SparkleForce Ltd

07/09/2026

If you have been around my page or profile for the last 6 years you’ll know my journey with the brain injuries and endocrine conditions.

If your new here, here’s the TLDR version: 6 years ago my goofball dog Angel got so excited that I could talk her language she lept up on to me. Our heads collided as I was getting up from the couch.

This was the start of 3 brain injuries in 2 years. I lost my vision, at its worst I developed a massive stutter had to reteach myself how to send an email, how to use MSword. It was debilitating. And just when most of the symptoms had dissipated I got a 4th brain injury.

All of the injuries were mundane boring things I was doing. In one sense I wish I had better stories.

On the days where the symptoms were so debilitating I would curl up in bed and dream of teaching classes and performing again.

The lights, the people meant that at that stage performing wasn’t an option. My brain would be very quickly overwhelmed with sensory information.

Then I nearly died from a planned surgery from an anaphylactic reaction to some of the drugs used during the surgery.

Eventually after we found out what caused the grade 3 anaphylaxis I had the surgery. Following the surgery my blood pressure started to shoot up.

I told every doctor I met in the last 6 years that this was not my normal blood pressure. Because I am fat they did not believe that my blood pressure was that low.

It wasn’t till I was getting blood pressure reading such as 200/100 I was taken seriously. That’s stroke/heart attack territory. At that stage I was on 5 blood pressure medications.

The doctors were talking about treatment resistant high blood pressure. This was on top of the late diagnosis of endometriosis.

Through out all of this was Sparkleforce.

It is something bigger and way sparklier than me and on those days where the symptoms were/are the worst it gave me something to hang on to and to have hope with.

That’s when the against all odds award cropped up.

Against All Odds: some businesses are built despite everything working against them. This award celebrates the founder who faced the hard stuff head on and kept going anyway, turning adversity into something worth celebrating.

I’m so grateful to be alive, to be here to be able to day dream about Sparkleforce. All of ⬆️⬆️ the dark times above have contributed to what I am teaching now.

The framework I teach has been battle tested through those hard times. So I know the Sparkle System works. It has gotten me out of some scary situation and into a regulated nervous system where I could advocate for what I needed.

To make it through the nomination process that apparently had hundreds of nominations is quite overwhelming.

My promise to myself as that I would use my experience to let other woman know that brain injuries in women can take longer to show up (thanks to the anti inflammatory properties of estrogen) and longer to heal because it’s harder for us to take time out because of the responsibility for kid/work/home falls on us.

If you’ve read this far, thank you for supporting this work. I appreciate you ✨🫶

21/08/2026

SparkleFam, our local primary school needs our help. Can you vote each day for them?

🗳️PLEASE VOTE 🗳️

🛝Wainuiomata Primary School Playground 🛝
After years of heavy use, the much loved junior playground at Wainuiomata Primary School has reached the end of its functional life.

To meet the needs of both the school and wider community, Wainuiomata Primary School wishes to replace the junior playground to create an inclusive and high quality play opportunity for Tamariki and Akonga.

Frequently utilised by local families outside of school hours, delivering a new play infrastructure would be a key equity lever to support wellbeing and resilience to those who live in the area.

We have emailed Primary, Intermediate, and Secondary Schools in the Lower Hutt region asking them to submit a proposal for a project that could benefit from a $10,000 grant.We have selected our three finalists, and from 10th–30th August, it’s over to you to cast your vote and help decide which p...

16/08/2026

Remember back in March I asked if you could vote for Sparkleforce and myself for some awards?

Well turns out with your voting
Sparkleforce won:
Industry Supporting Business
Best Social Media Engagement
Best Disability Needs
LGBTQI+ Focused Business

and I won NZ Best Industry Advocate.

I am delighted, overwhelmed and gob smacked (in a good way).

Thank you for your vote of confidence, I am deeply grateful for your support. I recognise it’s a tricky voting system for the first votes. So thank you for your perseverance.

Recognition is always an awkward and vulnerable thing for me. I love to get into the creating and refining so it’s not until the recognition comes along that I feel really awkward. So I’m learning 🤪

It’s head down bum up again for a bit while I get some things ticked off my list.

So thank you for your vote of confidence, I appreciate you. ✨🫶

11/08/2026

I had a moment yesterday that I just had to share. I’ve been participating in a somatic summit. Where heavy weights of the somatic and psychotherapy industry have been yapping about their passion.

One of the speakers mentioned dance and I finally understood what people mean when they say I have two left feet.

It’s puzzled me for years. Two left feet 🤔

In my world if you can walk or roll you can dance. That’s totally my world view and I’ve listened to people’s explanations. But I felt like I was missing something.

Turns out it’s something really big.

Disassociation. When a person disassociates from their body they can’t feel their legs. When you can’t feel your legs or the rhythm it would be a massive disconnect and it would totally feel like 2 left feet.

I teach burlesque differently - through a series of tools to feel safe enough to reconnect with your feet and find your rhythm.

So I invite you to follow me here where I’ll be staring this content.

If we haven’t met before, Kia ora I’m Crystal Mischief a multi award winning international burlesque performer and teacher.

I help perimenopausal women reclaim their confidence in 8 weeks through neuro-burlesque that is infused with sensual embodiment.

With gratitude
xx Crystal xx

08/08/2026

Oooooooh! Science has finally caught up with the woo ✨💖

Shine your light ⚡️

I wonder where this will go? 🤔🧐

Not only do our bodies emit heat as a light we can't see, a number ...

22/07/2026

Have you been telling yourself... "I'll do it once I've lost weight."

What if that isn't the real reason you've been waiting?

For years we've been sold the idea that confidence lives on the other side of a smaller body. But after teaching students neuro-burlesque, I've noticed something different.

The people who reconnect with themselves aren't the ones with the "perfect" body.

They're the ones who stop believing they have to earn the right to be seen.

✨ Your body doesn't need to become worthy of dancing.

✨ It doesn't need to become worthy of joy.

✨ It doesn't need to become worthy of taking up space.

It already is.

Sometimes the bravest thing we can do is stop asking, "What's wrong with me?" and start asking, "What pattern am I noticing... and is it still serving me?"

I'd genuinely love to hear your thoughts.

Do you agree that confidence is something we practise rather than something we achieve? Or do you see it differently?

👇 Let's have a respectful conversation in the comments.

💛 Save this for the days you need reminding.

📤 Share it with someone who's been waiting for permission to begin.

22/07/2026

Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is not becoming someone new. It's giving yourself permission to stop performing the version of you that everyone else expected.

For years, I thought confidence meant trying harder.
Trying to fit in.
Trying to be smaller.
Trying to be quieter.
Trying to be more successful.
Trying to be more feminine.
Trying to be less "too much."
None of it brought me any closer to myself.

Because here's what I've learnt through neuroscience, lived experience and years of teaching burlesque:

Your nervous system is always asking one question.

"Is it safe to be me?"

When the answer is no, we adapt.
We shrink.
We mask.
We people-please.
We stay invisible.
We become brilliantly good at surviving.
But survival isn't identity.

Healing isn't about becoming somebody else.

It's about creating enough safety that you can remember who you were before the world told you who you SHOULD be.

21/07/2026

What if the most powerful thing you said to yourself today wasn't a pep talk... ..but the truth?

You are not the problem.

Perimenopause changes our bodies in ways we never asked for. When clothes stop fitting, the mirror feels unfamiliar and confidence disappears, it's easy to turn the blame inward.

But what if your body isn't failing?

What if it's adapting?

Those five words aren't about pretending everything is okay. They're about interrupting the shame spiral long enough for your nervous system to exhale.

Because you can't come home to a body you're constantly at war with.

✨ Save this for the days you need the reminder.

💛 Share it with someone who's forgotten they're worthy exactly as they are.

20/07/2026

Ever felt like everyone else got the instruction manual for life?

🙋

For years I asked... "What's wrong with me?" Turns out... I was asking the wrong question.

People do not want to become someone new. They want to feel like themselves again.

If this message resonates... Sometimes coming home to yourself is the bravest thing you'll ever do.

Save this for the days you forget.

13/07/2026

For a long time I thought there was something wrong with me. Not because I was broken. But because I was not able to find me in the boxes everyone else seemed to fit so comfortably into.

For me discovering I was non-binary did not change who I was.

It gave me language for who I'd always been. And there's something incredibly regulating about that.

When your outside finally matches something your nervous system has quietly known all along. That's one of the reasons Sparkleforce exists. Because everyone deserves THAT feeling.

Whether it's finding your
gender
confidence
voice
Or simply remembering who you are beneath years of survival.

Today on International Non-Binary People's Day, I'm celebrating everyone who has ever stepped outside someone else's expectations and chosen their own authenticity instead.

Because you deserve to feel like yourself again.

Always.

💛🤍💜🖤