within us. Our children show us our strengths and reveal our weaknesses. They are our students and our teachers.

It is up to us to take this opportunity and get reacquainted with and tend to the child within. 💗

27/01/2026

This is the journey towards freedom to be truly ourselves in our uniqueness.
A truly wonderful post by the The Autistic Teacher.
It describes my own journey beautifully.

I feel grateful that my life has taken me on this journey to re-connect with my true essence and I am honoured that I am now able to support others - children, young people and adults to go through the transformation to become a butterfly. 🦋

One point I'd add is that to be truly authentic and free of masks we also need find a way to connect to our spirit where our true essence lies.

🦋🦋🦋

I'm Katerina and I guide others on their paths towards becoming their authentic self, without masks and live their life with more joy, peace and fulfilment, no matter what is going on in the outside world.

Please reach out to arrange a free discovery call.
I am here for the sensitive souls of this world.

26/01/2026

Meet the NEEDS of the child. Make schools a place of emotional safety.

26/01/2026

For the sensitive souls. Are you taking extra care of yourself.

Many gifted people would describe themselves as 'sensitive souls', and for us, times of conflict are often registered not only as events happening 'out there'; they are frequently felt equally as violations of internal desire and a thickening, ominous atmosphere of inner pressure.

Taking extra care in such times means honoring our sensitivity, so that it can remain a source of presence, depth, conscience and courage, rather than becoming a chronic holder of pain and angst.

How can we be in the world as it is without closing our heart?

Discernment of attention is one form of 'sensitivity stewardship'. We can acknowledge the limits of our attention and care, and protect both as precious resources that need to be used in a sustainable way.

We can also draw on our hard-earned wisdom and attunement to our highest values to know what our task is in the now, and what is not our task - whether speaking out, leading, advocating, helping others, creating external change, caring for the self, or creating *internal* change.

Holding our limits alongside our desires helps us avoid falling into the trap of generating a level of moral urgency that we cannot reasonably address within the timeframe or with the resources currently available to us.

All of this requires, paradoxically, that we slow down even when our 'problem solving self' wants to speed up. This includes attuning to our nervous system and ensuring we're not demanding more than it can currently give; taking time to attend to our emotions and allowing expressions of anger and grief without rushing them toward premature fixing or rescuing; and contemplating where our own life, resources, sensitivity, complexity, values and authentic self truly sit in this collective moment.

These actions help connect head and heart, bring us back into the body, and protect our psyche from overload. In essence, we allow ourselves to be vulnerable and strong at the same time, using our sensitivity as a source of courage and as a guide for how we can best express that courage, moment by moment.

It's helpful to remember that it's as morally courageous to take care of ourselves as it is to try to create change in our world. It is a matter of perspective, dose, timing and balance.

We're sending strength and solidarity to all our fellow sensitive gifted souls out there today. 🙏

22/01/2026

Afternoon All, calling all parents of autistic/highly sensitive children and young people. I wonder if I could ask for your help.

I'm currently working on a new family support offer and I'd really value your input. This is genuine market research.
As a guide, coach and a holistic therapist working with autistic and highly sensitive children, teens and their parents (especially mothers) it matters to me to know the truth about the reality of your lives as parents of neurodivergent children.

If you're comfortable sharing, I'd love to know:
👉1. What feels hardest for you right now as a parent?
👉2. What kind of support do you wish existed (but maybe doesn't)?
👉3. What would bring a little more calm or confidence into your family life?

I'll welcome any comment. Please share your comment, or message me privately.

Many thanks in advance. I really appreciate you taking the time to answer the questions and help me create something that I truly I believe in.

With Thanks and Appreciation.

Katerina

22/01/2026

One of the myths about meditation is that it's supposed to clear your mind of thoughts. That's a misconception. Let me explain. Our mind is here to serve us, not to rule us. If you are someone who spends a lot of time in your head, your mind constantly thinking, you may find yourself feeling anxious, stressed or overwhelmed. Being in our head means we are, often, disconnected from our body. It's through our body that we can feel our centre and ground ourselves and free ourselves from the constant noise in our heads!

An invitation: stop what you're doing, take a pause. Take a gentle breath in through the nose and out through the mouth, and again, look up and scan the room you're in with your eyes without moving your head. See if you notice anything that you didn't realise was there or stopped noticing it. Now listen to any sound, noise you can hear (any white noise - the fridge, cars going past, birds outside). Now take another breath in and out. Pause again. Notice how you're feeling in your body. Stay there even if it feels a little uncomfortable... Be with it and keep breathing - gently. Mindfulness and meditation help us calm the mind so that we become an observer, a witness to our thoughts and thus thoughts don't have such a power over us.

Through meditation we build awareness. We notice the thoughts we think and how they affect us. We're in a better position to choose our thoughts. But most importantly, through meditation, our mind becomes a calmer, quieter and a more pleasant space to be. Who wouldn't want that? :-)

22/01/2026

Are you creating this kind of wealth for the next generation?

We talk about generational wealth as money, property, or opportunity passed down.
But the most powerful inheritance doesn’t sit in a bank account.

It lives in our nervous systems.

A child raised by parents who can pause before reacting,
who can feel without flooding,
who can take responsibility for their emotions instead of handing them off —
that child grows up carrying a different kind of wealth.

They inherit stability.
They inherit trust.
They inherit the felt sense that conflict doesn’t have to mean rupture,
and that emotions can be experienced without becoming overwhelming.

When parents regulate themselves,
children aren’t burdened with emotions that were never theirs to carry.
When parents grow in self-awareness,
children don’t have to spend their lives untangling old patterns
just to find their own voice.

They get something rare:
the freedom to be themselves without carrying inherited weight.
The capacity to stay connected to their humanity under pressure.
The strength to meet life with courage and compassion.

That is next generation wealth.
Not perfection.
Not privilege.

But the gift of growing up unburdened by wounds that weren’t theirs —
and supported by parents who were willing to do the inner work first. ❤️

Quote Credit: ❣️

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