# How to Build a Life That Feels Safe Colorful and Fully Your Own

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-neurodivergent-connection-the-curious-storyteller-4254621/how-to-build-a-life-that-feels-safe-colorful-and-fully-your-own
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-neurodivergent-connection-the-curious-storyteller-4254621/how-to-build-a-life-that-feels-safe-colorful-and-fully-your-own.md
Podcast: [The Neurodivergent Connection / The Curious Storyteller](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-neurodivergent-connection-the-curious-storyteller-4254621)
Published: 2026-07-08T17:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://podcast.ausha.co/neurodivergentconnection-thecuriousstroyteller/how-to-build-a-life-that-feels-safe-colorful-and-fully-your-own
Audio file: https://pdcn.co/e/https://audio.ausha.co/M3Da1i5DPzGm.mp3?t=1783189464
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-neurodivergent-connection-the-curious-storyteller-4254621/episodes/how-to-build-a-life-that-feels-safe-colorful-and-fully-your-own
Duration seconds: 2705

## Resource

What Changes When I Stop Asking “What’s Wrong With Me?” If you’ve ever felt too much, too different, or deeply misunderstood, this conversation will stay with you. In this episode, I sit down with Patricia Stellamares to talk about masking, survival, late-diagnosed AuDHD, and what happens when we stop trying to be easier for other people to understand. We explore the quiet cost of living in self-protection for too long, and the relief that can come when your neurodivergence finally has a name. Patricia shares how childhood shame, trauma, and being told she was “wrong” shaped the way she moved through the world. Then, we get into the shift from surviving to actually living, what being truly seen can do to the nervous system, and why healing often has less to do with “fixing” yourself and more to do with letting go of harmful stories. If you’ve been carrying questions about belonging, self-trust, or what healing can look like after years of exhaustion, I think this episode will give you a lot to sit with. About the Guest Patricia Stellamares is the founder of Invocation Healing Arts. She creates retreats, coaching experiences, and healing spaces that support neurodivergent people, couples, and anyone working through trauma, self-doubt, and identity. Key Timestamps 0:02 - I welcome Patricia Stellamares to the show 2:49 - When feeling “different” started to feel like being “wrong” 5:05 - How long that story followed her 8:48 - The first time she felt truly seen and believed 16:08 - The moment survival and living stopped feeling like the same thing 21:14 - What she wishes people understood about neurodivergent lives 22:33 - What autism and AuDHD gave her that she didn’t have before 26:59 - Healing from being told you’re wrong 29:54 - What she hopes people discover in her re…

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## Transcript

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